Triple-doubles have become a regular occurrence in the NBA as offenses are built around stars initiating everything, no matter what their position, but even as we see them almost every night, they still hold a special meaning to players.
We saw that on Sunday in Washington as Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has logged 32 triple-doubles in his career, couldn’t help but chase the allure of another in the closing seconds as he sat on nine rebounds. Giannis was dribbling out a 117-111 win over the Wizards when he realized he was under the basket, so why not just bounce one off the backboard to himself for a little treat.
Giannis Antetokounmpo intentionally missed a shot in the final seconds to get his 10th rebound and secure a triple-double ? pic.twitter.com/QFthHLlLcu
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) March 6, 2023
The Wizards’ scorekeeper gave Giannis his rebound in the official book, allowing him to notch the triple-double in an important win for the Bucks to stay ahead of the Celtics in the top spot in the East.
It’s very funny watching Giannis do this in particular, because as noted, it’s not like he only gets this chance on rare occasions. That’s usually when you get triple-double hunting of this magnitude, with the all-timer in this category being Ricky Davis, who threw a layup at the wrong rim in a legendary moment to try and get one in a blowout.
Giannis isn’t quite this bad because he at least goes to the correct rim for a shot, but it’s still pretty shameless (while being completely harmless).
