Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
No one will deny that Wilt Chamberlain is arguably the most fascinating and most dominating physical specimen ever to play in the NBA.
And 50 years ago today, Chamberlain proved just how dominant he was by becoming the only player in NBA history to score 100 points in a game when he accomplished that feat against the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962.
At 25, Chamberlain had already crafted a career built on steady, sustained and spectacular excellence. Playing at 7-foot-1 and 260 pounds for the Philadelphia Warriors, Chamberlain held the single-game record of 78 points (in three overtimes) and the regulation mark of 73 in January 1962.
One hundred points was no flash of momentary greatness. It was a fireball of scoring that will likely never be topped — and put Chamberlain everywhere from the record book, to “The Ed Sullivan Show,” to an unmatched spot in the short list of sport’s all-time unbelievable performances.
But on March 2, 1962 at the Hershey Sports Arena, hardly anyone noticed.
There were no TV cameras. Sports writers were scarce — and so were the fans. Only 4,124 (at $2.50 a ticket) attended the game, in fact, between the Warriors and the New York Knicks as the final stretch of the 1961-62 season dwindled down. The number of people who claimed they were there to witness history, however, could have stretched the East Coast.
And why not? The milestone, after all, changed the game forever.
“The 100-point game was a hyperbolic announcement of the rise of the black athlete in basketball,” said author Gary Pomerantz, who wrote the complete narrative of that game in the 2005 book, “WILT, 1962: The Night of 100 Points and the Dawn of a New Era.
No NBA star has really come close to scoring 100 points. Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant had the luxury of the 3-point shot (he hit seven) when he scored 81 on Jan. 22, 2006. Michael Jordan never topped 69. Allen Iverson hit 60. David Robinson scored 10 less field goals than Chamberlain made in the 100-point game when he scored 71 in 1994.
“I’d hate to try and break it myself,” Chamberlain said, according to Pomerantz’s book.
Chamberlain played all 48 minutes in Philadelphia’s 169-147 win over the Knicks. He shot 36 of 63 from the floor and an un-Wilt like 28 of 32 from the free-throw line. Chamberlain, a woeful 51.1 percent career shooter from the line, attempted his free throws underhand against the Knicks.
“I personally don’t think it will ever happen again,” said Chamberlain’s Warriors’ teammate, Al Attles. “I don’t know if a team will allow it to happen now.”
Oh, the game came during a season when Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points a game.
“I played one game where he got 78 points and we lost,” Attles said. “The guy got 50 regularly. It wasn’t that big a deal.”
At least not through the first three quarters, when Chamberlain scored 69.
(Story Continues…)
WRITTEN BY theGrio & FULL STORY HERE
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