Alright, so yesterday I got this itch, right? Was scrolling through old NBA highlights – you know how it is – random Willis Reed stuff, Larry Bird passes, the usual. And I thought: “Man, quadruple-doubles. Crazy rare.” Figured I knew the big names, Hakeem and all that jazz. But I wanted the full list. Wanted to see who actually pulled off this insane stat line – points, rebounds, assists, blocks or steals all hitting double digits. So, buckle up, here’s how I dug into it.
Starting the Hunt
First thing I did? Fired up my laptop, cracked open a cold one. Went straight to the NBA’s official stats page. Simple search: “quadruple doubles NBA”. Surprise surprise, no handy list just sitting there! Just articles mentioning one or two. Typical. Felt a bit annoyed, but okay, time to dig deeper.
Next stop? Went to the giant basketball-reference site, that rabbit hole of numbers. Searched again. Filtered, filtered, filtered. Scrolled through endless stats tables. My eyes started glazing over after like 20 minutes of combing through season archives from the 70s onwards. Manually checking blocks and steals columns for those elusive 10s! It was tedious, like looking for specific grains of sand on a beach.
Hitting Walls & Finding Nuggets
Kept finding guys who got super close. David Robinson? Oh yeah, 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists… and 9 blocks! So close, yet so far. Felt brutal for him. Tim Duncan? Multiple 9-block or 9-assist nights almost getting him there. So many near misses. Got kinda depressing after a bit.
But then, bam! There he was: Nate Thurmond, October 18th, 1974. The first ever. Saw the line: 22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists, 12 blocks. Felt like uncovering lost treasure! Clicked around more. Alvin Robertson? This dude actually got one with steals – 20 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists, 10 steals in ’86. Different beast!
Building the Actual List
Okay, momentum building now. Kept plugging names and dates. Hakeem? Of course! His legendary 18 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists, 11 blocks in ’90 against Milwaukee. The man was a force. David Robinson finally got his revenge later that same season, dropping 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, and crucially, 10 blocks. Vindication!
Then came the curveball: Victor Wembanyama, just last season! Rookie! February 2024, against Toronto. Put up a wild 27 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists? Wait… assists? No, had to recheck. Ah! 27 points, 14 rebounds, 10 blocks… and 5 assists. Oh man, heart skipped for a second thinking he’d done it as a rookie! False alarm. Still insane, but not this list.
After more digging, referencing debates online about “unofficial” ones, here’s the hard confirmed list I compiled:
- Nate Thurmond (Oct 18, 1974): 22 pts, 14 reb, 13 ast, 12 blk
- Alvin Robertson (Feb 18, 1986): 20 pts, 11 reb, 10 ast, 10 stl
Hakeem Olajuwon (Mar 29, 1990): 18 pts, 16 reb, 10 ast, 11 blk (The Dream Shake master!)
David Robinson (Feb 17, 1994): 34 pts, 10 reb, 10 ast, 10 blk (Made up for that earlier 9!)
Wrap Up and Thoughts
So yeah, that was the journey. Started thinking I knew the answer, got pissed at official stats, almost went blind searching archives, got hyped about close calls, stoked to finally pin down the real deal. Only 4 guys in modern NBA history did it for real, confirmed style. Crazy stat. Shows how special those nights were. Makes you wonder if Wemby or anyone else will crack it soon. Anyway, that’s my practice log for digging into basketball history mysteries! Hope it was interesting.
