NBA denies Giannis fourth triple-double, stirs talks about stat padding

DENVER (AP) — Sorry, Giannis, the NBA wanted back that rebound.Your fourth triple-double of the season, too.

Some might say nice try, others have an issue with what is knownas stat padding.

When Milwaukee MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo tried toorchestrate his 10th rebound Sunday night in the final seconds ofthe Bucks’ win against Washington, it sent the world of socialmedia into overdrive.

Along with it, dredged up conversations about the touchy topicof stat padding, which insinuates that someone, whether it be onthe basketball court or even in the world of online video games,compiles results oblivious to what’s going on around them.

A rebound shy of the triple-double mark, Antetokounmpo wasrunning out the clock when he stopped near the basket. He hesitatedfor a moment before lightly tossing the ball at the bottom of therim and grabbing it for what appeared to be his 10th board.

Even the announcer was like, “Does that count?”

It did — until it didn’t. On Monday, and following a review bythe league, his official line read: 23 points, 13 assists and nineboards.

While wiping away Antetokounmpo’s last rebound was probably aneasy call for the league, it sometimes can be a fine line betweenpadding one’s stats and just playing the game hard. RussellWestbrook no doubt heard the innuendos when he was a triple-doublemachine. Two-time reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic recently heardaspersions, too.

Antetokounmpo’s rebound was on the blatant side (his name gotadded to a Wikipedia entry on “stat padding ”).

“I just try to play the game smart and kind of stole one,”Antetokounmpo said in a postgame interview following a 117-111 winover Washington.

Nuggets coach Michael Malone doesn’t believe Jokic would evertry to steal one. Still, Jokic heard the noise directed his wayafter recording his 100th career triple-double on Feb. 28. TheDenver big man sarcastically addressed comments made by ESPN NBAanalyst Kendrick Perkins, who intimated Jokic was guilty of statpadding.

“I mean, when you’re stat padding it’s easy, you know,” Jokictold the Nuggets’ TV network Altitude Sports of notching themilestone.

Asked if he heard the chatter, Jokic amusingly responded: “Yes,of course. I mean, it’s true.”

Concerning the late-game actions of Antetokounmpo, Perkinscommented on Twitter: “Every player has padded their stats at somepoint during their career.”

Players in triple-double territory do often know when they’reclosing in on the usually impressive stat line. Some even knowexactly what’s required. They know when they need one rebound orone assist, and so do their teammates. They almost always defer inthose moments for the benefit of someone else’s stats.

Teams get stat sheets delivered in every time-out. Scoreboardsin the the arenas show every number imaginable. Everybody knows thedeal in those moments.

There have been memorable, and strange, examples of the lengthsplayers will go to get there. Cleveland’s Ricky Davis shot at thewrong basket in 2003 to try and get the one rebound he needed; itwasn’t awarded by the stat crew and Utah was highly annoyed atDavis’ antics with 6 seconds left in what was a 25-point game.

“He was trying to embarrass somebody. ... I’d have knocked himon his” butt, the late Jerry Sloan, then the Utah coach, said thatnight.

When the obvious doesn’t happen, stat padding tends to becomehilarious.

Take the game in 2017, when Dwyane Wade was with the ChicagoBulls and needed one rebound for a triple-double. Kay Felder tookthe game’s final shot for Cleveland, it missed and the ball wasmagically coming right to where Wade was standing with 1 secondremaining — that is, until Bulls teammate Cristiano Felicio knockedthe ball away.

Wade fell back in disbelief, then gave Felicio a look as if toask, “Why?”

“My teammate didn’t want me to be great,” Wade said that night,smiling, though mildly bothered.

Wade did just fine without that triple-double; he’s almostcertainly going into the Basketball Hall of Fame later this year.Andray Blatche, however, is not going to be enshrined inSpringfield. He never got a triple-double. He almost did, once.

April 4, 2010, was the night of Blatche infamy. He finished with20 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds for Washington, and thoughthe had rebound No. 10 with 22.1 seconds left. Small complication:He fouled New Jersey’s Brook Lopez on the play, and didn’t haveanother chance to get the board he needed.

In the case of Jokic, Malone doesn’t believe his center wouldever chase individual glory — though the Nuggets’ coach has atheory why someone might.

“Maybe they’re just tired of this player, non-athletic playerfrom Sombor, Serbia, continuing to kick everybody’s” butt, Malonetold reporters after a recent practice. “Maybe people have a hardtime with that. I don’t know. But for (Jokic) to say that, ‘Yeah,you know what, I’m padding my stats.’ Yeah, it probably signalsthat maybe something touched a nerve.

“He’s not doing anything to pump his own numbers up,” Maloneadded. “It’s just not in his nature. It’s silly to thinkotherwise.”