On March 2, 1962, at Hershey Sports Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States, Wilt Chamberlain set the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association (NBA) by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors in a 169–147 win over the New York Knicks.
He scored an incredible 100 points, a record that still stands today as one of the greatest achievements in basketball history. The game was not televised, and there is no video footage available, but audio recordings of the fourth quarter exist.
During the game, Chamberlain not only set the record for the most points in an NBA game (100), but he also set 5 other records.
One of the records broken included most free throws made, which was particularly notable as Chamberlain was known to struggle with free throw shooting.
The teams combined for a record-breaking total of 316 points during this high-scoring game.
Chamberlain’s record breaking performance was part of his remarkable season where he averaged a record-breaking 50.4 points per game. Earlier in the same season, he had already broken the NBA single-game scoring record by scoring 78 points in December.
As Chamberlain neared the 100-point mark during the game against the Knicks, they resorted to fouling other players to prevent him from scoring further. In response, the Warriors also committed fouls to regain possession and feed Chamberlain the ball. This strategic back-and-forth added intensity to an already historic game.
