Monday Milestone: Centurion

This Week in History:
1962, March 2,
Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in a nothing game in Hershey, Pennsylvania in one of the greatest individual efforts ever seen in sport.

Every so often, sport produces remarkable feats. Bannister’s four minute mile; Bradman’s batting average; Tiger Woods’ 2000 US Open, just to name a few.

But in the world of professional basketball, one effort stands head and shoulders above any other, both figuratively and literally.

The Milestone parks the Delorean in the 1961-62 NBA season when Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors was already averaging a remarkable 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds per game. Understandably Coach Frank Maguire was playing him for every minute possible.

That cold Friday, just 4,124 fans filed into Hershey Sports Arena, “a godforsaken place… permeated with the smell of chocolate” according to one player, to watch the Warriors play the last-placed Knicks. There was such disinterest in the game, that only a handful of journalists were there, and just two photographers. The game was never televised, and no footage of it exists today.

Even Chamberlain himself didn’t care much for the game, with stories suggesting the infamous Lothario had spent the night “partying with a female companion” and with a hangover and zero sleep had barely made it to Philadelphia to catch the team bus. Nobody cared about this game.

But that would change.

Whilst it was never the plan to shoot for the record, by quarter time, Chamberlain had 23 points, and most notably 9/9 free throws – the notorious weakness of his game, often to the point of embarrassment. By halftime he had 41 points and the sentiment changed in the Warriors locker with a consensus reached to give Chamberlain opportunity, “Let's see how many he can get.”

Constantly triple teamed and quadruple teamed, Chamberlain still managed to evade the defence in the third quarter and his point tally kept climbing, despite some hard fouls. Using his sheer size, by three-quarter time he had 69 points.

The final term was classic. The small crowd had come alive, chanting “Give it to Wilt, give it to Wilt”. There was still 7:51 remaining on the clock when Chamberlain broke his own existing record of 78 points.  The crowd pushed further. They didn’t care he’d just scored eighty. They wanted a hundred.

 It mattered not who or how many were defending him, the points continued to accrue. Five minutes remained. Chamberlain had 89 points. The Knicks fouled anyone except Wilt. They slowed the play down, anything, to deprive the superstar of possession.

With 2:12 left he reached 94 points. The crowd announcer was counting each point. 95, 96, Chamberlain sensed it was possible, 97, 98, He was almost there.

Then it happened.

46 seconds remained when Chamberlain freed himself of all five Knicks players, received a pass and stuffed it through. One hundred points. Hershey Sports Arena exploded.

Fans streamed onto the court. This trivial match had turned into the greatest offensive performance of all time.  

Unfortunately with no footage of the match, we will never know how great it truly was. Allegedly Chamberlain played no defence that night, instead going for glory.

But there’s something about the evenly round, one hundred points just screams perfection. There has never been another performance quite like it.

And it is doubtful, there ever will be.

 

Milestone Five: Players with the most points in an NBA game.

5. Elign Baylor scores 71 points for the LA Lakers against the New York Knicks in 1960. This was the record broken by Chamberlain the previous December.

4. David Robinson scores 71 points for the San Antonio Spurs against the LA Clippers in 1994

3. David Thompson scores 78 points for the Denver Nuggets against the Detroit Pistons in 1978.

2. Kobe Bryant scores 81 points for the LA Lakers against the Toronto Raptors in 2006, the closest anyone has gotten to Chamberlains mark.

1. Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks in 1962. Not only does he hold the record for the third-most (78pts), fifth-most (73pts) and seventh most (72pts), he has 14 of the top 20 of all time game-high scores.