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Saturday, February 24, 2024

Victor Wembanyama Joins 5x5 Club

The exclusive 5x5 Club includes players who had at least five points, at least five rebounds, at least five assists, at least five steals, and at least five blocked shots in the same game. I mentioned the 5x5 Club in my article about Pro Basketball's Greatest Ball Hawks, noting--based on the information available at that time (September 2007)--that Hakeem Olajuwon accomplished this feat six times, Andrei Kirilenko did it three times, and three other players did it once each (Vlade Divac, Jamaal Tinsley and Marcus Camby). It must be emphasized that the ABA officially began tracking steals and blocked shots in the 1972-73 season, and the NBA followed suit in 1973-74, so we do not know how many 5x5 games Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, and other great players accumulated before steals and blocked shots became official statistics; also, even for the years during which steals and blocked shots were officially tracked the game by game data prior to the mid-1980s is not complete. After I wrote my article, I have uncovered more information about the 5x5 Club, and though this data is without question incomplete here is a list of known 5x5 games courtesy of Stathead via The Sporting News:

Player

Year

PTS

REB

AST

STL

BLK

George Johnson

1978

15

18

5

5

7

George Gervin

1979

21

5

6

5

5

Julius Erving

1979

28

7

10

5

5

Hakeem Olajuwon

1987

38

17

6

7

12

Hakeem Olajuwon

1990

29

18

9

5

11

Hakeem Olajuwon

1992

19

13

6

5

5

David Robinson

1992

29

9

5

5

10

Derrick Coleman

1993

21

10

7

5

5

Hakeem Olajuwon

1993

33

13

5

5

5

Hakeem Olajuwon

1993

24

19

6

5

5

Hakeem Olajuwon

1993

34

10

5

5

8

Vlade Divac

1995

19

12

8

5

5

Jamaal Tinsley

2001

12

9

15

6

5

Andrei Kirilenko

2003

19

5

7

8

5

Andrei Kirilenko

2003

10

12

6

6

5

Marcus Camby

2004

8

11

5

5

8

Andrei Kirilenko

2006

14

8

9

6

7

Nicolas Batum

2012

11

5

10

5

5

Draymond Green

2015

24

11

8

5

5

Anthony Davis

2018

12

16

6

5

5

Jusuf Nurkić

2019

24

23

7

5

5

Victor Wembanyama

2024

27

10

8

5

5

Thus, there are 22 known 5x5 performances by 15 different players, with Olajuwon (six) and Kirilenko (three) being the only players verified to accomplish this more than once. Victor Wembanyama, the newest member of the 5x5 Club, had 27 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists, five steals, and five blocked shots on Friday night as his San Antonio Spurs lost 123-118 to the L.A. Lakers. Based on the limited records available, Wembanyama is the only rookie other than Tinsley to have a 5x5 game. It is reasonable to expect that the versatile 20 year old could break Olajuwon's unofficial record for most 5x5 games. Wembanyama needed just one more assist to have a 5x5 performance on Thursday versus Sacramento, and according to ESPN he is the first player to average 5x5 over a two game stretch since the NBA officially began tracking steals and blocked shots in the 1973-74 season.

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posted by David Friedman @ 11:18 PM

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