On March 2, 1962, the Philadelphia Warriors defeated the New York Knicks by a score of 169-147. This was a usual game, besides the fact that Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points. Nothing crazy, just a casual 100-point game. Chamberlain shot 36/63 from the field and 28-32 from the free-throw line.
Chamberlain’s 100-point game still stands as the NBA record to this day, 17 more points than the second-highest scoring individual game in NBA history (83 Points- Bam Adebayo). This is easily the most controversial individual performance in NBA history, while many people don’t believe Chamberlain actually scored 100 points. Let’s take a look at both sides of the argument and figure out what really happened.
“Yes, It Happened.”
The majority of NBA fans around the world believe that Wilt’s 100-point game definitely happened. No opposing player or teammate of Wilt has publicly come out and opposed the 100-point game, and out of the many fans that were present at that game, we have yet to hear a true account disproving Wilt’s game.
Another proving point is that Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points per game and 25.7 rebounds per game that season. Those numbers are absolutely insane. No player has even gotten close to that, except for Wilt Chamberlain the next season with 44.8 points per game. It’s fair to say that Chamberlain was a “cheat code”, being 7’1, 275 with elite athleticism. He was completely unfair, and yet he didn’t win MVP while averaging 50 points. Bill Russell took that award.
Why would the NBA fake this? And how? This would’ve taken every fan in the arena to agree to lie about the game. We know how humans are; they can’t keep secrets. It’s very unlikely that this game was staged.
While we have never seen video from the game, we have heard the radio coverage of the game. The NBA was a smaller league in 1962 than it is now. Many games back then were not recorded, and this was one of them. The Warriors were a top team in the league, but the Knicks were one of the worst teams in the league. And this game was played in a hockey arena 95 miles from Philadelphia. Not many people were excited for this game.
Writer Gary M. Pomerantz, the author of “Wilt, 1962: The Night of 100 Points and the Dawn of a New Era”, interviewed 56 eyewitnesses, including 15 players, a referee, an equipment manager, and even a local kid who swiped the game ball. He said, “There’s not a whisper of doubt in their recollections.”
That’s a ton of evidence. Now let’s look at the other side of the argument.
“It Didn’t Happen”
A lot of NBA fans have been talking about Wilt Chamberlain’s “100 Point Game” lately, and they have a ton of interesting arguments against it. Here are a few.
The main argument against Chamberlain is that there is zero video of the game. They didn’t even have one second of action filmed. It’s not like they didn’t have cameras back then. NBA games were regularly being filmed at that time. It’s awfully suspicious that the NBA chose not to film a game with someone who was averaging around 50 points a game.
Another argument is based on Chamberlain’s free-throw shooting. Chamberlain scored 28 of his 100 points from the free-throw line. That might not mean much to the average fan, but what if you knew that Chamberlain was a career 51.1% free-throw shooter, one of the worst in NBA history? Fans have argued that there was no way Chamberlain went 28-32 from the line that game.
The NBA was struggling to bring in viewers during this time, and what would be a better way to attract people to games than someone scoring 100 points? Fans flocked to see Chamberlain play in the following months and years due to his crazy game. If this game was truly rigged or faked, the NBA accomplished exactly what they wanted to. It’s still being talked about to this day.
People love to make up theories about everything, but they might be right about this one.
“My Argument”
I used to believe that this game was faked or rigged, but I don’t believe that anymore. Chamberlain averaged 50 points a game in 1962, and he scored 70+ points six times in his career. To me, it’s not unlikely that Chamberlain would score 100 points in a single game one time. He was playing against plumbers and mailmen; I probably would’ve been in the NBA back then.
So yes, I believe that Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single game. But we may never really figure it out; only time will tell.
