Wilt Chamberlain

In response to that other thread, this is Wilt Chamberlain talking about his pick for the #1 Center of all-time, and he doesn't rank himself as #1. He also goes into detail about why he thinks Bill Russell was the best, and why the Celtics would not have won as much if he was their center instead of Bill.

With his 39th point against the Portland trail blazers he has surpassed Wilt Chamberlain for fifth all time.

Joel Embiid scored 70 last night. That surpassed the 76ers' all-time scoring record, previously held by Wilt Chamberlain. It's not every day someone breaks one of Wilt's records. It's even rarer to find out there's one he never held at all.

You might think I'm talking about some really unimportant, made-up stat. Not exactly. See, this is the all-time single-game field goals record.

When Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points that fateful day in Hershey, he made 36 field goals. The second-most ever made in a professional basketball game in the United States. The guy who'd made more had already held the record for over 50 years.

Now, you might not be entirely surprised that there are a couple records still around from before the NBA: Pat Herlihy once had 14 fouls in a game when the teams waived the foul-out rule. The New York Renaissance once won 88 consecutive games because, pre-integration, they had all the top black players on the same team.

But a scoring record is a different story. In 1908-09, the average professional basketball team scored 29.65 ppg. Bill Keenan of the Johnstown Johnnies, on March 16, 1909, scored 76. The previous all-time single-game scoring record was 40... he had 44 by halftime.

What's really incredible, though, is that he didn't make or attempt a single free throw. Keenan had 38 field goals made, two more than Mr. Chamberlain ever would.

Bill Keenan was particularly notable as a talented shooter from the corners and basketball's first great second-chance scorer. He had started at center for four championship teams: the 1902-03 Camden Electrics, 1904-05 Conshohocken Giants, 1906-07 East Liverpool Potters, and 1907-08 East Liverpool Potters (and would later get a fifth title with Johnstown in 1911-12). What's quite amusing is that he was never a first-option scorer. Very little is known about how he actually went about making his 38 field goals, the paper's only commentary in that regard was that "half his shots were from the sides and corners of the cage."

But that doesn't at all explain how one guy could sink three times as many shots as the average team, does it. Well, this does: their opponent was supposed to be the very East Liverpool team Keenan had just won back-to-back titles with. East Liverpool's owner was having financial troubles and had sold every rotational player the previous summer, turning a 53-19 team into a 4-67 one overnight. 29 players came and went over the course of the year, and the team was sold and relocated to Alliance, Ohio less than a month earlier. By this time, the Potters' roster consisted of East Liverpool's eighth man and four rookies. One of them, guard Army Thompson, put together a very respectable nine-year pro career. The rest did not. Keenan's matchup, Leo Mackey, was the worst of the bunch, a 5'8" center who lasted just 15 games as a pro. This was the last of the 15.

The Alliance Potters were indescribably bad at professional basketball. They lost 51-15 to South Side. 75-14 to McKeesport. 49-21 to Greensburg, then 78-25 in the rematch game. By the time they faced Bill Keenan, it was the last game of the season, and the last time pro ball would ever exist in the little town of Alliance.

Bill Keenan's Johnstown Johnnies beat the Alliance Potters 110-9. Another record that still stands 115 years later and has very little chance of being broken anytime soon.

As for the all-time field goal record? It doesn't look like anyone will reach 38 for quite a while. The last time someone even reached 30 was 50 years ago now (Rick Barry's 64/10/9 game against Portland). Embiid's game last night was the joint-most since Kobe's 81-pointer in 2006. He had 24.

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"Eastern Stars to Come Today." The Evening Review (East Liverpool, OH). November 7, 1908.

Elias, Josh. "Average Team Points Per Game Throughout Major League Professional Basketball History." The Elias Archives. May 9, 2021.

Gruber, John H. "League Record Broken by Johnstown Tossers." The Pittsburgh Post. March 17, 1909.

Kiser, Jack. "A New Peak for Wilt... 100 Points!" Philadelphia Daily News. March 3, 1962.

"Potters to Finish Season in Alliance." The Evening Review (East Liverpool, OH). February 22, 1909.

Rayl, Susan. “The New York Renaissance Professional Black Basketball Team.” A Thesis in Exercise and Sport Science, The Pennsylvania State University, 1996.

Zurlinden Jr., Pete. “Celtics Win over Locals.” The Dayton Herald. December 7, 1936.

Ibaka made his first 14 shots against the Lakers tonight and his last 4 against the Suns last game, that 18 shot streak is the longest since Wilt hit a mind blowing 35 straight over 4 games in 1967. Wilt had several streaks longer than 18 but no other player in NBA history had before tonight

Case for Wilt: The record has stood for 61 years compared to Muggsy 36 years and the closest anyone got to the record was Kobe bryant at 81, an 19 point difference. And wilt had to do it on 63 shots and 28 free throws just to get there. And that was while his teamates were feeding him the ball and the opposing team fouling him on purpose. It also took him all 48 minutes to get there and in a load mgnagement era playing 48 minutes is unlikely to happen. The only way I can see the 100 point record to be broken is if a 3pt shooter like Dame or Luka or Steph gets hot from 3 in a tightly close game. They would also need to get a lot of touches too.

Case for Muggsy: In order to be a relatively short player in the nba like cp3 or trae young, you would have to be really fucking good, you can't be medicore you have to be an all star caliber player. Now if your asking for someone whos shorter then muggsy bogues to play thats going to be like hell as he could be easily switched on to a taller defender and since zone defenses r no longer illegal I see it harder for someone like muggsy to make the nba. Also scouts really tend to favor taller players or teams in general. You would also have to look at confidence. I doubt a 5'2 person would have much confidence to play in the nba. It certainly doesnt help the average height for a player is 6'7. The only way I can see it happening is if the 5'2 or below person is really altheic, has good BBIQ, and a good 3pt shooter.

At the end of the day I think Kobe or Dame has proved that scoring more than 100 points in a game isnt impossible as long as you get enough touches on a shit team and is a good 3pt shooter you should be good and thats why although hard, 100 points is more breakable than being below 5'2. Scouts/teams don't really tend to favor smaller players even if they are good because they know in a league where the average height is 6'7 they will be picked on alot. But which one do you guys think is more breakable?

To put that into perspective.

Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan played 82 games (a full regular season).

Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas played 65 games.

LeBron James and Steph Curry played 51 games (not including the play-in).

Magic Johnson and Larry Bird played 37 games.

EDIT: made a mistake saying “have played” as if they’re still active players. Can’t fix it so it’ll stay.

Jokic in a dominant performance versus the Rockets tonight put up 19 assists.

The big man also posted a triple double, his second in 3 games.

This was his 43rd triple double, tying fat-lever for 9th all time.

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Nikola Jokic ends the 2023-2024 season 5th in the league in total points, 3rd in total rebounds, and 2nd in total assists, as well as 8th in total steals to boot.

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