Article: Where have all the scorers gone?

[Bob Miller <bob@pointofchoice.com>]

Where have all the scorers gone?

Leigh Montville
Posted: Friday March 05, 1999 03:48 PM

On Tuesday, the 37th anniversary of Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game
against the New York Knicks, I looked at the NBA box scores. If Wilt had
scored his 100 Monday night instead of in a dark gym in Hershey,
Pennsylvania in 1962, he could have won six of the seven games on the
schedule by himself.

What's the deal? Virtually every NBA game has become a monumental
clang-a-thon. Nobody can shoot anymore. Nobody can score.

Every night there is at least one ridiculous result that makes you think
pro basketball has returned to the Dark Ages. What's happened? Has the
center jump been reinstated since the lockout? High school teams routinely
score more than 70 points in a game. Rec-league teams score more.

The NBA, with a few exceptions, has become a walk-it-up, set-it-up league.
Give the ball to Patrick. Give the ball to Alonzo or Shaq. Wait for the
double team. Pass to the open man. Yawn. Free throws are an adventure
everywhere. (Hello, Vin Baker.) The player who is creating the most
excitement in the league has rainbow hair and hardly ever scores. (That's
you, Dennis.)

Has the talent level become so watered down through expansion that there
simply aren't enough people who can put the ball in the basket? Have the
size and speed of the players increased so much there simply isn't room to
get free to score? What's the deal?

Come back, Wilt. Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.