In only his third season in the NBA, Dallas Mavericks All-Star guard Luka Doncic established himself as a walking triple-double. He broke Magic Johnson’s record for the most number of triple-doubles by a player before the age of 21 by racking up 21 of them.
In Sunday afternoon’s game against the Chicago Bulls, he passed Michael Jordan on the triple-double list. In the middle of the third quarter, Doncic made a double behind-the-back pass to Willie Cauley-Stein and jumped Jordan to move up to the 15th spot on the all-time triple-double list after recording the 29th one of his career, which now ties him with Grant Hill. He wasted very little time, putting up 30 points in the first half. He added only six more points in the second half but ended with 16 rebounds and 15 assists while shooting 6-of-11 from the three-pointer arc.
“The second half, I played terrible … I was being selfish a bit I think, because I had 30 points in the first half. That wasn’t me in the second half,” said Doncic. “I’ve got to do way better than that. That’s just on me. I shouldn’t be doing this.”
The record is a huge accomplishment, especially as it came against Jordan’s former team while wearing Jordan’s shoes as a Jordan brand athlete. Additionally, Doncic has already passed legends like Kobe Bryant, Elgin Baylor and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the all-time list for triple-doubles.
Going into the new season, Doncic is averaging 30.6 points, 11.6 rebounds and 11.2 assists over the last five games to carry a Dallas team that has recently been struck by a coronavirus outbreak.
Doncic is still well behind Oscar Robertson, who leads the way with 181 career triple-doubles. Russell Westbrook is second on the list with 150, and LeBron James is fifth with 95. Currently, they are the only two active players in the league who are in the top five.
