The 50th anniversary of a record that may never be broken

That's a pretty stupid column.

Actually, it might be a good thing we never saw it. Because from accounts of how it went down, the Warriors spent almost the entire fourth quarter fouling to get the ball back and force-feeding Chamberlain the ball. New York coach Eddie Donovan said, "The game was a farce. They would foul us and we would foul them." Chamberlain's shot attempts by quarter: 14, 12, 16, 21. You think in a blowout in today's game that a team would keeping feeding their star like that?

With five minutes left against the Raptors, the Lakers had a 12-point lead and Kobe had 67 points. Kobe scored the Lakers' last 14 points of the game as they won by 18.

You can also take off seven points for the three-pointers that didn't exist in Wilt's day.

 

Wilt wasn't taking any 3s even if they existed.

 

In general I don't disagree, but between Kobe and the 2005-06 Raptors, I'm not sure that holds up.

 

Right but the 3 added seven to Kobe's total.

 

An even better point than that was that Wilt's teammates were intentionally fouling to get the ball back and give him more possessions.

 

Why is it assumed the talent gap between Chamberlain and his opponents in 1962 was greater than that between Bryant and whichever schmucks were guarding him in 2006? It would be a far better point to note that opponents could and can zone Bryant and that was illegal in 1962.

 

Doesn't matter. Give him 2 points for every 3 he made then. The point total wasn't the point of the column. If so, there'd be no debate. That guy's column didn't revolve around the fact that Kobe made 6 threes.

 

I was hoping this was another Marvin Gaye thread.

 

He seems to think this era is the apex of basketball talent, but David Thompson's 73 and Elgin Baylor's 71 were as difficult as what Kobe did and maybe moreso, and who knows how far they could have gone with the three-pointer. Thompson in particular was the anti-Kobe and anti-Wilt that day, he had 50 or so at halftime and then slowed it down.

 

Obviously the Knicks and Warriors were playing a different time, when teams would get near 150 points, and Wilt was perhaps the greatest athletic freak the world has ever seen. Plus there was obvious showmanship with the actual attempt to get him to 100. (Not unlike, say, the Saints with Brees and the season yardage record.)

But the whole thing about Kobe's 81 being the greatest night ever, an idea that started the night he did it, has always seemed to be ginned up by folks who want us to think the NBA is in some kind of golden era and better than it really is.

 

Tonight, against the Golden State Warriors, every fan at the Wells Fargo Center will get a piece of the actual court that was used in the 100-point game.

 

Interesting tidbit from AP's 50th anniversary article: the few photos they got of the game (including the one with Wilt holding the "100" piece of paper) came from a photog who was at the game as a fan, realized what was happening, then rushed out to his car in the fourth quarter to grab whatever camera equipment he had there.

That's why we always carried a roll or two of film at all times back in the day, young'uns!