Ranking Giannis Antetokounmpo's 3 best NBA seasons in terms of double-doubles
Giannis Antetokounmpo was born on December 6th, 1994, and he is turning 27 years old today. The Milwaukee Bucks superstar's resume in the NBA is the stuff of legends already, and he is working towards adding to it in upcoming NBA seasons.
Already an NBA champion, NBA Finals MVP, regular-season MVP, and Defensive Player of the Year award winner, Giannis Antetokounmpo still looks hungry for more success in the league and he could certainly achieve it, as he's taken a huge weight off his shoulders with the NBA title going to Milwaukee for the first time in 50 years and just the second time in franchise history.
An extremely versatile NBA superstar, there's really nothing missing from Giannis Antetokounmpo's resume, aside from an All-Star Game MVP and a scoring title. A scoring title could be in the cards for him this year, as the Greek superstar is currently second in the league with 27.6 points per game, behind Kevin Durant's 28.6.
Giannis Antetokounmpo's Top 3 NBA seasons in terms of double-doubles
However, we will take a different statistic to look at in this article. Giannis Antetokounmpo is really a double-double machine, as he is fifth in the NBA in double-doubles since 2018 (206), right before he became the league MVP.
In this article, we will take a look at Giannis Antetokounmpo's Top 3 seasons in the NBA in terms of double-doubles. Of course, only regular-season action will be taken into consideration.
Without further ado, let us take a look.
#3 2017-18 NBA season | 42 Double-Doubles
The 2017-18 NBA season was arguably Giannis Antetokounmpo's first year as an NBA superstar. He was coming off finishing seventh in the 2016-17 NBA MVP voting and winning the 2016-17 Most Improved Player award, while earning his first All-Star Game nod.
In the 2017-18 NBA season, Giannis Antetokounmpo went off for 26.9 points, 10 rebounds (career highs at the time), 4.8 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks per game in the regular season.
Along with those numbers, he put up 42 double-doubles in the year (75 games), which stood as his career-high for a single season at the time. Moreover, he recorded one triple-double in the regular season.
Antetokounmpo earned All-NBA and All-Defensive recognition for the second consecutive season after the 2017-18 campaign.
#2 2018-19 NBA season | 54 Double-Doubles
Giannis Antetokounmpo's first NBA MVP season came in the 2018-19 campaign, when he led the Milwaukee Bucks to the top of the Eastern Conference with brilliant regular-season displays.
The Greek superstar put up 27.7 points, 12.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists (career highs at the time), 1.3 steals and 1.5 blocks per game. He also made 57.8% of his field goals in the regular season, which remains a career-best for him, while shooting 72.9% from the free-throw line, his best season in that department over the last four.
In terms of double-doubles, Giannis Antetokounmpo put up 54 (72 games) in the 2018-19 NBA campaign, the seventh-most in the entire NBA.
At the end of the year, Antetokounmpo won his first NBA MVP award and earned All-NBA First Team and All-Defensive First Team honors, while finishing second in the NBA DPOY voting.
#1 2019-20 NBA season | 56 Double-Doubles
Giannis Antetokounmpo followed his first NBA MVP season (2018-19) with arguably one of the greatest regular-season performances ever for a player in the 2019-20 campaign.
Of course, the 2019-20 NBA season was shortened due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but most of the regular-season honors and situations were quite clear before it all stopped, before resuming in the NBA bubble at Orlando.
For the seventh time in seven NBA seasons, Giannis Antetokounmpo put up a career-best in terms of points per game, averaging 29.5 on 55% shooting from the field.
In terms of rebounds per game, Antetokounmpo did the same, improving his rebound-per-game clip for the seventh consecutive season and posting 13.6 rebounds per game, which remains his career-best for a single season.
He also put up 5.6 assists, a steal and a block per game. Antetokounmpo led the Milwaukee Bucks to the best regular-season record in the league, and also established a new record for Player Efficiency Rating (31.86) in a single campaign, breaking Wilt Chamberlain's number from the 1962-63 season (31.82).
In terms of double-doubles, Antetokounmpo led the league in the 2019-20 NBA season with 56 in 63 appearances.
Antetokounmpo easily won his second straight NBA MVP award, and also joined Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson and Kevin Garnett as the only winners of the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards during their NBA careers.
Alongside Jordan (1987-88) and Olajuwon (1993-94), Giannis Antetokounmpo became the third player in NBA history to win the NBA MVP and DPOY award in the same season (the DPOY award was first given in the 1982-83 campaign).
Also read: Giannis Antetokounmpo turns 27: Listing his 3 most dominant seasons in the NBA