Triple-Double? Big Deal.

[King Glorious]

I was just looking back at a stretch of the brilliant career of Michael Jordan that I thought was maybe his best ever. It was during the 1988-89 season. The Bulls had just lost their starting point guard so Jordan moved over to handle the job. He proceeded to run off games of:

18pts, 8reb, 15asts
21-14-14
28-6-12
33-5-9
28-6-10
21-8-16
32-10-9
34-7-17
Here's where it gets good
21-12-12
33-12-11
32-10-10
37-10-10
27-14-12
33-10-12
31-13-10
40-7-11
40-10-12
47-11-13
29-10-12

Over the 19 game stretch, he averaged 30.8 pts, 9.6 boards, and 11.9 assists with 11 triple-doubles. Over the last 11 games of the stretch, he had 10 triple-doubles (seven straight) with averages of 33.7, 10.8, 11.4 He also shot 53% from the field during that stretch.

People mostly know Jordan for his scoring exploits but I've always believed that he was such a great athlete that he could do whatever he wanted. I think that if he wanted to lead the league in rebounding or assists, he could. You look at those assists numbers and that came without having to sacrifice any scoring at all and still he was taking 20-22 shots a game.

Makes you really marvel at the numbers Oscar Robertson put up.

1st season-30.5, 10.1, 9.7 (20 assists short of averaging a td)
2nd season-30.8, 12.5, 11.4
3rd season-28.3, 10.4, 9.5 (42 assists short)
4th season-31.4, 9.9, 11.0 (7 rebounds short)
5th season-30.4, 9.0, 11.5
Career average for first five seasons-30.3, 10.4, 10.6