Well, here’s another edition of our weekly historic box scores selection. This week, we feature none other than Lakers great Wilt Chamberlain and his 100-point game.
Wilt was actually with the Philadelphia Warriors when it happened back on March 2, 1962.
A few weeks ago, we featured Kobe Bryant’s 81-point performances–the second highest point total in NBA history–so it’s only fitting that we also featured the highest points total by any single player, ever.
Chamberlain was in just his third season at the time and was averaging a whopping 50.4 points per game!
—- Check out this wallpaper featuring the legends of Lakers basketball! —-
With just 4,124 fans in attendance at the Hershey Sports Arena in Pennsylvania, Wilt scored 41 points in the first half as the Warriors led the New York Knicks, 79-68. Forty-one points was actually nothing spectacular for Wilt, and as he put it, “I often came into the locker room with 30 or 35 points, therefore, 41 points was not a big deal.”
With just eight minutes remaining in the game, Wilt was 25 points shy of the 100-point mark.
After he hit 80, the crowd chanted for him to reach 100. “Man, these people are tough. I’m tired. I’ve got 80 points and no one has ever scored 80,” Chamberlain recalled.
Wilt certainly obliged, and his teammates kept feeding him the ball in hopes to get him past the century mark.
Finally, with 46 seconds left to play, ‘The Big Dipper’ dropped in points 99 and 100.
The rest is history.