Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green had one of the best games of his life against the New York Knicks on Sunday, recording a “perfect” triple-double. For the night, he went 9-of-9 from the field, including 2-for-2 from beyond the arc, plus he snatched up 10 rebounds and doled out 10 assists. A quick glance over the stat sheet and, yep, that seems perfect. Except not quite. Green actually had four turnovers and went 0-for-2 from the charity stripe. In fact, he only drew air on one free throw attempt:
It’s easy to laugh at that because, well, it’s an air ball first of all. Secondly, Green still played out of his mind; the air ball is more of an anecdote. And with Steph Curry not playing like his normal self, it was critical for Green to come up big like that. The free throws and turnovers are more semantics than anything.
Either way, Green now has two “perfect” triple-doubles. The other, according to Basketball-Reference.com, came last year when Green put up 14-10-10 against the Phoenix Suns, including 4-of-4 from the field. Per Tom Haberstroh, Green is the only player to record multiple perfect triple-doubles since Basketball-Reference.com began keeping such records in 1983.
Draymond Green 20p, 10r, 10a on perfect 9/9 FG. Only player with multiple "perfect" triple-doubles since @bball_ref logs dating back to '83.
— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) February 1, 2016
The last player to record a perfect triple-double was Bo Outlaw of the Orlando Magic against the Boston Celtics in 2000. That puts Green in rare company — especially considering the whiff from the charity stripe.
