[This clip is from the February 1991 issue of Basketball Digest. So, it predates the Olajuwon-led Houston teams and won back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. Those seasons might have provided more indelible games and glory for him. As he says below, an NBA championship would be his greatest accomplishment. Period. But, in 1991, this was Olajuwon’s answer to that old question: What’s the NBA game that you’ll never forget?]
*****
I’m not a player who plays for statistics. I know I can score and rebound in double figures in every game. I play to win. That’s what’s important—most important. I am looking forward to the day my team, the Houston Rockets, wins the NBA championship. A championship ring would be my greatest accomplishment and professional basketball.
But until then, I will have to settle for other accomplishments—like on the night of March 29, 1990, during a game in Houston against the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Bucks generally are a tough team, but for this game, they were without three of their top players—Jack Sikma, Ricky Pierce, and Paul Pressey—for various reasons. Their absence made things relatively easy for us. We ran the ball well from the outset, and by the end of the first quarter, we led by 16 points. In the second period, we were ahead by more than 20 points, and it appeared we were going to win the game without any trouble. The only question was: by how much?
At halftime, I already had 16 points and 10 rebounds. I also had six blocked shots and four assists, and the possibility of a quadruple double—double figures in four categories—was real.
Less than four weeks earlier, in a game against Golden State, I thought I had achieved a quadruple double. I scored 29 points, had 18 rebounds, 11 blocks, and was credited with 10 assists. But two days later, after reviewing tapes of the game, the league office said one of the assists should not have counted, and I was denied the pleasure of a quadruple double. When I was told that it was disallowed, I was disappointed. But I said it was no big deal because I felt I could do it again. I just didn’t think the opportunity would come so soon.
In the third quarter, we continued to hold our big double-figure lead, and I picked up another block and four assists. So, going into the final period, I needed three more blocked shots and two more assists to accomplish something that only two other players in league history had done—finish with a quadruple double. The three blocks came quickly in the first six minutes of the quarter, but I was still short the two assists.
To be able to get in double figures in blocked shots is extraordinary, because you’re playing against other professionals. Getting assists should not be difficult for me because I am often double-teamed and triple-teamed and can always find the open man. I don’t mind passing the ball, as long as my teammates hit the open shots.
With time running out and the Rockets in control of the game, coach Don Chaney could have taken me out. But he realized how close I was to the quadruple double again, and he gave me the opportunity to go after it. My teammates also were cooperating—at least in the effort, but not in the execution.
First, Mike Woodson missed four consecutive shots after I had set him up. Then, Tim McCormick missed another shot. Finally, with just under four minutes to play, Vernon Maxwell hit a three-pointer. Now, I needed only one more assist.
Lewis Lloyd then told me to give him the ball, and he would make the historic shot. But I was just looking for the open man—whomever could score. Then, with less than three minutes to play, Lloyd got open. I fed him the ball, and he hit an open jumper.
I had passed up several easy shots in an effort to get those last two assists, and it paid off. I had accomplished something that only Nate Thurmond with Chicago in 1974 and Alvin Robertson with San Antonio in 1986 had done.
Ironically, Robertson had been traded from the Spurs to the Bucks prior to the 1989-90 season, and he was on the floor the night I got my quadruple double. In fact, he was among those to congratulate me. He even said he thought I could do it several more times.
At that moment, though, I was just grateful for having done it once—especially after the league had denied me a quadruple double earlier that month. When I came out of the game, about a half minute later, my teammates and coaches also congratulated and complimented me. There was no question about this one. This was official. I knew it, and I was excited and happy. I also was happy that we won the game, 120-94.
I didn’t have time to celebrate, however, because in the NBA, you don’t get much time for that. You have to get ready for your next game. Each game was important for us then, because we were fighting for a playoff berth, which we eventually secured.
After that game, some people suggested that someday I might be able to accomplish a quintuple double, adding double figures in steals to the other four categories. That would really be something!
[Olajuwon never logged another quadruple double during his Hall-of-Famer career. But San Antonio’s David Robinson repeated the feat on February 17, 1994. His stat line: 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, 10 blocks. Robinson’s magical night was the last quadruple double in the NBA. That’s almost 30 years, and not even Russell Westbrook flirted with it during his triple-double madness as a Washington Wizard.
Now, this brings us to aforementioned quintuple double. It’s happened just once in NBA history—and unofficially. On March 18, 1968, Philadelphia’s Wilt Chamberlain hit up the injury-riddled Los Angeles Lakers for 53 points, 32 rebounds, 14 assists, 24 blocks, and 11 steals. Why unofficially? The NBA didn’t track blocks back then as an official statistical category. Nevertheless, Chamberlain clearly did it. A little more on that historic game from the Philadelphia Inquirer:
“Only 3,491 showed up Civic Center Convention Hall to see Chamberlain destroy 6-feet-10 Darrall Imhoff [who was also on the other team for Wilt’s 100-point game] and seven-foot Mel Counts—or sometimes both when Counts moved to forward—in what Lakers’ coach Butch van Breda Kolff called, ‘possibly the first time I’ve ever seen a man play a perfect game of basketball.’
“Chamberlain made 24 of 29 field goal attempts, mostly on dunks, and the offensive moves he displayed going to the hoop were awesome . . . The last assist was a behind-the-back bounce pass to Matty Goukas, who made the layup.”]
From Way Downtown 