Hershey, Pa.
My family and I just returned from a fun filled day in Hershey Park, but leave it to me to find something basketball to show them all. On March 2nd, 1962, even before I was born, Wilt Chamberlin scored 100 points in a professional basketball game versus the NY Knicks while he was a member of the Philadelphia Warriors. Back then, before the NBA was as popular as it is today, the teams would often meet on neutral sites in an attempt to gain fans in their outer lying communities. It was basically at the end of the barnstorming era for many professional sports. In the rest of the 1960's. the Boston Celtics helped make basketball more popular, which led to rivalries with the Knicks, Lakers and others. The site of Wilt's scoring barrage was not in NY or Philly, but in the home of chocolate, Hershey, PA! The old auditorium is still in use for some events, but they have now built a modern arena adjacent to the park. But on the outside of the arena, near the park entrance, is a plaque commemorating Wilt's achievement. In an NBA or professional game, a player scoring 50, 60 or more points in a game usually happens once a year or so, and even if they score 100, it really is amazing, but since it is professional game, and it is a form of paid entertainment, from a sportsmanship side of things, it is OK that one player is allowed to dominate. But in the amateur level, it is not. Nothing is gained when one player does more then half the scoring in a game. So many times we read or hear about players scoring outrageous numbers and don't we worry about what their teammates must think? Especially in one-sided games, coaches have to be careful in letting a player show up another and if taking them out of the game is the only solution, then do it and let the player know how great they did, but now you need their teammates to show they can contribute in some ways as well. And if you need to keep that "scorer" in the game, just tell them their job is now to make sure everyone else scores. Sure there will be times when one player will need to score a lot for your team to stay competitive, but in the long run of a season, the more that player learns that when they are double teamed that they have someone always open. Later on in Wilt's career, he learned just that and once led the league in assists and eventually that is what led to him winning a championship!
