A double-double is a single game performance reaching double digits in two of the five main statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks.
The double-double is the box score's benchmark of a complete game. Reach ten or more in any two of points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, most often points paired with rebounds or assists, and the performance earns the label. It is common enough to be an expectation for star big men and playmaking guards, and rare enough in the steals and blocks columns to be a curiosity when it happens.
Career double-double totals are a real record book category, dominated by the great rebounding centres and power forwards, with Tim Duncan and Dwight Howard among the modern leaders and the all time list headed by Wilt Chamberlain. Season streaks of consecutive double-doubles are tracked the way hitting streaks are in baseball, as a running measure of nightly reliability.
The term anchors the family this category is built around: double-double, triple-double, and the almost mythical quadruple-double, each adding a column. Quiz questions use them as counting puzzles and record hunts alike, and the definition's fine print matters: the categories are the official five, the game is a single official game, and preseason or exhibition numbers do not enter the book.
In use"He recorded a double-double with eighteen points and twelve rebounds."