There are plenty of great stories about Wilt Chamberlain’s mystique. The legendary center did everything he wanted on the court, dominating both ends of the ball and becoming one of the greatest players to set foot on an NBA court.
The most famous story about Wilt is his 100-point game, something impossible to emulate, let alone break. Besides this, the player posted great stat lines during his incredible career, and even when he didn’t have good games on the offense, Wilt still managed to earn everybody’s attention.
During the last years of his career, Chamberlain’s level wasn’t the same. He was no longer the player who could drop 40, 50 or 60, but he could still grab a lot of rebounds, dish plenty of assists and score with high efficiency.
However, in 1973, Wilt once surprised many people once again when he decided to go 0-0 from the field, not attempting a single shot during a game vs. the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-led Milwaukee Bucks.
Via Basketball Network:
But in the later stage of his career, on March 27 in 1973, to be exact, Wilt did something unthinkable for a player of his caliber and finished the game with zero points against Milwaukee Bucks. What is even stranger is that he played 46 minutes without a single field goal or free throw. After the Bucks game, which was also his last game in the regular season, Wilt scored only one point. He shot 0 for 1 from the field but connected on 1 for 2 from the line.
By the early 1970s, Chamberlain was no longer the player he once was in terms of scoring 40 or 50 points and grabbing 20 plus rebounds on a nightly basis. However, some of Wilt’s later seasons still prove he is one of the most versatile players in the league. Wilt averaged 14 points per game in those seasons and shot an absurd 72.7 percent from the field in 1972-73, which is still a single-season record. It’s always incredible how efficient he was in his last NBA season.
The Big Dipper was something else; he didn’t collect the most titles, but his individual performances were just incredible.
It is believed that Wilt did this after making 24 straight field goals without a miss in the previous games. He wanted to end his career with this record.
When people believed there was nothing else he could do, Chamberlain came up with this performance, not attempting a single shot during this game, going 0-0 from the field. Yet, he did record 14 rebounds and four assists (via Basketball-Reference), keeping his Lakers close to the Bucks, losing the game by only one point.
If he attempted one field goal, the purple and gold would have probably won, but Wilt wasn’t bothered by that.
