Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game
Encyclopedia
Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game, named by the National Basketball Association
as one of its greatest games, was a regular-season game between the Philadelphia Warriors
and the New York Knicks
held on March 2, 1962, at Hersheypark Arena
in Hershey, Pennsylvania
.
The Warriors won the game 169-147, setting a then-record for the most combined points in a game by both teams with 316. The game is most remembered, however, for an NBA record 100 points scored by Warrior center Wilt Chamberlain
. This performance ranks as the NBA's single-game scoring record; along the way Chamberlain also broke 5 other NBA scoring records, 4 of which still stand.
As Chamberlain broke many scoring records during the 1961-62 season, his 100-point game was initially overlooked. However, it became his signature game.
, the Warriors' star center, was on a unique scoring spree. He had already scored 60 or more points a record 15 times in his career. On December 8, 1961, in a triple overtime game versus the Los Angeles Lakers
, he set a new NBA record by scoring 78 points, breaking the record of 71 previously set by Elgin Baylor
. Legendary Laker broadcaster Chick Hearn
often told the story that after the game, he asked Baylor if it bothered him that Chamberlain had an extra 15 minutes to break the record. According to Hearn, Baylor said he wasn't concerned because "someday that guy is going to score 100".
Three months later, there was little advance excitement about the pending Warriors-Knicks game, which was a meaningless late-season match. Chamberlain had spent the night before the game in New York
, partying all night with a female companion. With no sleep and suffering from a hangover
, he boarded the train to Philadelphia at 8 AM, met several friends at the Philadelphia train station, and had a long lunch with them, thus almost missing the team bus to Hershey. The other players were similarly bored. Warriors player York Larese
said: "The biggest thrill in my life was to see that. There was nothing exciting about the Knicks playing the Warriors in Hershey. Chocolate was more exciting."
Warrior teammate Tom Meschery
commented how run-down the Hersheypark Arena was: "The thing was that the Warriors owner and a local promoter arranged a deal: they placed a gym at our disposal for practicing free of charge and we had to play three matches of the season in their god-forsaken place...the town of Hershey was built around a huge chocolate factory, everything there became permeated with the smell of chocolate. It was practically impossible to stay indoors, people felt sick. I was just dreaming to leave the place as fast as I could."
On a cold, rainy Friday night, only 4,124 spectators paid to see the game, partly more to see the players from the local football team the Philadelphia Eagles
, who played a show basketball game against their colleagues from the Baltimore Colts
before the NBA game started. The opposing Knicks were shorthanded, because their starting center Phil Jordon
was injured. So, the inexperienced backup pivot Darrall Imhoff
had to play against the scoring champion Chamberlain. Chamberlain himself stated that the game remained unfinished and that after his 100th point the audience mobbed him and the referee called it off with 46 seconds left in the 4th quarter.
ordered his men to feed Chamberlain: "Wilt is always open, so pass him the ball".
This simple tactic proved unstoppable. Soon, he had surpassed the 50-point barrier, causing arena speaker Dave Zinkoff
to fire up the previously sleepy crowd. He also kept his cool despite getting perpetually triple and quadruple-teamed by the Knicks, who did not shy away from hard fouls to distract the center. McGuire was irate and demanded that the referees call more fouls, but Chamberlain could not be stopped. He scored another 28 points to lift his Warriors to a commanding 125-106 lead when the third quarter ended. His own total stood at 69, nine shy of his previous scoring record. Knicks third center Dave Budd
, who alternated with the foul-troubled Imhoff at pivot, later stated that resistance was futile: "You couldn't play [Chamberlain] conventionally because he was so big. The only thing you could attempt to do was either front him, and in that case they'd try to lob it in to him, or beat him down the floor and set up where he wanted to get and force him out a couple of extra steps. The guy weighed 300 or 270 [pounds], so that wasn't easy, either." Darrall Imhoff later even stated, "He literally stuffed us through the hoop with the ball. It didn't even help we quintuple-teamed him." Chamberlain at first thought he would possibly break a free throw shooting record, but stated that at the end of the third quarter he realized he could break his own 73-point scoring record (for a 48-minute game) or his record 78 points, set in triple OT.
In the fourth quarter, 7:51 was left to play when Chamberlain scored his 79th point, breaking his own record and sending the crowd into a frenzy. The 4,124 spectators screamed "Give it to Wilt! Give it to Wilt!" The Warriors suddenly sensed that they could write basketball history, and fed Chamberlain the ball at every attack. Warrior Al Attles
later explained: "We wanted that Wilt got the record, because we all liked him." Attles himself led by example, passing up on an easy layup so that Chamberlain could score points 88 and 89, five minutes before the end. In addition, Warriors guard Guy Rodgers
would end the game with 20 assists.
reacted by pulling out his entire starting five, save Chamberlain, (i.e. forwards Tom Meschery
, Al Attles
and guards Guy Rodgers
and Paul Arizin) and sent in bench players Joe Ruklick
, York Larese
, Ed Conlin and Ted Luckenbill
. The intention was to foul the Knicks, in order to get the ball back after free throws and give Chamberlain the ball. Thus each team spent the last minutes fouling each other.
Opinions were split on this matter. Warriors forward Tom Meschery
said: "The rival [New York] was not going to become a part of the history. During the last minutes the coach told them to foul anyone with the ball – anyone but Chamberlain. So we had to throw-in from the side line across the floor just to pass the ball to him." However, Knicks player Richie Guerin
, who scored 39 points, put the blame on the Warriors and complained: "The Warriors used any means [i.e., fouling tactics] to get the ball to Chamberlain. This had nothing to do with basketball anymore." In any case, the Warriors ended with 25 personal fouls, and the Knicks with 32, and lost Imhoff and Willie Naulls
with six fouls.
Chamberlain later admitted feeling embarrassment about the manner in which the game's final minutes were played. He did not address the question of the two teams' fouling tactics, but he acknowledged that he shot the ball excessively in his attempt to reach 100 points, putting up many shots that he otherwise would not have taken. He noted that in contests which he considered to be his best games, his statistics would typically reflect 50 to 60 points scored on perhaps 75 percent shooting, as opposed to his 57 percent shooting in the 100-point game. Although effusive in his praise of Chamberlain, Guerin nonetheless estimated that if the game had played out normally, Chamberlain would have finished 15 to 20 points shy of 100.
With 2:45 left, Chamberlain had 94 points, and after scoring on a jump shot and a layup, he stood at 98 with less than a minute to play. Facing a quintuple-team by the entire Knicks team, Chamberlain trotted into the low post. At the next play, Ruklick passed to Guy Rodgers, who passed to Chamberlain close to the basket. After missing his first shot, Luckenbill rebounded and passed to Chamberlain, but he missed again. Luckenbill again rebounded and this time passed to Ruklick: instead of going for an easy layup, he immediately lobbed a high pass to Chamberlain. With 46 seconds left, Chamberlain got free from the five Knicks, jumped high and put the ball into the basket to hit the century mark. Eyewitness accounts of the historic basket differ as to whether Chamberlain merely laid the ball in or actually stuffed the ball through the hoop for an alley-oop slam dunk
. In any event, the arena exploded in a frenzy and over 200 spectators stormed the floor, wanting to touch the hero of the night. Ruklick immediately ran to the scorer's table to ensure that he was officially credited with the assist.
resuming his play-by-play call after Chamberlain's 100th point and calling the game to its conclusion. German sports journalist Gunter Bork specified that the interruption resulting from Chamberlain's 100th point lasted for nine minutes, after which play continued. The game's official box score notes that Warrior Joe Ruklick
missed two free throws after the break.
Over the years, Harvey Pollack
, who at the time was in charge of both publicity and statistics for the Warriors, has given conflicting statements on the question. In a 1992 book, he was twice quoted as saying that the game ended with 46 seconds remaining. But in a 2002 interview which was referenced by Chamberlain biographer Robert Cherry, Pollack said that the last 46 seconds were played, and that Chamberlain just stood in the middle circle, waiting for the game to end and not wanting to touch the ball, as "100 sounded better than 102".
s (The NBA didn't start recording them until the 1979-80 season). Chamberlain set the NBA records for field goals attempted (63) and made (36), free throws made (28), most points in a quarter (31), and half (59). David Thompson first broke the points in a quarter record by scoring 32 points in the first quarter of his 73-point game. However, George Gervin
broke that record 7 hours later by scoring 33 points in a quarter. Carmelo Anthony
has also scored 33 points in a quarter. Adrian Dantley
tied the record of 28 free throws made in a regular-season game on January 4, 1984, but as of 2011, all the other records still stand.
Overlooked in the wake of Chamberlain's performance were the feats of Guy Rodgers
and Al Attles
. Rodgers finished with a game-high 20 assists and later said: "It was the easiest game ever for me to get assists, all I had to do was pass it to Wilt." Attles was a defensive specialist who rarely scored, yet went 8-8 from the field and hit his single free throw. He later lamented, "In the game where I literally couldn't miss, Wilt had to go out and score 100."
The record of 316 combined points was broken 20 years later when the San Antonio Spurs
defeated the Milwaukee Bucks
171-166 (3 OT) on March 6, 1982, for a total of 337 points. This record was broken much more quickly as the Detroit Pistons
defeated the Denver Nuggets
186-184 (3 OT) on December 13, 1983, for a total of 370 points.
The following night, Chamberlain got permission to travel back to New York with three Knicks players. According to Cherry, Chamberlain drifted in and out of sleep and got a kick overhearing the NY players talk about the "S.O.B. who scored 100 points on us". Another night later, the Warriors and the Knicks squared off again in Madison Square Garden
. This time, Imhoff played all 48 minutes and got a standing ovation for holding Chamberlain to 54 points.
New York Knicks
In time, the game became legendary. Although Chamberlain won two NBA championships and was the NBA's all-time leading scorer and rebounder when he retired, he was mostly remembered as the man who had single-handedly scored 100 points in a game. The Warriors' PR director Harvey Pollack
said an impossible 40,000 people claimed to have seen the game, and some even testified it took place in Madison Square Garden. Chamberlain later stated it was one of his favorite games, but not the favorite: that title belonged to the match in which he grabbed an NBA record 55 rebounds against perennial rival Bill Russell
.
Two other participants were profoundly affected. Firstly, Knicks center Darrall Imhoff
was branded as the player who let Chamberlain score 100 on him, although he only played 20 minutes and fouled out in the fourth quarter. On the other hand, the game immortalized little-used Warriors reserve player Joe Ruklick
as the man who gave Chamberlain the 100-point assist. Decades later, the New York Times interviewed Ruklick, and found out that he refers to himself as "a walking footnote" of one of basketball's greatest moments. Also, the game produced the famous picture of Chamberlain sitting on a bench, holding up a paper with a scribbled "100". It was a matter of improvisation: when Warriors PR manager Harvey Pollack entered the Warriors locker, he took a paper and scribbled the number on it, and an Associated Press photographer who was there at the game (not for professional reasons, but rather because he wanted to give his son a treat) took the photo. Cherry calls it the "ultimate picture" of Wilt Chamberlain.
The closest any NBA player has gotten to Wilt's total is 81. Kobe Bryant
hit that mark against the Toronto Raptors on January 22, 2006.
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
as one of its greatest games, was a regular-season game between the Philadelphia Warriors
Golden State Warriors
The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in Oakland, California. They are part of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
and the New York Knicks
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
held on March 2, 1962, at Hersheypark Arena
Hersheypark Arena
Hersheypark Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena, located in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The arena has a seating capacity, for hockey, of 7,286 people and in excess of 8,000, including standing room...
in Hershey, Pennsylvania
Hershey, Pennsylvania
Hershey is a census-designated place in Derry Township, Dauphin County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The community is located 14 miles east of Harrisburg and is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area. Hershey has no legal status as an incorporated municipality...
.
The Warriors won the game 169-147, setting a then-record for the most combined points in a game by both teams with 316. The game is most remembered, however, for an NBA record 100 points scored by Warrior center Wilt Chamberlain
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain was an American professional NBA basketball player for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers; he also played for the Harlem Globetrotters prior to playing in the NBA...
. This performance ranks as the NBA's single-game scoring record; along the way Chamberlain also broke 5 other NBA scoring records, 4 of which still stand.
As Chamberlain broke many scoring records during the 1961-62 season, his 100-point game was initially overlooked. However, it became his signature game.
Prologue
Right before the game, Wilt ChamberlainWilt Chamberlain
Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain was an American professional NBA basketball player for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers; he also played for the Harlem Globetrotters prior to playing in the NBA...
, the Warriors' star center, was on a unique scoring spree. He had already scored 60 or more points a record 15 times in his career. On December 8, 1961, in a triple overtime game versus the Los Angeles Lakers
Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
, he set a new NBA record by scoring 78 points, breaking the record of 71 previously set by Elgin Baylor
Elgin Baylor
Elgin Gay Baylor is a retired Hall of Fame American basketball player and former NBA general manager who played 13 seasons as a forward for the NBA's Minneapolis Lakers/Los Angeles Lakers....
. Legendary Laker broadcaster Chick Hearn
Chick Hearn
Francis Dayle "Chick" Hearn was an American sportscaster. Known primarily as the long-time play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association, the legendary Hearn is remembered for his rapid fire, staccato broadcasting style, inventing colorful phrases such...
often told the story that after the game, he asked Baylor if it bothered him that Chamberlain had an extra 15 minutes to break the record. According to Hearn, Baylor said he wasn't concerned because "someday that guy is going to score 100".
Three months later, there was little advance excitement about the pending Warriors-Knicks game, which was a meaningless late-season match. Chamberlain had spent the night before the game in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, partying all night with a female companion. With no sleep and suffering from a hangover
Hangover
A hangover describes the sum of unpleasant physiological effects following heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages. The most commonly reported characteristics of a hangover include headache, nausea, sensitivity to light and noise, lethargy, dysphoria, diarrhea and thirst, typically after the...
, he boarded the train to Philadelphia at 8 AM, met several friends at the Philadelphia train station, and had a long lunch with them, thus almost missing the team bus to Hershey. The other players were similarly bored. Warriors player York Larese
York Larese
York Bruno Larese is a retired American basketball player and coach. In his childhood, he attended St. Ann's academy in Queens....
said: "The biggest thrill in my life was to see that. There was nothing exciting about the Knicks playing the Warriors in Hershey. Chocolate was more exciting."
Warrior teammate Tom Meschery
Tom Meschery
Thomas Nicholas "Tom" Meschery is a Russian American former professional basketball player. He was a power forward with a 10 year National Basketball Association career from 1961 to 1971. He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors and the Seattle SuperSonics...
commented how run-down the Hersheypark Arena was: "The thing was that the Warriors owner and a local promoter arranged a deal: they placed a gym at our disposal for practicing free of charge and we had to play three matches of the season in their god-forsaken place...the town of Hershey was built around a huge chocolate factory, everything there became permeated with the smell of chocolate. It was practically impossible to stay indoors, people felt sick. I was just dreaming to leave the place as fast as I could."
On a cold, rainy Friday night, only 4,124 spectators paid to see the game, partly more to see the players from the local football team the Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
, who played a show basketball game against their colleagues from the Baltimore Colts
History of the Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are a professional football team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They play in the AFC South division of the National Football League. They have won 3 NFL championships and 2 Super Bowls....
before the NBA game started. The opposing Knicks were shorthanded, because their starting center Phil Jordon
Phil Jordon
Philip Jordon was a Native American basketball player.A 6'10" center from Whitworth University, Jordon played seven seasons in the National Basketball Association as a member of the New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons, Cincinnati Royals, and St. Louis Hawks. He averaged 10.9 points per game and 6.9...
was injured. So, the inexperienced backup pivot Darrall Imhoff
Darrall Imhoff
Darrall Tucker Imhoff is an American former professional basketball player. He spent twelve seasons in the NBA , playing for half a dozen teams...
had to play against the scoring champion Chamberlain. Chamberlain himself stated that the game remained unfinished and that after his 100th point the audience mobbed him and the referee called it off with 46 seconds left in the 4th quarter.
First 42 minutes
From the beginning, Chamberlain's Warriors dominated against the Knicks. After a few minutes, the Warriors led 19-3, and their star center had already scored 13 points. At the end of the first quarter, the Knicks trailed 42-26, and in his typical style, Chamberlain had already scored 23 points. Imhoff was soon benched in foul trouble. By halftime, the Warriors had lost some of their edge, but still led 79-68. After 24 minutes, Chamberlain's point total stood at 41. However, as he had scored 60 or more points on 15 previous occasions, the Warriors felt little excitement about this fact. "I often came into the locker room with 30 or 35 points, therefore, 41 points was not a big deal," he later explained. Warriors coach Frank McGuireFrank McGuire
Frank Joseph McGuire was an American athletic coach who gained his greatest renown in collegiate basketball....
ordered his men to feed Chamberlain: "Wilt is always open, so pass him the ball".
This simple tactic proved unstoppable. Soon, he had surpassed the 50-point barrier, causing arena speaker Dave Zinkoff
Dave Zinkoff
Dave Zinkoff was a sports public address announcer, memorable for his inimitable and colorful delivery. He worked for the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park in the 1940s, the Philadelphia Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, as well as various colleges and boxing and wrestling matches held at the...
to fire up the previously sleepy crowd. He also kept his cool despite getting perpetually triple and quadruple-teamed by the Knicks, who did not shy away from hard fouls to distract the center. McGuire was irate and demanded that the referees call more fouls, but Chamberlain could not be stopped. He scored another 28 points to lift his Warriors to a commanding 125-106 lead when the third quarter ended. His own total stood at 69, nine shy of his previous scoring record. Knicks third center Dave Budd
Dave Budd
David L. "Dave" Budd is a retired American basketball player who used to play for the National Basketball Association's New York Knicks.-Woodbury High School:...
, who alternated with the foul-troubled Imhoff at pivot, later stated that resistance was futile: "You couldn't play [Chamberlain] conventionally because he was so big. The only thing you could attempt to do was either front him, and in that case they'd try to lob it in to him, or beat him down the floor and set up where he wanted to get and force him out a couple of extra steps. The guy weighed 300 or 270 [pounds], so that wasn't easy, either." Darrall Imhoff later even stated, "He literally stuffed us through the hoop with the ball. It didn't even help we quintuple-teamed him." Chamberlain at first thought he would possibly break a free throw shooting record, but stated that at the end of the third quarter he realized he could break his own 73-point scoring record (for a 48-minute game) or his record 78 points, set in triple OT.
In the fourth quarter, 7:51 was left to play when Chamberlain scored his 79th point, breaking his own record and sending the crowd into a frenzy. The 4,124 spectators screamed "Give it to Wilt! Give it to Wilt!" The Warriors suddenly sensed that they could write basketball history, and fed Chamberlain the ball at every attack. Warrior Al Attles
Al Attles
Alvin A. "Al" Attles Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player and coach. He is a graduate of Weequahic High School in Newark and North Carolina A&T State University...
later explained: "We wanted that Wilt got the record, because we all liked him." Attles himself led by example, passing up on an easy layup so that Chamberlain could score points 88 and 89, five minutes before the end. In addition, Warriors guard Guy Rodgers
Guy Rodgers
Guy William Rodgers was an American professional basketball player born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He spent twelve years in the NBA, and was one of the league's best playmakers in the early to mid 1960s...
would end the game with 20 assists.
Frantic last minutes
However, according to all eyewitnesses, the game became a farce. Fearing the humiliation of allowing Chamberlain to score 100 points against them, the Knicks blindly fouled any Warrior except Chamberlain, to force them to hit free throws and keep the ball out of the center's hands. Effectively, they played the opposite of what a normal club would do if they faced a deficit, willingly giving up many easy points instead of making attempts to rally back. Warriors coach Frank McGuireFrank McGuire
Frank Joseph McGuire was an American athletic coach who gained his greatest renown in collegiate basketball....
reacted by pulling out his entire starting five, save Chamberlain, (i.e. forwards Tom Meschery
Tom Meschery
Thomas Nicholas "Tom" Meschery is a Russian American former professional basketball player. He was a power forward with a 10 year National Basketball Association career from 1961 to 1971. He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors and the Seattle SuperSonics...
, Al Attles
Al Attles
Alvin A. "Al" Attles Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player and coach. He is a graduate of Weequahic High School in Newark and North Carolina A&T State University...
and guards Guy Rodgers
Guy Rodgers
Guy William Rodgers was an American professional basketball player born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He spent twelve years in the NBA, and was one of the league's best playmakers in the early to mid 1960s...
and Paul Arizin) and sent in bench players Joe Ruklick
Joe Ruklick
Joseph "Joe" Ruklick is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA. The 6'9", 220 lb, center-forward is an alumnus of Princeton High School and Northwestern University....
, York Larese
York Larese
York Bruno Larese is a retired American basketball player and coach. In his childhood, he attended St. Ann's academy in Queens....
, Ed Conlin and Ted Luckenbill
Ted Luckenbill
Theodore "Ted" Luckenbill is an American former professional basketball player. He spent two seasons in the NBA....
. The intention was to foul the Knicks, in order to get the ball back after free throws and give Chamberlain the ball. Thus each team spent the last minutes fouling each other.
Opinions were split on this matter. Warriors forward Tom Meschery
Tom Meschery
Thomas Nicholas "Tom" Meschery is a Russian American former professional basketball player. He was a power forward with a 10 year National Basketball Association career from 1961 to 1971. He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors and the Seattle SuperSonics...
said: "The rival [New York] was not going to become a part of the history. During the last minutes the coach told them to foul anyone with the ball – anyone but Chamberlain. So we had to throw-in from the side line across the floor just to pass the ball to him." However, Knicks player Richie Guerin
Richie Guerin
Richard Vincent "Richie" Guerin is a retired American professional basketball player and coach. The 6'4" Guerin played with the National Basketball Association's New York Knicks from 1956 to 1963 and was a player-coach of the St...
, who scored 39 points, put the blame on the Warriors and complained: "The Warriors used any means [i.e., fouling tactics] to get the ball to Chamberlain. This had nothing to do with basketball anymore." In any case, the Warriors ended with 25 personal fouls, and the Knicks with 32, and lost Imhoff and Willie Naulls
Willie Naulls
William Dean "Willie" Naulls is a retired American basketball player. A 6'6" power forward/center, he played professionally in the National Basketball Association from 1956 to 1966....
with six fouls.
Chamberlain later admitted feeling embarrassment about the manner in which the game's final minutes were played. He did not address the question of the two teams' fouling tactics, but he acknowledged that he shot the ball excessively in his attempt to reach 100 points, putting up many shots that he otherwise would not have taken. He noted that in contests which he considered to be his best games, his statistics would typically reflect 50 to 60 points scored on perhaps 75 percent shooting, as opposed to his 57 percent shooting in the 100-point game. Although effusive in his praise of Chamberlain, Guerin nonetheless estimated that if the game had played out normally, Chamberlain would have finished 15 to 20 points shy of 100.
With 2:45 left, Chamberlain had 94 points, and after scoring on a jump shot and a layup, he stood at 98 with less than a minute to play. Facing a quintuple-team by the entire Knicks team, Chamberlain trotted into the low post. At the next play, Ruklick passed to Guy Rodgers, who passed to Chamberlain close to the basket. After missing his first shot, Luckenbill rebounded and passed to Chamberlain, but he missed again. Luckenbill again rebounded and this time passed to Ruklick: instead of going for an easy layup, he immediately lobbed a high pass to Chamberlain. With 46 seconds left, Chamberlain got free from the five Knicks, jumped high and put the ball into the basket to hit the century mark. Eyewitness accounts of the historic basket differ as to whether Chamberlain merely laid the ball in or actually stuffed the ball through the hoop for an alley-oop slam dunk
Slam dunk
A slam dunk is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air and manually powers the ball downward through the basket with one or both hands over the rim. This is considered a normal field goal attempt; if successful it is worth two points. The term "slam dunk" was...
. In any event, the arena exploded in a frenzy and over 200 spectators stormed the floor, wanting to touch the hero of the night. Ruklick immediately ran to the scorer's table to ensure that he was officially credited with the assist.
Ending
Some accounts of the game have asserted that after Chamberlain's 100th point, the contest was never resumed to play out the final 46 seconds remaining on the clock; Chamberlain himself was quoted as having made that claim. However, there is considerable evidence to the contrary. Although no film footage exists of the game, the surviving WCAU radio broadcast includes announcer Bill CampbellBill Campbell (sportscaster)
Bill Campbell is a longtime sportscaster in the Philadelphia area.Campbell began his broadcasting career at the age of 17 at a radio station in his hometown of Atlantic City. He moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1941 as a minor league baseball announcer, and then settled in Philadelphia in...
resuming his play-by-play call after Chamberlain's 100th point and calling the game to its conclusion. German sports journalist Gunter Bork specified that the interruption resulting from Chamberlain's 100th point lasted for nine minutes, after which play continued. The game's official box score notes that Warrior Joe Ruklick
Joe Ruklick
Joseph "Joe" Ruklick is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA. The 6'9", 220 lb, center-forward is an alumnus of Princeton High School and Northwestern University....
missed two free throws after the break.
Over the years, Harvey Pollack
Harvey Pollack
Herbert Harvey Pollack is the director of statistical information for the Philadelphia 76ers. He holds the distinction of being the only individual still working for the NBA since its inaugural 1946-47 season...
, who at the time was in charge of both publicity and statistics for the Warriors, has given conflicting statements on the question. In a 1992 book, he was twice quoted as saying that the game ended with 46 seconds remaining. But in a 2002 interview which was referenced by Chamberlain biographer Robert Cherry, Pollack said that the last 46 seconds were played, and that Chamberlain just stood in the middle circle, waiting for the game to end and not wanting to touch the ball, as "100 sounded better than 102".
Final score
At the end, the Warriors defeated the Knicks 169–147. Chamberlain made 36 of 63 field-goals and 28 of 32 free-throws, the latter a far better rate than his roughly 50% career average. He had no three-point field goalThree-point field goal
A three-point field goal is a field goal in a basketball game, made from beyond the three-point line, a designated arc radiating from the basket...
s (The NBA didn't start recording them until the 1979-80 season). Chamberlain set the NBA records for field goals attempted (63) and made (36), free throws made (28), most points in a quarter (31), and half (59). David Thompson first broke the points in a quarter record by scoring 32 points in the first quarter of his 73-point game. However, George Gervin
George Gervin
George "The Iceman" Gervin is a retired American professional basketball player who played in both the American Basketball Association and National Basketball Association for the Virginia Squires, San Antonio Spurs, and Chicago Bulls...
broke that record 7 hours later by scoring 33 points in a quarter. Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Kiyan Anthony , nicknamed "Melo", is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the New York Knicks in the National Basketball Association...
has also scored 33 points in a quarter. Adrian Dantley
Adrian Dantley
Adrian Delano Dantley is a retired American basketball player who played 15 seasons in the NBA, including seven as a member of the Utah Jazz. A forward/guard and six-time NBA All-Star, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008...
tied the record of 28 free throws made in a regular-season game on January 4, 1984, but as of 2011, all the other records still stand.
Overlooked in the wake of Chamberlain's performance were the feats of Guy Rodgers
Guy Rodgers
Guy William Rodgers was an American professional basketball player born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He spent twelve years in the NBA, and was one of the league's best playmakers in the early to mid 1960s...
and Al Attles
Al Attles
Alvin A. "Al" Attles Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player and coach. He is a graduate of Weequahic High School in Newark and North Carolina A&T State University...
. Rodgers finished with a game-high 20 assists and later said: "It was the easiest game ever for me to get assists, all I had to do was pass it to Wilt." Attles was a defensive specialist who rarely scored, yet went 8-8 from the field and hit his single free throw. He later lamented, "In the game where I literally couldn't miss, Wilt had to go out and score 100."
The record of 316 combined points was broken 20 years later when the San Antonio Spurs
San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio, Texas. They are part of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association ....
defeated the Milwaukee Bucks
Milwaukee Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks are a professional basketball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. They are part of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1968 as an expansion team, and currently plays at the Bradley Center....
171-166 (3 OT) on March 6, 1982, for a total of 337 points. This record was broken much more quickly as the Detroit Pistons
Detroit Pistons
The Detroit Pistons are a franchise of the National Basketball Association based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The team's home arena is The Palace of Auburn Hills. It was originally founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as the Fort Wayne Pistons as a member of the National Basketball League in 1941, where...
defeated the Denver Nuggets
Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets are a professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado. They play in the National Basketball Association . They were founded as the Denver Rockets in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association, and became one of that league's more successful teams...
186-184 (3 OT) on December 13, 1983, for a total of 370 points.
The following night, Chamberlain got permission to travel back to New York with three Knicks players. According to Cherry, Chamberlain drifted in and out of sleep and got a kick overhearing the NY players talk about the "S.O.B. who scored 100 points on us". Another night later, the Warriors and the Knicks squared off again in Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
. This time, Imhoff played all 48 minutes and got a standing ovation for holding Chamberlain to 54 points.
Box score
Philadelphia Warriors| Player | Pos | Min | FGM | FGA | FTM | FTA | Reb | Ast | PF | Pts |
| SF | 31 | 7 | 18 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 16 | |
| PF Power forward (basketball) Power forward is a position in the sport of basketball. The position is referred to in playbook terms as the four position and is commonly abbreviated "PF". It has also been referred to as the "post" position. Power forwards play a role similar to that of center in what is called the "post" or "low... |
40 | 7 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 16 | |
| C Center (basketball) The center, colloquially known as the five or the post, is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. The center is normally the tallest player on the team, and often has a great deal of strength and body mass as well... |
48 | 36 | 63 | 28 | 32 | 25 | 2 | 2 | 100 | |
| PG | 48 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 7 | 20 | 5 | 11 | |
| SG | 34 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 17 | |
| SG | 14 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 9 | |
| F | 14 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| F | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| F | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Team rebounds | 3 | |||||||||
| Team totals | 240 | 63 | 115 | 43 | 52 | 60 | 39 | 25 | 169 | |
New York Knicks
| Player | Pos | Min | FGM | FGA | FTM | FTA | Reb | Ast | PF | Pts |
| PF Power forward (basketball) Power forward is a position in the sport of basketball. The position is referred to in playbook terms as the four position and is commonly abbreviated "PF". It has also been referred to as the "post" position. Power forwards play a role similar to that of center in what is called the "post" or "low... |
43 | 9 | 22 | 13 | 15 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 31 | |
| SF | 21 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 6 | |
| C Center (basketball) The center, colloquially known as the five or the post, is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. The center is normally the tallest player on the team, and often has a great deal of strength and body mass as well... |
20 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 7 | |
| SG | 46 | 13 | 29 | 13 | 17 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 39 | |
| PG | 32 | 4 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 8 | |
| SF | 33 | 16 | 26 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 33 | |
| C | 27 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 13 | |
| PG | 18 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 10 | |
| Team rebounds | 4 | |||||||||
| Team totals | 240 | 57 | 118 | 33 | 41 | 60 | 17 | 32 | 147 | |
Wilt Chamberlain's statistics by quarter
| Quarter | Min | FGM | FGA | FTM | FTA | Reb | Ast | PF | Pts |
| 1st | 12 | 7 | 14 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 23 |
| 2nd | 12 | 7 | 12 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 18 |
| 3rd | 12 | 10 | 16 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 28 |
| 4th | 12 | 12 | 21 | 7 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 31 |
Legacy
There was initially little excitement about Chamberlain's 100-point game. Cherry reports that the newspapers did note his 100-point outburst, but it rarely made the headlines: in his prime, Chamberlain was such a dominant scorer that his feat was mostly taken for granted. Warriors player Al Attles said that after Chamberlain's previous record 78-point game, "it was only a matter of time until he reached 100, you could wait for it." Warriors coach Frank McGuire initially thought the same thing, then said: "I always thought it was inevitable that he would do it. But when he did, I stopped and thought about it. I couldn't believe it."In time, the game became legendary. Although Chamberlain won two NBA championships and was the NBA's all-time leading scorer and rebounder when he retired, he was mostly remembered as the man who had single-handedly scored 100 points in a game. The Warriors' PR director Harvey Pollack
Harvey Pollack
Herbert Harvey Pollack is the director of statistical information for the Philadelphia 76ers. He holds the distinction of being the only individual still working for the NBA since its inaugural 1946-47 season...
said an impossible 40,000 people claimed to have seen the game, and some even testified it took place in Madison Square Garden. Chamberlain later stated it was one of his favorite games, but not the favorite: that title belonged to the match in which he grabbed an NBA record 55 rebounds against perennial rival Bill Russell
Bill Russell
William Felton "Bill" Russell is a retired American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association...
.
Two other participants were profoundly affected. Firstly, Knicks center Darrall Imhoff
Darrall Imhoff
Darrall Tucker Imhoff is an American former professional basketball player. He spent twelve seasons in the NBA , playing for half a dozen teams...
was branded as the player who let Chamberlain score 100 on him, although he only played 20 minutes and fouled out in the fourth quarter. On the other hand, the game immortalized little-used Warriors reserve player Joe Ruklick
Joe Ruklick
Joseph "Joe" Ruklick is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA. The 6'9", 220 lb, center-forward is an alumnus of Princeton High School and Northwestern University....
as the man who gave Chamberlain the 100-point assist. Decades later, the New York Times interviewed Ruklick, and found out that he refers to himself as "a walking footnote" of one of basketball's greatest moments. Also, the game produced the famous picture of Chamberlain sitting on a bench, holding up a paper with a scribbled "100". It was a matter of improvisation: when Warriors PR manager Harvey Pollack entered the Warriors locker, he took a paper and scribbled the number on it, and an Associated Press photographer who was there at the game (not for professional reasons, but rather because he wanted to give his son a treat) took the photo. Cherry calls it the "ultimate picture" of Wilt Chamberlain.
The closest any NBA player has gotten to Wilt's total is 81. Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bean Bryant is an American professional basketball player who plays shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . Bryant enjoyed a successful high school basketball career at Lower Merion High School, where he was recognized as the top high school...
hit that mark against the Toronto Raptors on January 22, 2006.
See also
- List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game
- List of basketball players who have scored 100 points in a single game