When the headlines read ‘Wilt Scores 100’, the entire nation stood up and took notice as this had never been completed before in the professional ranks of the NBA or ABA for that matter.
The date was March 2, 1962; Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game scoring record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors in a not-so-thrilling 169-147 victory over the New York Knicks.
100 was the Mark
Not 99 points, not 102, but a nice, all-around symmetrical number that is 100 and stands to this day and probably will for a very long time as the NBA high point game mark.
Wilt The Stilt Chamberlain was a gargantuan force in the NBA, a player of monstrous-stature who seemed to overshadow all of the littler professional athletes that tried to stop him from doing just about anything on the court or off the court for that matter that this big man desired.
He was such a dominating imposing player who was virtually unstoppable as he glided towards the basket.
What was simply frightening about the man was that he possessed a basketball skill-set that was closer to a large power-forward than an over-sized center.
Wilt Chamberlain Uncontrolled
Wilt Chamberlain was certainly unstoppable that night in Hershey, Pa., when the Warriors played a few of their “home” games in order to attract money-paying additional Warrior fans. With New York’s starting center, Phil Jordan, sidelined by a severe case of the walking flu, Wilt Chamberlain could not be controlled or stopped by Darrall Imhoff and Cleveland Buckner.
He scored 23 points in the first quarter alone and had 41 by halftime! That was not enough to satisfy the big guy as he returned from the locker room in the second then tallied 28 in the third quarter, when the fans began to chant, “Give It to Wilt! Give It To Wilt!” And give it to Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain they most certainly did.
Wilt Chamberlain
That’s exactly what the Warriors did, feeding the rock to Wilt Chamberlain at every opportunity throughout the fourth quarter. The Knicks tried fouling other Philadelphia Warrior players to keep the ball away from Wilt Chamberlain, but the Philadelphia Warriors countered by committing fouls of their own to get the ball back.
The game was a tug-of-war with the Knicks trying to keep the ball out of Wilt’s hands and the warriors trying to non-stop get the ball to those gigantic mitts!
Can you begin to understand the outright futility of attempting to stop a man of Wilt’s size and basketball playing skills especially when he smelt blood?
Ending of the 100 Point Game
As the clock sounded the ending of the game, mercilessly for the opposing and plumb worn out Knicks, Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain created one of the timeless sports pictures that has become an icon for points scored in a game, scrawled on a piece of cardboard…100.
That said it all for a man, a basketball player that was bigger than life and still to this day can play the game of basketball, this time he is being scored on by his grandchildren on a three-foot hoop!
4-Point Basket
The NBA will not see a scoring performance as what was displayed by the All-Everything center for the Warriors on that fateful day in Hershey, Pennsylvania, well, not in this decade at least. The game is still a very high-paced high-scoring game that showcases the athletic ability of men in perfectly-tuned anatomies.
It will take a changing of the scoring system to even come close to matching the 100 point performance from Wilt chamberlain. Maybe a four-point basket?
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