#该系列文章涉及的球员排名是由The Athletic Media, there are discrepancies with the NBA and ESPN rankings.
Author | David Aldridge
Translate | Clarkson
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Four thousand, one hundred, twenty-four.
Of the countless numbers associated with Chamberlain's incredible 63 years of life, 4124 is one of the most important.
According to records, this is the total number of people who watched the game at Hershey Stadium in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on March 2, 1962.
The game that night was oxlade-chamberlain's Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks.
Considering that the NBA was only in its infancy at the time, the number of people present was probably even smaller than those recorded.
The match was not televised, only WCAU's Bill Campbell's radio commentary has been preserved to this day.
Even this game was not visited by reporters from the New York Knicks.
The heat of the game is not high, after all, at that time, NBA teams will hold games in nearby towns, attracting more fans while expanding their popularity.
Two hours later, Chamberlain completed the milestone that best defined his life's achievements.
He became the first and only player in NBA history to score 100 points in a single game.
The game ended almost as a farce, with both teams constantly fouling each other.
The Warriors took back the ball from the Knicks, giving Chamberlain more scoring opportunities.
The Knicks, on the other hand, did everything they could to keep the Warriors from getting the ball.
It was all forgotten because in that distant era the audience was small and no video was left behind.
The game, like most of Chamberlain's life, became a legendary story.
Chamberlain was so talented that there are too many unsolved mysteries about his legend.
Was the NCAA because Chamberlain banned dunks on free throws?
Did he win the assists in the 1967-68 season to fight back against accusations that he was "too independent"?
Did he really have sex with 20,000 women, as he claimed in his autobiography?
There is no doubt that Chamberlain is ranked sixth in the NBA's 75 biggest stars.
He is a special player with a distinctive influence.
No player has been able to run and move as quickly as he does, with a height of 7 feet 1 inch (about 2.15 meters) and a weight of 275 pounds (about 240 pounds).
Chamberlain is an all-around athlete who not only plays basketball, but also wins the indoor and outdoor high jump championships.
Chamberlain's career stats of 23,924 rebounds are the highest in NBA history.
He grabbed 55 rebounds in a single game against the Celtics in November 1960, and is still the league's single-game rebounding record today.
Incredibly, in 1205 regular season and playoff games in his 14-year career, Chamberlain has never left the field.
His 31,497 points are seventh in league history, but he was number one of all players before the three-pointer came along. (Abdul-Abdul-Abdul-
Chamberlain has won 11 league rebounding titles, seven league scoring champions, four MVP and seven season one-time titles.
He was also the only player in league history to average more than 50 points per game in a single season (1961-62).
That season, he was also the league's rebounding champion, averaging 25.7 rebounds per game.
Also that season, Chamberlain missed only one game, playing every minute of all the remaining games, and even a few extra time, averaging 48.5 minutes per game.
His decade-long showdown with Bill Russell was the main reason people in the '60s became interested in the NBA.
The two teams have played each other seven times in nine playoffs, but Chamberlain has won only one.
Chamberlain is a mature celebrity, he is amiable and has a very attractive personality.
His every move would have received media attention at the time, for better or worse, as if he were living in the pervasive social media environment he is now.
If Chamberlain were alive in this day and age, millions of people would follow his Instagram account, read his latest tweets, and wait to watch his reality SHOW series.
Old friend of Chamberlain's from Philadelphia, Sunnyhill played chamberlain in church league and high school games, and later Thorny Hill did not enter the professional league, but he founded the Baker League Game (Philadelphia's local summer professional league) and ushered in the earliest era of black commentators as a CBS commentator.
When we asked him "who is the greatest player of all time", he replied to us this way: "If you are not asking me who is the greatest winner of all time, but the greatest player, it must be Chamberlain." ”
This man once owned more than 100 records in the record book, and to this day he also occupies about 35. There are even some records that it is impossible for anyone to approach or break it. So if you ask me who is the greatest player, then based on these records alone, I would also say Wilt Chamberlain. ”
Chamberlain famously said, "No one loves Goliath." "This is true, but people will not hate him.
For those who know his heart and know how incredible he is, there is more awe.
Let's take a look at Chamberlain's career statistics:
The numbers seem so unreal that no player in the history of basketball has ever had a similar statistic.
In the 1969-70 season, after a decade of bitter battles with Russell, Chamberlain was 33 years old.
He played for the Lakers that season, but only played 12 games due to a knee injury.
In those 12 games, Chamberlain averaged 27.3 points and 18.4 rebounds per game, the first time he did not enter the All-Star season.
In the playoffs that followed, Chamberlain staged the return of the king.
He averaged 27.3 points and 18.4 rebounds per game and led the Lakers to that year's Finals.
If you put this season's stats on other players, even for just one season, it's enough to get him into the Hall of Fame.
But Chamberlain has done this all his career.
'We used to sit in the locker room and talk about how to play against Chamberlain and we all knew we couldn't stop Chamberlain from scoring 50 points. Hall of Fame interior bob Petit, one of the greatest interior players in history, recalled: "All we could do was stop his teammates because Wilt would have at least 50 points and it's been fun to play with him. ”
This was commonplace for Chamberlain, but not common for others.
The Clippers' Harrell, Paul George and Louis Williams scored 30 points simultaneously in the 2020 Clippers' game against the Grizzlies, the fifteenth time in league history that three teammates have scored more than 30 points simultaneously.
And for the first time in history, the Cincinnati Royals' Hall of Fame trio Oscar Robertson, Jack Whiteman and Wien Embrey are here.
But that time the three of them still lost to Philadelphia and to Chamberlain.
Embrey, who now works as an adviser to the Toronto Raptors, recalled the game: "My friends still find it all incredible to this day, after all, the three of us scored 30 points at the same time on Chamberlain's head, although Chamberlain scored 52 points in that game. ”
Chamberlain scored 122 single-game 50-point attempts in his career, including four playoff games.
Sports Illustrated pointed out in a 1980 article that it took the league's other teams 31 years to accumulate 123 games with players with 50 points in a single game, pouring all the league's efforts to "break" Chamberlain's record.
Forty-two years later, Jordan, who scored 50 points in 39 career games, is second in history.
Bryant was third with 26 times and Harden was fourth with 23 times.
What is clear is that no one can easily access Chamberlain's records.
More than two decades after his death from congestive heart failure in 1999, many of his records remain out of reach.
(Bettmann / Getty Images)
Chamberlain's strength was evident early on.
He once had a nickname called "Dippy Chamberlain," and a 1953 news story revealed the reason for that nickname.
When 16-year-old Chamberlain was still in high school, his taller than normal body left him at a friend's house when he hit a water pipe on the ceiling and swollen his eyes.
In February 1955, as a senior in high school, Chamberlain had broken the high school scoring record and led his high school to two championships in three seasons with a record of 56 wins and three losses.
Chamberlain spent the summer before his high school graduation season in Cooteshe, a vacation mecca in New York's Katzgill Mountains.
This resort is not only famous for the many wealthy families who come here for a holiday, but also because it is known nationally for the many top players who participate in the Summer League.
At the time, the head of the Cootsher team was a new coach named Auerbach, who later became the Celtic manager.
"That summer, I played against Tom Guerre, Paul Argin, Guy Rogers and John Johnson," Chamberlain said of basketball writer Terry Pluto in The Legends, which tells his early stories.
"These guys were all college players and professionals who had become famous, but I was just a high school student," Chamberlain recalled, "and they taught me how to play, how to play properly."
I also played against then-Warriors starting center Neil Johnston (a Hall of Famer who has been to the NBA All-Star Team six times). I was able to blow him up in high school, and from that moment on I knew I could play in the NBA. ”
Later, Warriors owner Eddie Gottlieb, after getting Chamberlain, quickly took some steps to let Chamberlain replace Johnston as the starting center.
Territorial draft picks were a special draft rule in the early NBA that allowed NBA teams to use territory draft picks to recruit players from their geographic regional universities.) This is to attract college fans to continue to follow their idols to watch NBA games. ）
In 1955, Gottlieb persuaded other team owners to allow him to use territorial draft picks against Chamberlain.
Since Chamberlain's University of Kansas is not within the immediate geographic confines of any NBA team, Gottlieb believes he deserves Chamberlain's territorial draft pick, who has been playing in Philadelphia since his high school years (the Warriors were in Philadelphia at the time).
In fact, Gottlieb was afraid that Chamberlain's coach at Cootescher Auerbach would bring the genius to a new England university because it would allow the Celtics to use their territorial draft picks.
Fortunately, the NBA eventually approved Gottlieb's application.
According to the NBA rules at the time, Chamberlain needed to graduate from high school for at least four years before he could join the NBA.
But Chamberlain's college trip wasn't perfect, and although he was in the All-American First Team twice, his University of Kansas did not qualify for any honors.
In his fourth year of high school, Chamberlain chose to travel to Harlem for a year of Globetrotters.
Subsequently, Gottlieb used his territorial draft picks, and the Warriors selected Chamberlain with the third pick in the first round in 1959.
In Chamberlain's first NBA game, he faced the Knicks, playing 48 minutes and scoring 43 points and 28 rebounds.
In his rookie season, Chamberlain not only won the All-Star Game MVP, but also became the scoring and rebounding king at the end of the season.
His outstanding performance made Chamberlain the first player in league history to win both MVP and Best Rookie in his rookie season.
In Chamberlain's third NBA season, he completely upended the entire league.
As a rookie, Chamberlain broke Petit's record of 29.2 points per game with an average of 37.6 points per game.
The following season, Chamberlain broke the record again, improving his point average to 38.4 points per game.
Chamberlain has more than a dozen games in which he scored more than 60 points in a single game, and two games that have scored more than 70 points, including 78 points against the Lakers on December 8, which set a single-game scoring record in league history at the time.
Of course, his scoring record against the Knicks is a household name.
In that game, Chamberlain scored 23 points in the first quarter, leading the Warriors to a 16-point lead, and in the first half, Chamberlain scored 41 points.
At the end of the third quarter, Chamberlain scored 69 points.
As the fourth verse begins, the possibility of historical moments begins to emerge.
Chamberlain scored 70 points in this game, and 80 points is not impossible.
So does he still have a chance to get one step closer?
90 points?
The rest of the game became more like a crazy science experiment.
Chamberlain scored his 79th point with a jumper with 7 points and 51 points left in the game, breaking the single-game scoring record he had just set.
Chamberlain then scored two free throws as the first player in NBA history to score 80 points in a single game.
"The Warriors' players fed Chamberlain all night." Sports writer Gary Pomerantz wrote in his book Wilt 1962: The Night of the Percent and the Dawn of a New Age.
Chamberlain knows the resentment between the two teams on and off the pitch, but what he doesn't know is how his teammates will react if he were to score 100 points. Now that he knows, his teammates will fully support him, and he has won the trust of his teammates with his infinite talent. ”
With three minutes left in the game, Chamberlain scored 90 points; with two and a half points left, he scored 92 points on both free throws; then he scored 94 points with a shot on a board; and he scored 96 points in a dunk after a steal.
Towards the end of the game, Philadelphia guard York Larezer hoisted the ball into the box and Chamberlain received the ball and scored his 98th point with a powerful dunk.
With one minute left in the game, Chamberlain scored his 98 points! In a professional basketball game! Campbell shouted into his microphone: "Even if you hit a schoolboy, it's a high score isn't it?" ”
On the next offensive opportunity, the Warriors player again passed the ball to Chamberlain on the inside before being fouled by the Knicks.
Chamberlain received the ball and shot directly, but unfortunately the ball did not score.
However, rookie Ted Luckenbiale grabbed the crucial offensive rebound and passed the ball to Chamberlain again, but unexpectedly, Chamberlain missed it again.
After two consecutive missed shots, the audience was disappointed that they could not witness the birth of a hundred points in a single game.
Then a dramatic scene appeared, and The Wonder Boy Luckenbeal grabbed the ball again and passed the ball to the unguarded Chamberlain.
"Chamberlain succeeded! He did it! Chamberlain dunk scored! The fans all left the stands and ran to the pitch! Chamberlain got a hundred points! The referee blew the game to a halt, people were scrambling to beat him, and all the players pounced on him! ”
This classic commentary by Campbell also became part of Chamberlain's legend.
It was only 26 years later, in 1988, that a tape of Campbell's audio recording of this commentary was discovered.
The tape was hosted by a college student at the University of Massachusetts who fell asleep while listening to the game live.
Later that night, he recorded a replay of the game.
To this day, it's the only broadcast document documenting that classic game. (Editor's note: In 2016, the Library of Congress added the tape to the National Recording Registry, which is dedicated to recordings of songs and recordings from important or famous moments.)
Chamberlain shot 36 of 63 in this game, and what is even more rare is that the "notorious" free thrower made 28 of 32 free throws in this game.
But Chamberlain himself has mixed feelings about a one-hundred-point game, and while he understands the importance of the game and the stats, he feels guilty about the way he achieved it.
"This 100-point game will never be as important to me as it is to other people, and that's because I'm embarrassed about it. After scoring eighty points, it was as if I had made a hundred shots, and that ruined the game. I threw a lot of unreasonable balls, and I played unnaturally. There are 63 shots, and if you shoot that many too, no one wants you to join their team. ”
However, the story of Chamberlain's reign ends with his team never being able to beat Russell's Celtics.
Chamberlain and Russell were good friends.
If it's during the holidays, or if two people are playing near each other, they'll both eat together during breaks.
Russell has the championship that Chamberlain dreamed of, and Chamberlain has countless personal honors that Russell wanted.
They were both competitive people, and since there were only eight or nine teams in the NBA around 1961, the two of them played each other again and again.
Most of the time, it was Russell who won.
According to statistics, Russell and Chamberlain's team has met 94 times in the regular season and 49 in the playoffs.
The data is as follows:
Regular Season: Celtics win 57, Warriors 37 wins
Playoffs: Celtics 29 wins, Warriors 20 wins
It wasn't until 1967, when Chamberlain beat Russell in the Eastern Conference Finals, that he finally won his NBA championship.
Chamberlain has always said that the Celtics have built better teams around Russell with better talent.
It's a controversial view, though Russell has played with 11 Hall of Famers, including Bob Cousy, Sam Jones, K.C. Jones, John Hafricheck, and others.
But that doesn't mean Chamberlain doesn't have Hall of Fame teammates, who have played with multiple Hall of Famers during his time in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, including Rogers, Greer, Al Atuls, Billy Cunningham, and more, not to mention Elgin Baylor and Jerry West.
Bill Russell, in his 1966 autobiography Fighting for Glory, noted that he did not think Chamberlain could defend him, and that his relationship with Chamberlain was fine.
At the same time, he did not consider Chamberlain to be a major challenge in his life.
Russell said: "When Chamberlain came into the league, he should have put me back in the second line. However, I think he had the opposite effect. In a sense, his presence magnifies my importance to the team. Except when we played against each other in different uniforms on the pitch, we were always friends. ”
Decades later, Russell became less aggressive.
In his book, The Pioneer: The NBA's Black Pioneers, he describes how difficult a showdown with Chamberlain was: "You can't limit him in the same way two nights in a row. Sometimes he would shoot backwards, and slowly I could interfere with three or four out of ten. But then he changed the way he attacked, he first confronted me with his shoulders, and then suddenly he got stronger. I couldn't keep up with his work, and when he struck my interfering hand went up to the position of his wrist. It took me a few more nights to gradually limit Chamberlain's play. ”
(Focus on Sport / Getty Images)
After being traded to the Lakers in 1968, Chamberlain led the Lakers to the Finals in a row, but ultimately failed.
In 1969, the Lakers again played the Celtics in the Finals.
In a home-winning tie-7, Chamberlain injured his knee earlier in the fourth quarter and had to leave the field for treatment.
Minutes later, when the Lakers narrowed the gap to seven points in a huff, Chamberlain told coach Butch van Breda Colf that he was ready to play again.
But for some reason, Butch didn't replace Chamberlain again in this game.
Russell and his Celtics persevered to the end, winning again.
The following season, the Lakers faced the Knicks in the Finals.
This time, The Raid Seven was fought in New York.
Willis Reed's return with injury inspired the Knicks, and Walter Fraser's brilliant performance also caused the Lakers a lot of trouble.
In this game, Chamberlain did not stand out.
Facing Reid, who was still injured, he scored just 21 points on 16 shots in the whole game.
In the end, the Lakers lost to the Knicks 99:113, and Chamberlain missed the championship again.
But the kung fu paid off, and Chamberlain finally fulfilled his Lakers championship dream in the 1971-72 season.
He led the team to 33 consecutive wins during the regular season, setting a record for a regular season winning streak in NBA history.
After finishing the regular season with an outstanding record of 69 wins and 13 losses, the Lakers won the championship with a 4-1 victory over the Knicks in the Finals, which was also Chamberlain's second championship.
Over time, some rumors about Chamberlain have been clarified.
Chamberlain never attempted a dunk on a free throw during a game during his time at the University of Kansas.
Still, Chamberlain's amazing athleticism in college did influence the rules of basketball.
For example, banning dunks when free throws, setting up rules for jamming balls, and expanding the three-second zone are all rules modified because of Chamberlain's excellent athletic ability.
In 1968, Chamberlain led the league with 702 total assists, is this really proof that he is not alone in playing?
It wasn't, Chamberlain became more comprehensive during a critical period in his career.
The previous season, he also averaged 7.8 assists per game in Philadelphia.
As for the rumor of twenty thousand women, Chamberlain himself explained it this way.
Years later, he said to the well-known writer Phil Jasner: "I regret that people believe in this, like you say you've seen Casablanca a thousand times, which means you've seen it many times, not really a thousand times." I'm just using the analogy of 20,000, not the exact number. ”
Truth and exaggeration, losing and winning, individual and team.
It's all about Chamberlain part of it. He was so dominant that it was difficult to place his accomplishments in context that was meaningful to others.
Because there is no one like him now, and there will never be anyone like him.
"In the season when he averaged 50 points per game, he averaged 48 minutes per game, and no one can do that, not any basketball player you know." Hill said: "He also averaged 25 rebounds per game that season, and when I talked to the referees of that era, they would say: 'We can't blow all the fouls against Chamberlain because then the game can't be played.'" ’”
"Sometimes Chamberlain would have a dunk with a defender on his left arm and a defender on his right arm, and in the process of dunking, he would say, 'On which floor do you want to get off the elevator?'" Better think about it before I put the ball in the basket! ’”
They couldn't imagine, and no one could imagine how powerful Chamberlain was.