A hungover Wilt Chamberlain stumbled into a half-empty arena and scored 100 points — a record no one has come close to breaking.
On March 2, 1962, Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors in a 169–147 win over the New York Knicks at Hershey Sports Arena in Pennsylvania. The two teams combined for 316 points, also an NBA record. It remains the single-game scoring record in NBA history.
Chamberlain spent the night before the game partying in New York City, dropping his companion off at 6 am, then catching an 8 am train to Philadelphia with no sleep and a hangover. He nearly missed the team bus to Hershey and was in no condition to make history.
Only 4,124 spectators attended the game in an arena that held over 8,000, and most came to watch an exhibition game between NFL players beforehand. The NBA was not yet a major sports league, and no members of the New York press were present — they were covering baseball spring training instead.
The game was never televised, and no video footage has ever been recovered. Only audio recordings of the fourth quarter survive, which were added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry in 2016 for preservation.
The Knicks' starting center Phil Jordon missed the game, officially due to influenza but widely believed to be a hangover. His replacement, Darrall Imhoff, grew so frustrated that he snapped at a referee: 'Why don't you just give the guy a hundred now and we'll all go home!'
By halftime Chamberlain had 41 points, which didn't excite his teammates since he'd scored 60+ fifteen times before. Warriors guard Guy Rodgers simply said, 'Let's get the ball to Dip. Let's see how many he can get.' Coach McGuire agreed, and the onslaught began.
As Chamberlain approached 100, the Knicks began intentionally fouling every Warrior except him and slowing their offense to burn clock. The Warriors countered by fouling the Knicks right back to get the ball, turning the final minutes into a bizarre foul-trading spectacle.
Chamberlain's 100th point came on a short shot after teammates grabbed two offensive rebounds to keep the possession alive. Free throws were his weakest skill, yet he made an astonishing 28 that night — then an NBA record — by shooting them underhanded at his coach's suggestion.
That season, Chamberlain averaged a staggering 50.4 points per game — a single-season record that still stands. He had already broken the single-game record earlier that season with 78 points, and rival Bill Russell had prophetically said Chamberlain would 'score one hundred some night.'