# What year did the NBA ban slam dunking free throws? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 7, 2007, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-the-nba-ban-slam-dunking-free-throws/429125 "2007-12-07T04:59:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2007, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-the-nba-ban-slam-dunking-free-throws/429125/21 "2007-12-07T22:46:40Z")
Here is an article on Wilt’s 100 point game. [Remembering Chamberlain’s 100-point game](http://slam.canoe.ca/BasketballChamberlain/biggame1.html) > [@](#): > > "Sure, we fouled Wilt a lot, but that was the weakest part of his game. > [@](#): > > New York’s strategy of fouling Chamberlain backfired; he made 28 of 32 free-throw attempts. He was a 51 percent free-throw shooter for his career. > “Fouls are what really did it for him,” Attles said. “He usually couldn’t make anywhere near that many.” > Randy Vathis was 10 years old and a Warriors fan, intent on seeing Chamberlain at the foul line. > “It was the first pro game I ever went to,” he said. “I went to the game because I had heard Wilt shot his free throws underhanded and was terrible at it. Then he went out and made all those free throws.” He clearly wasn’t dunking them that day. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2007, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-the-nba-ban-slam-dunking-free-throws/429125/22 "2007-12-07T22:46:59Z")
[QUOTE=obfusciatrist] No, there’s no video recording of the 100-point game (and there were only 4000-ish people actually at the game) and it was not televised. [/QUOTE] Wilt claimed that over 10,000 people that he met claimed to have been at the game. In fact my uncle, who is a huge Knicks fan and attended tons of games, told me that he was there. I wonder if he realized that that game was played in Hershey, PA. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2007, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-the-nba-ban-slam-dunking-free-throws/429125/23 "2007-12-07T22:52:16Z")
The audio clip of 4th quarter of the 100 point is available for purchase online- surely if he were dunking free throws, the commentator would mention it. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-the-nba-ban-slam-dunking-free-throws/429125/24 "2007-12-08T00:13:00Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] Wilt claimed that over 10,000 people that he met claimed to have been at the game. In fact my uncle, who is a huge Knicks fan and attended tons of games, told me that he was there. I wonder if he realized that that game was played in Hershey, PA. [/QUOTE] I sometimes wonder how well Wilt could count, or maybe that he was prone to exaggeration. In 1991, he claimed that he had screwed 20,000 different women. That would be 1 a day since the day he was born. Me personally, I’d probably get some of them confused and maybe have done a couple of them more than once. Maybe you could ask your uncle how Wilt was shooting free throws in 1962. ---
**Author:** ![misterW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@misterW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterW)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-the-nba-ban-slam-dunking-free-throws/429125/25 "2007-12-08T00:22:08Z")
[QUOTE=Darryl Lict] Man, did part of this thread get lost? I have found this > [@](#): > > ([http://www.armchairgm.com/Slam\_Dunk\_Contest](http://www.armchairgm.com/Slam_Dunk_Contest)): > > I may actually have read this article since I am a huge fan of Scott Ostler and have subscribed to the L.A. Times since 1981 or so. Perhaps that is why I was so convinced about myself being right about this bet. But did he ever do that in a game? Seems like they would have mentioned the game if he had. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-the-nba-ban-slam-dunking-free-throws/429125/26 "2007-12-08T01:58:51Z")
I emailed Scott Ostler, who wrote “The Leaping Legends of Basketball”. Here is his response: > [@](#): > > No, wilt never dunked a freebie in a game, college or pro. > His claim (I never heard it disputed) was that he would do that trick > in practice in college, and word got around, and a college rule was quickly > passed prohibiting the shooter from stepping over (even in the air) the > free throw line until the ball hit rim or backboard. The nba either > passed a similar rule, or used the college rule book. > Either way, wilt’s freebie dunk was outlawed before he had a chance to > use it for real. Too bad. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-the-nba-ban-slam-dunking-free-throws/429125.md?page=1)