In a win over the New York Knicks, Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors, which is considered to be the greatest individual performance in NBA history. On March 2, 1962, Chamberlain made 36 of his 63 shot attempts and 28 of his 32 free throws to set a record that has stood the test of time.
4,124 fans watched it.
In the early days of the NBA, games were played at neutral sites, such as the Hershey Sports Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania, as an attempt to expand the league's audience. The game was not televised and the only fans who saw it were in Hershey.
The Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks will play on Wednesday. The NBA is celebrating its 75th anniversary season and will pay homage to the NBA's single-game scoring record.
Only six current NBA coaches were alive when he scored 100 points on the Knicks. The league's players and coaches have been witness to many epic performances in the 60 years since, so they were asked to recall their favorites. The second all-time scoring game came up a lot.
The league's 75th anniversary team is ranked.
Kobe Bryant scored 81 points in a game against the Raptors.
It was just 16 years ago that Kobe Bryant came as close as anyone has to matching the 100 point effort of Chamberlain, scoring 81 in a victory over the Toronto Raptors. The epic performance by the late Los Angeles Lakers legend was far and away the most frequently mentioned when our reporters asked those in the NBA which game came to mind when recalling all-time great individual performances.
Willie Green, who was a third-year guard with the 76ers when Bryant scored 81, said it was unbelievable that a guy could score 81 points in the NBA.
Josh Hart, a former Laker, said the stuff that he was doing was absurd. The whole game was just a highlight reel, so it is hard to remember one or two. I think that was the most important thing for me. The shots that he was shooting and the tough shots he was making, the shot fake, fadeaway 3s, it was absurd, but just a display of offensive brilliance.
Bryant scored 51 of his 81 points in the second half, finishing 26 of 46 from the field and 18 of 20 from the free throw line.
The game that sticks out the most is the one Bryant played for the Lakers. Whether it was him getting hot and going for 15 or 20 straight or him closing the fourth quarter, that is what stands out the most about the NBA for me. Everything was solidified by that 81-point game.
Bryant's final game was the one that stood out to Chicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan, who grew up watching Bryant before playing against him for seven seasons.
Everybody knows he is retiring. I remember he used to tell me there were some games he could barely walk in. He knew it was the end.
Bryant scored 60 points on 50 shots to lead the Lakers to a win over the Utah Jazz in his final NBA game.
"For him to go out there and score 60, one of the best, ever, to pick up the ball to end it like he ended it, that is a hell of an individual effort because it really was all on." I think he played for 45 minutes. To leave the game like that is the best for him.
Bryant was the most talked about player, but he was not the only one. Stanley Johnson, the current Lakers forward, leaned toward one of Bryant's rivals.
You could tell from the look on his face how dominant he was. He could not miss a shot. The basketball is being dunked. I think it was crazy for him to do whatever he had to do to put his team in a position to win the series.
James scored 45 points in the game, making 19 of his 26 shots, as the Miami Heat beat the Boston Celtics to stay alive in the playoffs. The Heat would win the series and James would win his first NBA title two weeks later.
Bobby Portis was a member of the Milwaukee Bucks team that won the most recent NBA title, and he went back to that performance for his favorite individual performance.
He said that he witnessed a man drop 50 on one leg to win the Finals, and that his teammate was the Finals Most Valuable Player. I was there. Being able to see how hard he works and see him hurt his leg, then come back and dominate, that was crazy. Big play after big play. It was like you cannot make this up.
Michael Wilbon says that the performance of Giannis Antetokounmpo in Game 6 is one of the greatest of all time.
It was another Finals performance that didn't end in a win, that came to mind for Brooklyn Nets coach Steve Nash.
Isiah Thomas playing on a badly injured ankle in the Forum in the Finals would be my kind of hero, according to Nash.
In the 1988 Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, Thomas scored 25 points in the third quarter, the last 11 of which came after he left the game because of a ankle injury. The Pistons took the lead before the Lakers came back to win. Los Angeles went on to win the series in seven games, but Thomas's gutty performance still stands out.
Nash knows how hard it is to perform at the highest level, to be able to do it when he couldn't even run without limping. It's really hard for small guards to succeed at that level at the end of the road, and for him to do it with an ankle that was shut down is just amazing.
The LegendARY PERFORMANCE by Thomas is mostly memorable for a single outstanding quarter, but sometimes it didn't take players that long to cement their places in the NBA memory.
Reggie Miller points in nine seconds. That was a great performance by the Indiana Pacers star against the Knicks in the 1995 playoffs. He never stopped. He scored and got a steal. It was incredible, what happened. At the same time, having the conversation with Spike. That is pretty impressive as well.
In December 2004, Tracy McGrady scored 13 points in 33 seconds to lead the Houston Rockets to a last-minute comeback win against the San Antonio Spurs.
I was a big T-Mac fan, so I was watching all their games, and just seeing him score that quick and knowing the game was over against a great Spurs team like that, that is probably the biggest thing.
On December 9, 2004, Tracy McGrady scored 13 points in 33 seconds to lead a comeback against the Spurs.
Both Kidd and the man he replaced in Dallas, Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, recalled Larry Bird's performance in Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals in which he posted 36 points, 12 rebound, 9 assists -- and one very memorable steal.
He had an amazing offensive game, but he stole the ball, fed Dennis Johnson, and we were able to steal the game back, which gave us the series victory.
Wednesday, March 2
Knicks at 76ers, 7:30 p.m.
Trail Blazers at Suns, 10 p.m.
Friday, March 4
Bucks at Bulls, 7:30 p.m.
Knicks at Suns, 10 p.m.
All times Eastern.
Klay Thompson set an NBA record by scoring 37 points in a single quarter against the Kings, and his coach Steve Kerr, who has been a part of eight NBA titles as a player and coach, said it was a memorable moment.
It was the most unique basketball experience I have ever had because it felt like Klay was having an out-of-body experience, Kerr said. There was a lot of joy that was bordering on religious fervor.
Kerr didn't cite a great individual performance from his former Bulls teammate, but Kidd did. It wasn't from Jordan's time in Chicago.
Kidd said that Jordan was 45 years old when he scored 45 points in a game for the Washington Wizards against Kidd and the New Jersey Nets on New Year's Day. There was nothing we could do. He was talking trash. He was letting us know how old he was. He was not flying through the air. He was just and he was rolling. It was pretty cool.
Jordan was not the only player who made an impression. Nets guard Patty Mills paid homage to a player who was long regarded for his old man game during his NBA career.
The first thing that came to my mind was when I was with Portland, and they had a big man named Andre Miller who had a 52 point game in Dallas against the Mavs, with only one 3-pointer. It's really unbelievable. I am having some feelings about how he did that.
Billy DoNOVAN was the coach of two championship teams at the University of Florida before becoming the coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder. It didn't take long for the two most valuable players to show what they could do on the court.
I think my second or third game as an NBA coach, both Russell and Kevin have 40 in a double overtime win, and we were down by 3 with a few seconds to go. Goes to double overtime. Watching those two guys was pretty incredible, it was my second game in the NBA.
When asked about legendary individual performances, he could have picked from his own choices. Do you want me to go? He said he had some games. On April 9, 2017, he drained a 36-foot shot at the buzzer to cap a 50-point, 16-rebound, 10-assist game and give him the most triple-doubles in a single season in NBA history.
The biggest thing for me was being able to do that with the group of guys that we had. It was a good experience for me and my teammates, as well as for the organization.
The best game I have ever played? Uh... Mmmm... I think so. I don't know, this is a good problem to have if I can't think about it.
This story was contributed to by a group of people.
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