El March 2, 1962on this day 60 years ago, the city of Philadelphia woke up completely normal. The cold, typical of the winter season, left a snapshot of the streets covered by a thin layer of ice. It was Friday and while the families were preparing to start the working day to the rhythm of Bruce Channel and his ‘Hey! Baby’, they were planning their trip to the theaters at the same time to see ‘The Premature Burial’, which was number 1 on the billboards.
That night they played Philadelphia Warriors, as the team was called in its beginnings in the NBA. It did not matter. Neither the situation of the team, already classified for the ‘playoffs’, nor the rival, the New York Knicks, were enough claim for a public that preferred to spend their time in other activities. Unaware of what was about to happen, the inhabitants of the city of brotherly love preferred to occupy their time with other activities.
Only 4,124 braves, defying the cold, crossed that afternoon Chocolate Avenue to get closer to Hersheypark Arena. A replacement pavilion for the Warriors. Much of the press did not even send their reporters there. It was an unimportant game and they asked Harvey Pollack, in charge of taking note of the statistics of the matches of the Philadelphians, who after the end of the clash told them what had happened there. A mistake that would never be forgiven, after missing one of the greatest feats in the world of sport.
The old parquet boards creak under the feet of a giant who that night acquired mammoth dimensions. Especially for his rivals. Wilt Chamberlain, the NBA record man par excellence, arrived at his pavilion, relaxed and after beating his teammates in some games of pinball, a single idea began to cross his mind: score and keep his 50 points… on average! In the season. He had already been able to score over 70 points in various games of his career and Elgin Baylor I prophesied that this man would be able to reach 100. But no one thought it would happen that night.
The Warriors began the match as usual, with Chamberlain scoring 13 of his team’s first 19 points. The Philadelphia giant soon became an unstoppable force of nature for the Knicks. The New York technician had prepared a special plan to stop Chamberlain and put a real bloodhound as Darral Imhoff before the injury of his starting pvot.
Chamberlain made the first five shots he attempted. Something special was about to happen. The pvot finished the first quarter with 23 points and having scored all nine free throws attempted. However, Wilt walked towards the bench in a huff. He had smelled blood and wanted more.
The second quarter started the same way. With Chamberlain unstoppable and the Knicks desperate to stop what was falling on them. The New York coach changed the way of defending the rival center and gave freedom to his men to use all kinds of tricks in order to get Chamberlain out of the game. The goal was to get the giant to the free throw line. Big mistake. Chamberlain had trained that side of the game to be one of his deadliest weapons.
“Pasdsela a Wilt”
Break came. Chamberlain headed for the locker room with complete normality despite the 41 points that he already had in his bag. “I used to come into the locker room with 30 or 35 points, so 41 wasn’t a big deal either,” the legend later noted.
However, his own teammates sensed that this was the beginning of one of the most epic pages of sport. Guy RodgersWarriors player, entered the locker room and shouted: “Pass it to Wilt, let’s see how many points he can score”. The entire locker room turned to Chamberlain, then looked at the coach. They both nodded and agreed to the new ‘tactic’.
This plan was unstoppable for the Knicks. Barely a minute had passed when Chamberlain had already surpassed 50 points. Dave Zinkoff, the ‘speaker’ of the pavilion, began to encourage a lethargic grandstand and accustomed to the exhibitions of his particular Goliath. Not even the triple and quadruple defenses put up by the Knicks were able to stop Chamberlain. It was the end of the third quarter and he already had 69 points.
I was just nine away from breaking his own record (78). Two minutes and nine seconds into the last quarter, the old record was already history thanks to a free kick. At that moment, Zinkoff began to shout the new mark that Chamberlain was getting with each basket he scored.
The Knicks changed tactics seeing that the Warriors’ only goal was to get the ball to Wilt. The team of the Big Apple began to slow down the rest of Chamberlain’s teammates and as soon as they had the slightest opportunity they fouled them. All in order to prevent the ball from reaching Chamberlain. Something that, tonight, was inevitable.
“I could have reached 140 points”
Chamberlain, after taking a little respite, took back the scoring reins of his team. Two and a half minutes were missing and he had 92 points. There were eight left for the hundred. On the next possession, Chamberlain hit a shot to the board and immediately after a layup. There was just over a minute and a half left to play and Chamberlain he left the record in 98 when he caught an ‘alley oop’ launched by York Laerse. Delirium seized everyone. Even from Chamberlain.
The pvot’s voracity made him blind to the basket without noticing that he had time. Chamberlain missed his next three shots and it seemed the hundredth chance was gone. Nothing is further from reality. With 46 seconds remaining Wilt rose near the rim and after throwing the ball against the backboard, the orange sphere entered the net. I had made it.
Chamberlain had just scored his 100th point. An unparalleled figure that caused the madness of the few fans present there. As soon as the ball crossed the hoop there was an invasion of the field by the public. Everyone wanted to touch the giant, check that this superhero was flesh and blood. The game had to stop for almost 10 minutes until the field was cleared to play the remaining 46 seconds to play.
Chamberlain did not return to the court. The feat well deserved a break. He had just broken all records. He had scored 100 points. The perfect match. He had achieved it after scoring 36 of 63 field goals and a total of 28 of 32 free throws.
An unparalleled exhibition to which Chamberlain himself did not give credit. Because he was insatiable. He always wanted more. In fact, he shrugged it off because he was sure he could have gotten as far as… 140 points! And so he affirmed without blushing after the shock. “If I had just been into basketball and not gone out the night before, I would have made it to 140. It wasn’t that amazing.”concluded a giant that that night achieved a feat that, until now, no one has been able to match.
