Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook needed just 20 minutes, 17 seconds of court time to pile up 13 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds in Tuesday's 125-92 blowout win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Per NBA.com/Stats, Westbrook logged the fewest minutes in a triple-double performance since 1955, when Jim Tucker recorded a triple-double in a mere 17 minutes for the Syracuse Nationals.
Tucker's performance, which occurred Feb. 20, 1955, is one of the great oddities in NBA history. Not only did the Nationals power forward somehow manage to accumulate 12 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists in just 17 minutes, but he did all that during the rookie season of a rather unspectacular career.
Tucker, a product of Duquesne University, ultimately played just three seasons in the NBA, retiring with a mere 4.1 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.
On the other side of the coin, Westbrook is one of the top stat-sheet stuffers currently playing in the league—he's averaging 20.8 points, seven assists and 5.7 rebounds through 31 games this season and is a decent bet for a double-double on any given night.
He only has seven regular-season triple-doubles through 425 career games, but he also had one during the 2011 NBA Playoffs and figures to pad his total in the coming years.
More important than all the stats, Westbrook's historic performance proves that he's all the way back, after the star point guard missed nearly two months to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery. He's averaging a mere 25.5 minutes per game since returning, but Tuesday's game left little doubt as to where his health stands.
