The late great Wilt Chamberlain etched his name in NBA history when he famously scored 100 points in a late regular-season game against the New York Knicks in 1962.
Everybody inside the arena knew that they were witnessing greatness right before their eyes but then-Knicks guard Richie Guerin didn’t completely feel that way.
For Guerin, it’s easy to say that Chamberlain did the unthinkable and was such an unstoppable force on the court. However, the truth was that it was more of a team effort rather than a one-man spectacle.
In an old interview, 16 years after that historic game, Guerin opened up about how he truly felt at the time. Admittedly, he didn’t want to continue playing after he realized that it was no longer a contest but only a show that he didn’t intend to be a part of.
“It was no laughing matter at the half,” Guerin recalled in 1978. “We were still in the game. We only trailed something like 79-68. We could have won that game. What bothered me was that later on, I found out that the Warriors at halftime made up their minds not to take any shots and to keep feeding Wilt the ball. To make sure they had enough time, they’d foul us on almost every inbounds pass to stop the clock.”
“Lord rest his soul, the ref, Willie Smith, let me get away with murder. When I found out what they were up to, I tried to foul out of the game. I must have wound up with 23 fouls on me that were never called,” he added. “What’s also amazing is that Wilt hit 28 free throws.”
Wilt really scored 100 points
Taking a quick trip down memory lane, Chamberlain was already hot early in the game. At halftime, the dominant center has already scored a total of 41 points. Instead of slowing down in the second half, Chamberlain went on even though it was a non-bearing game, as the Knicks were no longer making it to the postseason.
In all fairness to Guerin’s sentiments, he didn’t discredit Chamberlain’s scoring milestone.
The way he saw it, Wilt proved that he really was a scoring machine capable of making shot after shot, especially with the help of his teammates.
“Let me go on record as saying, the big guy earned every point,” Guerin emphasized. “He had a lot of close-in shots and stuffs, sure, but he hit that fallaway jumper of his all night.”
Wilt knew he could’ve reached 140
Like Guerin, Chamberlain also had an intriguing take on his record-setting performance. What Guerin said may be true or not, but for Chamberlain, one thing was certain that day – he could’ve scored more than 100 points.
As per Wilt, he couldn’t comprehend what the Knicks were thinking during that game as they evidently were trying to stop him from reaching the 100 mark.
“I couldn’t have come close without my teammates’ help because the Knicks didn’t want me to make 100,” Wilt once said. “They were willing to do anything to stop me. Scoring 100 points is a lot, but… I maybe could have scored 140 if they had played straight-up basketball.”
“It was a challenge to my teammates to help me,” he added. “Once we were far ahead, the Knicks disregarded trying to win the game and concentrated on stopping me.”
It’s always refreshing to hear untold takes and remarks about the most historic moments in NBA history. In the end, what remains a fact is that no other player has broken Chamberlain’s 100-point record.
And probably never will.