Wilt Chamberlain Scores 100: The Unbreakable Record

No official film footage exists of the greatest individual performance in basketball history. Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962, in a half-empty arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and the only visual record is a single photograph of him holding a piece of paper with "100" scrawled on it in the locker room afterward. The game was played at the Hershey Sports Arena, 90 miles from Philadelphia, as part of a series of "neutral site" games the Warriors scheduled to boost ticket sales in smaller markets. Only 4,124 fans attended. The Knicks were missing their starting center, Phil Jordan, and his backup was ineffective against the 7-foot-1 Chamberlain, who had been on a historic scoring tear all season. He was averaging 50.4 points per game entering the night. Chamberlain scored 23 points in the first quarter and 41 by halftime. The third quarter pushed him to 69, and the crowd began counting each basket aloud. Warriors teammates abandoned their normal offense and fed Chamberlain relentlessly, while the Knicks resorted to fouling other players to keep the ball away from him. Chamberlain, a notoriously poor free throw shooter who made only 51 percent that season, went 28-for-32 from the line. He hit the century mark with 46 seconds remaining on a short shot from close range. Fans swarmed the court, and officials needed several minutes to clear the floor for the final seconds. The Warriors won 169-147, a combined score that also set a record. Chamberlain finished with 36 field goals on 63 attempts. No NBA player has come within 19 points of the record since. Kobe Bryant's 81 in 2006 is the closest anyone has reached, and the consensus among basketball analysts is that 100 will never be matched.