On Sunday night, Giannis Antetokounmpo found himself one rebound shy of his 33rd career triple-double as the clock ticked down to zero, with the Wizards no longer fouling in a 117-111 Bucks win.
As he dribbled out the clock, he couldn’t resist pulling a Ricky Davis (although, in Giannis’ defense, he at least was at the correct basket) and bouncing the ball off the hoop to himself for that 10th rebound. The official scorekeeper in Washington credited him with the rebound, and he finished the night with 23 points, 13 assists, and 10 rebounds.
Giannis Antetokounmpo intentionally missed a shot in the final seconds to get his 10th rebound and secure a triple-double
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— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) March 6, 2023
However, the league has the ability to adjust stats after the fact, and in this case, they found Giannis’ effort to be egregious enough to rescind his rebound, citing the need for a player to be trying to score when they put up a shot for it to count as a rebound.
The league has rescinded Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 10th rebound last night–and thus his triple-double, sources tell ESPN. League rules say that for a field-goal attempt to count as official, the player has to shoot “with intent to score a field-goal” — i.e. to make the shot.
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) March 6, 2023
It’s not a huge surprise the NBA would do this, less because there is some need for keeping the sanctity of triple-doubles and more because in a world where you can bet on a player getting a triple-double or not via NBA partnered sportsbooks, the integrity of stats is under a bit of a microscope. If you happened to have a Giannis triple-double YES ticket, this may qualify as one of the most delayed bad beats — unless the books are feeling generous and paying it out no matter what, as they will occasionally do on things like this to get some goodwill.