Rumors

Keerthika Uthayakumar: Luka Doncic is averaging 39.4 points on the 2nd night of a back-to-back this season, on pace to be 4th-most in NBA history. Wilt - 50.1 points in 1961-62 Wilt - 41.7 points in 1962-63 James Harden - 40.9 points in 2018-19 Luka Doncic - 39.4 points this season

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The praise poured in from Bam Adebayo’s peers and others afterward. But there was also outside criticism that the Heat manipulated the game to get Adebayo to 83 points on Tuesday, with the Heat intentionally missing a free throw and committing at least one intentional foul in the final minutes to get Adebayo extra possessions down the stretch of the game. “It’s bulls---. It’s all bulls---,” Riley said of the criticism. “It really is. Anybody who is negative on it, anybody who was cynical about it, anybody who talked about it the way they talked about it in a negative way, they’re trying to either get views, hits, or they’re podcasters and that’s their job. “There are critics today that are just so unjustified in what was going on with the tactics, and we were fouled, and they were fouled. The same thing happened with Wilt Chamberlain when he got 100 back in the day. But I don’t buy any of that. They took an iconic, absolute incredible performance, and they tried to dismiss it. And that’s not fair.”

Miami Herald

It's obviously less than scientific to take this approach and make past point totals the ultimate standard for probability in this case ... but I found it somewhat stunning that nearly 100 players in today's NBA had posted a gaudier career night than Adebayo before Tuesday's South Beach proceedings. You can see for yourself by scrolling through the whole Keerthika-assembled list below. We stretched it to 107 players in the end to include the nine other active players who have scored 41 in a regular-season game to match Adebayo’s previous best. It’s a group that now includes Chicago’s Matas Buzelis, who was rumbling for 41 points of his own in an overtime win over Golden State on the same night that Bam somehow found a way to get us talking about Kobe, Wilt Chamberlain, tanking, ethical basketball and asterisks all at the same time.

marcstein.substack.com

Last night, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 20+ points for the 127th consecutive regular season game. This is the longest streak in @NBA history, breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s record that had stood since 1963. Over his past 127 games, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 4,127 points. Chamberlain scored 6,193 points during his streak. The next longest such streak by an active player is 43 (Kawhi Leonard), and the longest active team streak is 70 (Pelicans).

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Brandon Rahbar: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander makes NBA history. SGA has scored 20+ points in 127 straight games. The longest 20 point streak of all-time.

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NBA: SGA HAS PASSED WILT FOR THE LONGEST 20+ POINT STREAK IN NBA HISTORY 🚨 Shai: 127 Wilt: 126

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But consistency to this degree can feel difficult to measure. His averages don’t detail the extent of his ease. In an era of nauseating pace and mind-boggling offense, Gilgeous-Alexander has equally distanced himself from a 70-point game as he has a single-digit outing. In these past 126 games, Gilgeous-Alexander has only scored 21 points or fewer a mere five times. As if teetering toward the teens is beneath him. “He’s just been out of this world the past four or five years, especially scoring the ball,” Houston Rockets All-Star Kevin Durant said Tuesday night. “I think he’s averaging 30 (points) over the last four years. I love players who care about leaving their mark in the history books. You can tell Shai cares about it. Obviously, he’s a team-first player. But you can tell he wants to be great. “He wants to be considered one of the greatest of all time.”

New York Times

In both the 1962-63 and 1963-64 seasons, Chamberlain played full seasons of 80 games apiece, averaging 47.6 and 46.1 minutes, respectively. A different world, a different game. By all accounts, Chamberlain’s motor never stalled. “He was never tired,” Meschery said. “I mean, he was a mammoth, physical presence and a physical strength. It has a lot to do with it, probably. You know that he picked up Arnold Schwarzenegger with one arm, don’t you?” Added Meschery, who was 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds in his heyday: “He picked me up by one arm, too. One time, I was going to get into a fight with a guy named Gus Johnson in Baltimore. Wilt saved my life by picking me up and carrying me away.”

New York Times

Chamberlain’s nicknames sound as fittingly hyperbolic as the recollections of him. The Big Dipper. Goliath. Wilt the Stilt, a moniker he despised. “He had such long arms, such long legs,” Meschery said. “His athleticism was quite good. … He could run the 600 meters; he did that in college. He could high jump. I don’t think there’s ever been an overall athlete like him, ever. “He was a constant presence on the court. You couldn’t avoid him. There was no way that you could not pass him the ball if he was open.”

New York Times

He remembers Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach finding short-lived ways to keep Chamberlain behind plays. “What he would do,” Hill recalled, “he would have Tommy Heinsohn step in front of Wilt so Wilt could not get back down the floor. And they did that for a period of time. … It worked up until the point that Wilt got upset. Tommy Heinsohn did it one time, and Wilt picked him up off the floor.” “You would have to see it to believe it, because if somebody is telling you, it’s unbelievable.”

New York Times

The big fella wasn’t a stellar foul shooter. Gilgeous-Alexander’s worst season of his past four from the free-throw line came in 2023-24, only his second year as an All-Star, when he shot 87.4 percent on 8.7 attempts — less than half as many average attempts as Chamberlain averaged during his streak. “My grandson criticizes Shai because he says that Shai seeks out fouls, that he’s the guy who’s looking to get fouled and to get to the line,” Meschery said. “I know players who have always done that. In my era of Frank Ramsey, John Havlicek, Sam Jones, they jumped into you. So did Paul Arizin. Paul had a wicked jump shot, but he was always jumping into you, and the referees were always calling him and putting him on the line. It’s not a strategy that hasn’t been used before. But what’s significant about Shai is, he doesn’t necessarily jump into you. He jumps sideways.” “That’s what you tried to do,” Hall of Famer Rick Barry told The Athletic. “When I drove, s—, I was trying to get fouled. I wanted to get fouled. I wanted contact. … Shai’s a 90 percent free-throw shooter. Why the hell would you not want to?”

New York Times

On Jan. 20, 1963, Chamberlain’s 126-game streak of consecutive 20-point games snapped in St. Louis. It’s not that he suddenly became incapable of sleepwalking to 20 points. Rookie official Leo “Red” Oates altered history. Rookie forward Wayne Hightower — who trailed Chamberlain at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, then the University of Kansas, then as a member of the San Francisco Warriors — was whistled for an early foul. Chamberlain, at Hightower’s defense, barked at Oates. The first technical didn’t stop him. Four minutes into what ultimately became a 116-115 Warriors loss, Chamberlain was ejected, believed to be the only such instance in his 14-year career. He left with six points and one rebound. “He must have had a real big beef, Wilt, because he never got thrown out of a game, and he never argued with officials,” 87-year-old Tom Meschery told The Athletic in an exclusive interview. Meschery played 21 minutes that night and started beside Chamberlain for several seasons.

New York Times

MrBuckBuck: Tyrese Haliburton: "Wilt Chamberlain 100... I ain't know if I believed it... but after what I watched yesterday... Wilt had 100"

Twitter

Crazy Stats: Last night, Bam Adebayo and Simone Fontecchio combined for 101 total points, becoming the sixth duo in @NBA history to reach 100 points in a game. It's the only duo to achieve this feat without Wilt Chamberlain being part of it.

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