Dominance Personified

                  Philadelphia 169, New York 147, Wilt Chamberlain 100

On March 2, 1962 the NBA's Philadelphia Warriors were scheduled to play the New York Knicks in a neutral court game at Hershey, Pennsylvania. 25-year old Wilt Chamberlain, the Warriors' 3rd-year, 7'1" 255 lb. center, had led the league in scoring his first two seasons with record-shattering averages of 37.6 and 38.4 points a game. Coming into this game his average was an other-worldly 49.4, so a 50-point game would have been a casual night for him. In fact, just five days earlier Chamberlain torched the Knicks for 67. But never in all of professional team sports history has one player so completely dominated a game the way The Big Dipper would this evening.  

Philadelphia tore out to a 19-3 lead. Chamberlain, who was a poor free throw shooter, nevertheless shot 9-9 from the line and scored 23 points as the Warriors led 42-26 after one. In the second period the Knicks started chipping away and trailed by 11 at the half. But they had absolutely no answer for Chamberlain, who scored 18 in the second quarter for total of 41 points. The 4,124 fans in attendance were buzzing about Chamberlain's first half performance, hoping to see a new scoring record. They would get a hell of a lot more than they bargained for.

During the third quarter the crowd cheered Wilt's every move. New York double and triple-teamed him but Chamberlain was unstoppable. Philadelphia led 125-106 after three and Wilt had amassed 69 points. However, the best was still yet to come.

In the final quarter, Chamberlain unleashed his full offensive power. Scoring practically at will, he broke his own NBA record of 73 points in a regulation-game and with 7:51 remaining, he hit a fade-a-way from the foul line for his 79th point, surpassing the mark he set in a triple-overtime game two months earlier. Fans started ringing the court, chanting, "Give it to Wilt! Give it to Wilt!" With the game's outcome no longer in doubt, the Knicks started fouling everyone but Chamberlain in an attempt to keep him from adding to their humiliation. The Warriors retaliated by fouling immediately, getting the ball back and feeding it to Chamberlain as fast as possible.

When he passed 90, fans were shouting for Wilt to score and booed anyone else who took a shot. With 46 seconds remaining, he had 98 points and Philadelphia had the ball. There was nothing the Knicks could do as Chamberlain got the ball underneath the basket and slammed it home for his 99th and 100th points of the game. When the final buzzer sounded the fans mobbed Chamberlain as police wedged a path for him to the locker room while basketball fans everywhere anxiously awaited to see the details of the amazing 169-147 final score.

Afterwards he said, "I wasn't even thinking of hitting 100, but after putting in nine straight free throws, I was thinking about a foul-shooting record. It was my greatest game." He also gave credit to his teammates. "It would have been impossible to score this many if they hadn't kept feeding me."

Chamberlain set just about every scoring record imaginable in this game. Among them (a few since surpassed) were: most field goals (36), shots (63), free throws (28), free throw attempts (32), most points in one quarter (31), one half (59), and, of course, 100 points in a game. One hundred points. Nobody, not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (55), Shaquille O'Neal (61), Michael Jordan (69) or Kobe Bryant (81) came close. 

It looks even more surreal in the newspaper box score.