Wilt Chamberlain 100 Point Game Final Score University of the Arts

Paul Vathis/AP Images

Quick.

Without looking information technology up, tell me who the Philadelphia Warriors were playing against 52 years ago when Wilt Chamberlain dropped an NBA-record 100 points.

If that's not enough of a challenge, go alee and name at least ii players on the opposing roster, and try to make ane of them the man who started the game matched up against the Large Dipper.

It'due south tough, isn't it?

We've been trained to hear Wilt's name and immediately retrieve virtually the triple-digit figure he posted in the scoring column on March ii, 1962, just we overlook the details—details that accept abroad from the achievement, controversial as that may exist.

The answers to the challenges, by the manner, are as follows.

Wilt was playing against the New York Knicks, a team that entered the game with a 27-45 tape and would proceed to occupy the second-worst spot in the standings. Willie Naulls and Richie Guerin were the biggest names of that putrid bunch, but the human guarding Wilt was Darrall Imhoff.

If you completed both of those challenges in successful fashion, kudos to you lot. Y'all're role of the overwhelming minority. But chances are, you've only heard $.25 and pieces of the 100-betoken story, and they're usually the ones that make Wilt's outing expect every bit special as possible.

Don't go me wrong, though.

Chamberlain'south outing remains one of the well-nigh incredible performances in NBA history. It should say something that Kobe Bryant'south 81-signal burst is the closest anyone other than Wilt has gotten to the vaunted 100-point bulwark.

However, that doesn't prevent information technology from existence overhyped. Until the context is as widely known equally the scoring full, Chamberlain's accomplishment will remain a mythologized achievement, one that gives the Hall of Fame center just a chip too much credit.

The Situation

Darrall Imhoff years afterwards with the Los Angeles Lakers. Wen Roberts/Getty Images

From the start, the Knicks were in trouble.

The Warriors entered the contest with a 46-29 record, while New York was well back, sitting in dead concluding at 27-45. On superlative of that, the underdogs didn't even have all of their summit personnel at their disposal, a fact that oftentimes goes unreported when marveling at Wilt's gaudy scoring effigy.

According to Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times, information technology wasn't merely Phil Jordon, the Knicks starting heart, who was missing past the cease of the game:

The playoff-spring Warriors were facing the lowly Knicks, who would end with the league's second-worst record and were missing Phil Jordon, their starting centre-forward. The official story was that he was suffering from the flu, though his teammates knew better.

'The inside scoop was he was hung over,' said Darrall Imhoff, the 6-x center who took Jordon'south spot.

Imhoff started but played merely xx minutes because of foul trouble. That left Cleveland Buckner, a half-dozen-ix rookie from Jackson Land, and a host of other undersized defenders to argue with Chamberlain, the irrepressible behemothic who was and so in his third NBA season.

How's that for a nice setup?

Chamberlain hands could've been expected to explode on that fateful dark, every bit the matchup was perfectly tailored for an evening of domination. But to score 100 points? That even so wasn't viewed equally something inside the realm of realistic possibilities.

Imhoff probably isn't a name that's familiar to newer generations of basketball fans. Quite frankly, it'due south ane that might elude the older aficionados amid us, as the big homo is yet nigh famous for allowing Wilt to post such a gaudy full.

A 6'10", 220-pound center, Imhoff fabricated the All-Star team in 1967, but that was the only occasion on which he was honored. During the 1961-62 flavor, which independent his infamous matchup against the Philly standout, he was playing less than 20 minutes per contest and averaging just 5.9 points and vi.2 rebounds each game.

He was forced into action during this game by Jordon'southward troubles, but foul trouble limited him. In Gary M. Pomerantz's volume, Wilt, 1962, Imhoff is quoted every bit saying the following to a referee after he drew a third whistle early in the proceedings: "Well, why don't you lot just give the guy a hundred now and we'll all go home!"

Little did he know...

It was Imhoff's 2d season in the NBA, and thatstillgave him more than feel than Cleveland Buckner.

Less than one year removed from low-level higher basketball game at Jackson State, Buckner was forced into action against Chamberlain, who towered over him in both height and reputation. The 6'9", 210-pound center was a 6th-circular pick in the 1961 NBA draft.

Yes, that made him a rookie when he was forced to get upward against Chamberlain.

The Crazy Stats

Screen shot from the Basketball-Reference box-score athenaeum.

But look at that flick.

Aught complicated, but an antiquated box score bearing 1 of the most famous numbers in basketball history: 100.

Fortunately, we've gained a little more statistical insight over the years than that i piece of paper offered united states in 1962. According to Donald Hunt on ESPN, "The 'Big Dipper' shot 36-for-63 from the field and an incredible 28-for-32 from the free throw line."

Just think nigh those numbers for a second. In a mode, they're even crazier than the triple-digit figure Chamberlain posted in the scoring column.

Lx-three shots from the field in a single game? Some players become a dozen outings without attempting that many shots.

Basketball-Reference shows that in the concluding 3 decades, only 22 games have been recorded in which a histrion lofted up at least 40 attempts from the field. No 1 has broken by fifty, though Michael Hashemite kingdom of jordan came close when he took 49 shots against the Orlando Magic in 1993.

When Kobe Bryant dropped an 81-spot against the Toronto Raptors, he shot 28-of-46 from the field. That's 17 shots fewer than Chamberlain took on his legendary night.

Why?

Because the remainder of the Warriors did everything they could exercise to industry such a ridiculous outing. Chamberlain admitted every bit much during the autobiographical Wilt. Co-ordinate to the big homo himself, "Only my teammates wanted me to practice it, too. They started feeding me the ball fifty-fifty when they were wide open."

Two paragraphs later, he writes, "I really recollect I shot too often in that 100-signal game—particularly in the fourth quarter, when everyone was egging me on toward 100."

PAUL VATHIS/Associated Press

Can y'all imagine the modernistic-day reaction if players really started turning their nose up at wide-open shots? We live in a society that crucifies players for manufacturing triple-doubles by taking shots in meaningless situations.

Retrieve what Nicolas Batum said subsequently launching a final-2nd iii-arrow to record a trip-dub confronting the San Antonio Spurs? As a refresher, hither's the quote, viaJoe Freeman ofThe Oregonian:

That is maybe the worst thing I've done in my career.

Information technology went in— I was similar, 'Oh, no.' I didn't mean to disrespect this team. This is the San Antonio Spurs, the best team from the last xv years in the NBA. I've never disrespected this team. I beloved this team. I have a lot of friends on this team.

I know this is a bad thing to do. I want to apologize to the Spurs organization, considering that didn't show skilful (respect) for the game, for myself, for the Blazers. I don't really want to disrespect this team.

That was for one ill-advised three-pointer.

And if y'all think Wilt having teammates passing up open up looks to feed him the ball was every bit bad as it got in 1962, call back over again.

Farcical Nature of the Ending

Associated Printing

"From accounts of how information technology went down, the Warriors spent almost the entire fourth quarter fouling to get the ball back and strength-feeding Chamberlain the ball," writes CBS Sports' Royce Immature. "New York jitney Eddie Donovan said, 'The game was a farce. They would foul u.s.a. and we would foul them.' Chamberlain's shot attempts by quarter: xiv, 12, 16, 21. You recollect in a blowout in today'southward game that a team would keeping feeding their star like that?"

It'southward one matter for the opposing team to use a Hack-a-Wilt strategy.

Afterward all, Chamberlain was 1 of the worst complimentary-throw shooters the NBA has ever seen—he shot 51.1 per centum from the line on xi.4 attempts per game for his career— and it'southward a serious aberration that he was able to knock downwardly 28 of his 32 attempts from the clemency stripe that dark. More ability to him for converting when the odds were against him.

"Hell, I'g the world's worst foul-shooter, and I hit 28 of 32 free throws that night—87.v percent," Chamberlain wrote in Wilt."That merely shows that anyone tin can get lucky. But check the box scores over a few months; some really weak players volition accept fantastic games."

It's different for a role player'due south teammates to foul the other team during a blowout, all with the intent of running upwardly an individual'southward scoring full. That'due south when things go farcical, as Donovan mentioned in Immature's quote.

The fouls simply piled up every bit the game got increasingly ridiculous. Both teams were intentionally getting refs to accident whistles, and the Knicks were doing everything possible to run the clock out before Wilt got to triple digits.

Frank McGuire, coaching ane year before the 100-signal game. Associated Press

Frank McGuire, the head autobus of the Warriors, even put in his backups during the closing minutes of the quaternary quarter, all with the intention of using them to foul New York and get the brawl dorsum into Wilt's hands.

It'due south interesting that the relevant pages ofWilt make absolutely no reference to any of this. Chamberlain writes nigh the Knicks holding on to the ball "most the total 24 seconds every fourth dimension they got it tardily in the game." He mentions that Naulls told him Donovan gave his team "explicit orders to freeze the ball and laissez passer up expert shots and so I (Chamberlain) couldn't rebound and score and embarrass them."

Merely he never talks well-nigh his team employing similarly farcical tactics.

Hmm...I wonder why.

Still an Incredible Achievement

Bearding/Associated Press

Even witha lackluster grouping of centers checking him, his teammates feeding him the ball at the expense of their own numbers and the game taking on a foreign nature as the clock wound downwards toward triple zeros, Wilt still scored 100 points.

I hundred points.

That's not an achievement to be taken lightly, regardless of the circumstances. No player in the history of the NBA has come any closer than nineteen points from his record-setting total, and he'southward generally idea of as the holder of 1 of sport'south unbreakable records.

I don't desire to have away from that.

What Wilt did was ridiculous, and it truly deserves to exist remembered and revered for as long as basketball is around. However, context is important.

Say I told you lot that someone had a triple-double concluding nighttime. You'd remember it was impressive, right?

Well, at present suppose I fill up you in with more detail, revealing that the player in question had 10 points, 10 rebounds and ten assists. But he likewise went five-of-40 from the field and turned the ball over 12 times.

Is it nevertheless impressive?

That's an farthermost case of the record we're currently dealing with. Chamberlain does have a few $.25 of context that detract from the overall fable of his 100-point outing, only it's however a ridiculously impressive performance.

Yous can never take that away from him, and you shouldn't try.

But the next time you're thinking near the center who in one case bankrupt into triple digits in the scoring column, retrieve more than than just the number of points he scored.

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Source: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1977443-is-wilt-chamberlains-100-point-game-overhyped

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