Nikola Jokić opens his 12th NBA season 12 regular-season triple-doubles away from the most in league history. Russell Westbrook retired this summer with 209, the record he has held since May 10, 2021. Jokić enters 2026-27 with 198.

The NBA marked the chase with a career highlight reel on October 9, built around one line from the Nuggets center: “I’m looking forward to breaking his record.” The record belongs to a former Denver teammate, since Westbrook spent the 2024-25 season with the Nuggets.

NBA.com’s all-time list of regular-season triple-double leaders, updated after Westbrook’s retirement, has six players with more than 100: Russell Westbrook: 209; Nikola Jokić: 198; Oscar Robertson: 181; Magic Johnson: 138; LeBron James: 125; Jason Kidd: 107

Westbrook passed Robertson’s 181, a mark that had stood since 1974, when he recorded his 182nd on May 10, 2021. He also owns the single-season record with 42 triple-doubles in 2016-17, the year he won MVP.

With Westbrook gone, Jokić is the only active player anywhere near the top. James is next among active players at 125, and Luka Dončić sits seventh overall at 90.

Sporting News noted that Jokić recorded 34 triple-doubles in each of the last two seasons while playing more than 65 games, roughly one every other night. At that rate, the outlet estimated, the record could fall within the first 20 to 25 games of the season if he stays healthy.

He needs 11 to tie Westbrook and 12 to pass him. With opening night on October 20, the countdown is measured in weeks, not seasons.

Robertson’s mark lasted almost half a century, and for most of that time nobody came close. Westbrook changed that by averaging a triple-double across a full season four times, starting with his MVP year, and turning the stat line into a nightly expectation.

Jokić has done it differently. He gets there as a center, running Denver’s offense from the elbow and the post, and he has reached 198 in 810 regular-season games, without the high-tempo pace of Westbrook’s best years in Oklahoma City.

The result is the same box-score shape, delivered with a calm that has made it feel almost routine.

Every Denver game that reaches double figures in points, rebounds and assists moves the count one closer. When Jokić gets to 210, the record Westbrook took from Robertson will have a new owner, and it will be the big man who once shared a locker room with him.

Sources: NBA, NBA.com, Sporting News.

Nikola Jokić shoots over Nikola Vučević in March 2021. File photo: Jose Garcia / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0. Resized.

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