Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point Game - Legacy

Legacy

The anniversary of the game was not widely commemorated until its silver anniversary in 1987. By that time, the NBA had grown to be a major league sport with average attendance of 13,000 fans per game and star players like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan. The Warriors' PR director Harvey Pollack said an impossible 40,000 people claimed to have seen the game, and some even testified it took place in Madison Square Garden. Chamberlain later stated it was one of his favorite games, but not the favorite: that title belonged to the match in which he grabbed an NBA record 55 rebounds against perennial rival Bill Russell. He did not want to feed the criticism that he was more interested in personal stardom than winning. Although Chamberlain won two NBA championships and was the NBA's all-time leading scorer and rebounder when he retired, he was mostly remembered as the man who had single-handedly scored 100 points in a game. Chamberlain publicly embraced the 100-point game in his final years. On a radio show commemorating the game's 31st anniversary in 1993, he said, "As time goes by, I feel more a part of that 100-point game." He explained that growing up on the streets, he would have been derisively labelled a gunner, a glory-hound, for attempting 63 shots. "You take that many shots on the playground, and no one ever wants you on their team again." He said he took shots he normally would not, noting that in contests which he considered to be better he scored 50 to 60 points on around 75 percent shooting, as opposed to his 57 percent shooting in the 100-point game. He was proud that people who knew nothing about basketball would point out the game to their kids when they saw him. "I know that it has been my tag. I am definitely proud of it. But it was definitely a team effort. You had to see some of the things my teammates did to get me the ball ... It was almost like a circus out there for a while."

Two other participants were profoundly affected. Firstly, Knicks center Darrall Imhoff was branded as the player who let Chamberlain score 100 on him, although he only played 20 of 48 minutes and was not on the court when it happened. On the other hand, the game immortalized little-used Warriors reserve player Joe Ruklick as the man who gave Chamberlain the 100-point assist. Decades later, The New York Times interviewed Ruklick and found out that he refers to himself as "a walking footnote" of one of basketball's greatest moments. The game also produced the famous picture of Chamberlain sitting on a bench, holding up a paper with a scribbled "100." The photograph was actually a matter of improvisation: when Warriors PR manager Harvey Pollack entered the Warriors locker room, he took a paper and scribbled the number on it, and Associated Press photographer Paul Vathis who was there at the game (not for professional reasons, but rather because he wanted to give his son a treat) took the now-famous photo. Cherry calls it the "ultimate picture" of Wilt Chamberlain.

Chamberlain's 100 points is widely considered one of basketball's greatest records. Decades after his record, many NBA teams did not even average 100 points as fewer field goals per game were being attempted. The closest any player has gotten to 100 points was the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant, who scored 81 in a 122–104 win over the Toronto Raptors on January 22, 2006. Bryant afterwards said Chamberlain's record was "unthinkable ... It's pretty exhausting to think about it." David Thompson broke Chamberlain's record for points in a quarter by scoring 32 in the first quarter of his 73-point game. Adrian Dantley tied the record of 28 free throws made in a regular season game on January 4, 1984, but through 2010–11 season, all of Chamberlain's other records set that day still stand. Twenty years after the Warriors and Knicks combined for 316 points, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 171–166 in triple overtime on March 6, 1982, for a total of 337 points. That record was broken quicker as the Detroit Pistons defeated the Denver Nuggets 186–184 (also in triple overtime) on December 13, 1983, for 370 points.

Pomerantz wrote that the lack of videotape of the 100-point game "only added to its mystique." For a while, NBA Commissioner David Stern's office phone would play Campbell's call of the 100-point basket to callers on hold: "He made it! He made it! He made it! A Dipper Dunk!" Kerry Ryman, who was 14 years old when he attended the game, claimed to have left the arena with the basketball that Chamberlain used to score his famous basket. The ball was auctioned by Leland's Auction in 2000 for $551,844, which was the then-third highest sports memorabilia auction price. After controversy over the ball's authenticity, the sale was suspended. The ball was relisted months later and sold for only $67,791. Attles contends that Chamberlain gave him the actual 100-point ball.

In 1961–62, the NBA's three highest scoring averages were by black players (Chamberlain, Baylor, Walt Bellamy). Oscar Robertson, a Hall of Famer, believes the NBA would have lost its small television contract and not survived without the emergence of black superstars. "People heard about Wilt scoring a 100, averaging 50 a night, and they wanted to see the guy do it ... I believe Wilt Chamberlain single-handedly saved the league." Naulls wrote, "Wilt had rung the bell of freedom loud and clear, shouting, 'Let my people be free to express themselves.' For we were and will be for all time those who withstood the humiliation of racial quotas even to the point of the NBA's facing extinction because of retarded expression and stagnating growth."