Wilt Chamberlain was an absolute sweetheart. So one can only imagine what raised his 7'1", 275-pound ire during a game in Los Angeles between his Philadelphia Warriors and the Lakers on Jan. 3, 1962. The object of Wilt’s wrath was a man named Norman Drucker, who happened to carry an NBA referee’s whistle. On the night in question, with just over eight minutes left in a close game, Drucker hit Wilt with two technical fouls -- then, as now, the cause for immediate ejection from an NBA game.

The impact was immediate. The Lakers won by a single point, 124-123. Beyond that, however, was this fact: The last eight minutes of that game marked the only time in the entire ’61-62 season that the Warriors played and Wilt did not. As unbelievable as it seems, Wilt played 79 complete games in that 80-game NBA season. With overtime periods factored in, Wilt’s average minutes per game turned out to be more than a regulation game -- just over 48.5!

	Listen in as Wilt scores his 100th point.

The Big Dipper played 3,882 of his team’s 3,890 minutes or 99.8%, the highest percentage by any player in any season in NBA history. Think about what that takes. This was long before chartered -- or even comfortable -- jets, and when the schedule was far more compressed than it is today: Wilt’s Warriors played on back-to-back dates 13 times, plus back-to-back-to-back dates eight times, plus back-to-back-to-back-to-back dates twice -- and, oh yes, once in mid-January they played five games on five consecutive dates, bouncing from Detroit to Philly to Boston back to Philly and then to Utica, N.Y., where they beat the Syracuse Nationals -- in overtime! (They won four of five, with Wilt amassing 275 points and 126 boards.)

No NBA player has played as much as 90% of his team’s minutes in well over 20 years. Michael Finley led the NBA last season by playing 86.9% of his team’s minutes; Antoine Walker is the leader this season, at 86.8%.

But if his on-court time sounds astonishing, get a load of Wilt’s scoring average. He hovered just below the unheard-of 50 points-per-game mark through most of the season. (The prevailing record then was Wilt’s 38.4 in ’60-61; the non-Wilt mark was 29.2 by Bob Pettit in ’58-59.) On Feb. 24, in a 23-point home loss to the Celtics, Wilt was held to a season-low 26; with eight games left in the season, his average stood at 49.6. At this point, the Warriors were locked into second place in the Eastern Division; they could neither catch the first-place Celtics nor be caught by the third-place Nationals. The only question left for the Warriors’ regular season was whether or not Chamberlain could average 50 for the season.

He answered with a five-game scoring spree unrivaled in NBA history, before or since. He poured in 65, 67 and 61 points in the last three games in February to nudge his average up to 50.2, then hit his record 100 and followed with 58 more in two meetings with the Knicks. That left his average at 50.9 going into the season’s final three games, during which he scored 108 points, ending up at 50.4, cracking the barrier with 29 points to spare.

As remarkable as the 100-point game remains, it was only one night in a season in which the NBA’s most remarkable player put up his most remarkable numbers. Michael Jordan has scored 50 or more points 31 times in his career. Wilt did it 45 times that season!

Steve Hirdt is a contributor to ESPN The Magazine.