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From Wilt Chamberlain to Jeremy Lin: 10 NBA 'firsts'

Jeremy Lin's rise on the NBA radar provides the impetus to look back at Wilt Chamberlain's highest-scoring game and nine other NBA 'firsts.'

8. The first player to average a “triple double” for an entire season: Oscar Robertson

Tony Dejak/AP
This is a Feb. 18, 2010 file photo showing Oscar Robertson before an NBA game between the Cavaliers and Nuggets in Cleveland. Robertson had a golden touch in achieving success at every level of basketball, going to Final Fours, winning an Olympic medal and NBA championship.

  • By Ross Atkin Staff

Exactly who recorded the first “triple double” – 10 or more points, assists, rebounds, blocked shots, or steals in the same game – is unclear. What is known is that Oscar Robertson managed what seems unthinkable in today’s game, averaging a triple double for the entire 1961-62 season with the Cincinnati Royals. Over the course of 79 games, he averaged 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 11.4 assists. Altogether he compiled 181 triple-double games during his 14-year career, far more than Magic Johnson, who is second on the all-time list with 138.

As great as the “Big O” was, he didn’t have the supporting cast in Cincinnati needed to win an NBA championship. He earned his only championship ring late in his career with the Milwaukee Bucks when he teamed with Kareem-Abdul Jabbar to lead the Bucks to a sweep of the Baltimore Bullets in 1971, Robertson’s first season in Milwaukee.  In his final NBA season, Robertson nearly captured another ring, but the Bucks fell to Boston in a seven-game championship series.

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Mark Sappenfield
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