It’s hard to believe that the WNBA has been around since 1997. It feels like yesterday that the sister league was being introduced in partnership with the NBA a couple decades ago now. Twenty-five years later, the WNBA has seen significant milestones: a dynasty off the bat with the Houston Comets winning the first four WNBA Championships, an infusion of ABL players that improved the quality of the league.
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The WNBA featured game-changing players in Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, Candace Parker, Lauren Jackson, Lisa Leslie, Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi, Tamika Catchings, and Brittney Griner that are considered among not only the best WNBA players, but some of the best womens basketball players in the history of the game.
With all the talent in the league, it’s surprising that the total amount of triple doubles for all players hasn’t reached double figures. As of this post, there’s only been ten regular season WNBA triple-doubles.
07/27/1999 | Sheryl Swoopes | Houston Comets | 14 | 15 | 10 | / |
06/07/2001 | Margo Dydek | Utah Starzz | 12 | 11 | / | 10 blks |
09/10/2004 | Lisa Leslie | Los Angeles Sparks | 29 | 15 | / | 10 blks |
05/21/2005 | Deanna Nolan | Detroit Shock | 11 | 10 | 11 | / |
07/24/2014 | Temeka Johnson | Seattle Storm | 13 | 10 | 11 | / |
07/08/2016 | Angel McCoughtry | Chicago Sky | 27 | 10 | 10 | / |
07/28/2017 | Candace Parker | Los Angeles Sparks | 11 | 17 | 11 | / |
07/20/2018 | Courtney Vandersloot | Chicago Sky | 13 | 10 | 15 | / |
07/07/2019 | Chelsea Gray | Los Angeles Sparks | 13 | 10 | 13 | / |
05/18/2021 | Sabrina Ionescu | New York Liberty | 26 | 10 | 12 | / |
09/29/2021 | Courtney Vandersloot | Chicago Sky | 14 | 10 | 10 | / |
05/22/2022 | Candace Parker | Chicago Sky | 16 | 13 | 10 | / |
06/13/2022 | Sabrina Ionescu | New York Liberty | 27 | 13 | 12 | / |
06/23/2022 | Candace Parker | Chicago Sky | 10 | 14 | 10 | / |
06/28/2022 | Moriah Jefferson | Minnesota Lynx | 13 | 10 | 10 / | |
07/06/2022 | Sabrina Ionescu | New York Liberty | 31 | 13 | 10 | / |
07/22/2022 | Alyssa Thomas | Connecticut Sun | 15 | 10 | 12 | / |
08/02/2022 | Alyssa Thomas | Connecticut Sun | 10 | 12 | 10 | / |
09/15/2022 | Alyssa Thomas | Connecticut Sun | 16 | 15 | 11 | / |
09/18/2022 | Alyssa Thomas | Connecticut Sun | 11 | 10 | 11 | / |
09/05/2023 | Alyssa Thomas | Connecticut Sun | 27 | 12 | 14 / | |
06/20/2023 | Alyssa Thomas | Connecticut Sun | 13 | 15 | 12 | / |
06/25/2023 | Alyssa Thomas | Connecticut Sun | 14 | 11 | 12 | / |
06/27/2023 | Alyssa Thomas | Connecticut Sun | 11 | 10 | 10 | / |
06/30/2023 | Courtney Williams | Chicago Sky | 12 | 11 | 13 | / |
07/28/2023 | Satou Sabally | Dallas Wings | 14 | 11 | 10 | / |
07/30/2023 | Alyssa Thomas | Connecticut Sun | 17 | 14 | 11 | / |
08/01/2023 | Alyssa Thomas | Connecticut Sun | 21 | 20 | 12 | / |
05/15/2024 | Alyssa Thomas | Connecticut Sun | 13 | 10 | 13 | / |
05/16/2024 | Layshia Clarendon | Los Angeles Sparks | 11 | 10 | 10 | / |
It’s safe to say that Alyssa Thomas is the newly-crowned queen of triple doubles. Thomas has recorded the last four triple doubles, but put up triple doubles in consecutive WNBA Finals games.
Back in 2017, Layshia Clarendon appeared to have recorded a triple-double with 15 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds. However the league reversed the triple double the following day; finding that two assists were erroneously attributed to the Atlanta Dream guard.
Add another triple double to the list if you include Sheryl Swoopes’ 14 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists performance against the Seattle Storm Sheryl in the 2005 WNBA Playoffs.
Shockingly, Basketball Hall-of-Famer Catchings isn’t on this list. As a player that has one of the only recorded quintuple doubles in basketball history, you would think her name would litter a list like this. It just shows how difficult it is to achieve it in the WNBA when compared to the NBA. I liken her to the LeBron James in the sense that she has plenty of games where she fell short by a couple rebounds or assists.
The women’s game is more a team game that doesn’t necessarily rely on any one individual. The league also has fewer games in the season (34 vs 82) and shorter games (40 mins vs 48 mins).
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Triple Double Trigger Fingers in Atlanta
Does it look like the list is missing a couple triple doubles? That’s probably because no fewer than three triple doubles were announced after a game only to have them rescinded by the league shortly after.
The most recent example was when Atlanta’s first time all-star Layshia Clarendon. She appeared to be the sixth player (before Candace Parker accomplished her first triple double a couple days after Claredon) in league history to achieve the statistical feat with a 15 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds statline in July 2017. Two of those assists were later taken away in a league review due to “stat errors”.
In July 2016, two of the WNBA’s superstars Brittney Griner and Angel McCoughtry had their triple-doubles rescinded after errors in stat-taking were found afterwards when the league reviewed the statistics. Griner had two blocks removed and McCoughtry lost out on an assist making both short of the feat. The one commonality of the three almost-triple doubles? Each of the triple-doubles mentioned that were reversed took place in Atlanta. Someone has some itchy trigger fingers in the A.T.L.
The post The 27 Triple Doubles in WNBA Regular Season History (Updated) appeared first on Interbasket.