Wilt Chamberlain's biographer dispels NBA's greatest conspiracy theory with media proof of 100-point game

Wilt Chamberlain’s historic 100-point game has been known as one of the biggest holy grails of basketball, as it remains the highest-scoring game of an individual player in NBA history. However, no evidence has been found about its existence, as no one recorded or videotaped the game during his time.

Only recently that Gary M. Pomerantz, Chamberlain’s biographer, found the audio and publicized the recording of Chamberlain’s 100-point game during the fourth quarter of the game between Wilt’s Philadelphia Warriors and the New York Knicks. The Warriors won the game, 169-147.

The game happened on March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the same place where the audio recording was found.

The recording, which was a commentary of Bill Campbell, Philadelphia’s play-by-play announcer at the time, revealed that Chamberlain had 69 points heading to the fourth quarter, before he scored 31 points to complete the 100-point game.

“Well, Wilt got 69 points going into the fourth quarter. He still needs 31 points, and that’s a lot of points,” Pomerantz said. “He just scored 28 points in the third quarter. And the Knicks are just going through the motions. It is a 10, 15, 20-point lead that the Warriors had.” (From 17:50)

Pomerants revealed that the tape was not found by the NBA until the 1990s, almost two decades since "Wilt the Stilt" retired from basketball.

“The NBA didn’t find out about this tape, until the 1990. And it’s like ‘wait, what.’ But it is just the way things were then,” Pomerantz said.

While the NBA and the wider basketball community have accepted that Wilt’s 100-game truly happened, some skeptics have critiqued it as just another NBA myth due to the lack of media proof for the game.

Wilt shot 63 shots in the game and made 36 of them. Meanwhile, he also made 28 of his 32 free throws to complete the historic feat in the game.

Kobe Bryant refuses to top Wilt’s 100-point game in iconic 81-point outing

The late great Kobe Bryant was the closest player to ever get on Wilt’s 100-point record after recording 81 points to tow the LA Lakers against the Toronto Raptors in 2006.

But according to Kobe, he was not thinking about the record when he was closing in on the 81-point mark, believing that should be preserved for Chamberlain.

"I don't even think about it…"That's unthinkable. It was done once -- by Wilt, and I'm not Wilt," Kobe said in 2006.

"The concept is not about going out there and putting on a show or going out there and scoring points. It's to win games…Whatever it takes. You have to gauge the flow of the game and then decide when to pick your spot to take over,” Bryant said.

Both Bryant and Chamberlain played for the Lakers franchise in their careers.

Wilt also holds the third-highest-scoring game in history with 78 points in 1961. Meanwhile, three players have scored 73 points in the NBA, including Chamberlain twice in 1962, David Thompson in 1978, and Luka Doncic in 2024.