Giannis Antetokounmpo thought he had secured himself his fourth triple-double of the season. Within the dying moments of the 117-111 victory over the Washington Wizards, he dribbled to the basket and rebounded an deliberately missed shot to himself.

“I used to be desirous about scoring the ball, however I really feel like in these conditions it is best to type of maintain the ball,” Antetokounmpo mentioned. “However yeah, I simply attempt to play the sport good and type of stole one.”

The NBA, nonetheless, rescinded his tenth rebound on Monday after an inside evaluate. Its reasoning got here from the league rule that states for a field-goal try and rely as official, the participant has to shoot “with intent to attain a field-goal”.

Antetokounmpo didn’t disguise his goal as he collected the ball from Wizards’ guard Corey Kispert with 11 seconds remaining. With the opposition defence letting him run, he opted to not rating however tossed the ball off the backboard to himself because the buzzer went off.

It appears that there have been no qualms to his apparent stat-padding on the time from both facet and the sport ended within the Bucks’ favour.

However the place on-site statisticians credited him with the missed shot that led to the all-important rebound, the league’s evaluate panel, which frequently makes adjustments to right errors or omissions, eliminated it on the identical day.

This isn’t the primary time its acted this fashion. In 2004, Atlanta Hawks guard Bob Sura was denied in comparable circumstances. Followers who can solid their minds additional again may recall a memorable second with Ricky Davis in 2003.

The Cleveland Cavaliers man had put up 26 factors, 12 assists, and 9 rebounds over the Utah Jazz, nicely conscious that he was one board away from his first profession triple-double. When Jumaine Jones inbounded the ball to him close to the basket, Davis had one factor on his thoughts. As an alternative of working down the clock, he lobbed a mild flip off the backboard and picked up his shot.

The irony is that similar to Sura and Giannis, Davis was not credited with the rebound, and his closing stats of the sport meant he fell brief.

Antetokounmpo did too. He formally completed with 23 factors, 13 assists and 9 rebounds. The stat adjustment dropped his rebound common from 11.94 per recreation to 11.92 – however his taking pictures share, with the missed “shot” additionally erased, improved from .538 to .539.