That long, tall shadow

 Wilt Chamberlain was in the news twice this week, which is pretty remarkable considering the man died 27 years ago. But that's how it goes when you cast the sort of shadow across your domain Dipper does so many years after he stood bestride it.

It's a shadow longer even than his seven feet plus one inch, and the domain is still compelled to acknowledge it 53 years after Wilt Chamberlain put down the basketball.  That it continues to do so reminds us continually that no practitioner of James Naismith's humble little game has ever so dominated its fundamentals.

For instance: Did you see what Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat did last night?

Scored 83 points in a blowout win over the Washington Wizards, Bam did. Got up 43 shots and made 20, including seven threes. Shot a mind-warping 43 free throws and made 36 of them. Got things started with a 31-point first quarter. A 31-point quarter.

The 83 points was Adebayo's season high by 43 points, and it was the most points scored by a single player in an NBA game since the late Kobe Bryant went for 81 two decades ago. And it came just a couple of nights after Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder tied an NBA record with his 126th straight 20-point game.

Know whose record he tied?

"Would it be Wilt Chamberlain's?" you're saying now.

Good guess.

Know why Bam Adebayo's 83 points is still only the second-most points scored by a single player in a game in NBA history?

"Would it be because one night in Hershey, Pa., Wilt Chamberlain scored 100?" you're saying.

You got it.

Astounding as Bam's big night was, see, he still came up 17 points short of Wilt's big night. Seventeen points. And until SGA came along, Wilt's 126 straight 20-point games was the league record by ... wait for it ... 34 games. Know who was second, with 92 straight?

"Would it be Wilt?" you're saying.

Dang. You're getting good at this.

Yes, it was Wilt. He followed his 126-point with another 92-point streak, and he did it across just three seasons. The only other player in the top three on this list, besides Wilt and SGA, is Oscar Robertson -- and he's a distant fourth with 79 straight 20-point games. 

If you're keeping score at home, that's 47 games behind Wilt and SGA -- more than half an NBA season. 

And the record for most relevant mentions in one week of a guy who's been dead for 27 years?

I'm guessing it's two, and Wilt holds that one as well. Just as he does 71 other NBA records.

He's the only player in NBA history ever to average 30 points and 20 rebounds in a season, and Wilt did it seven times. He once averaged 50 points a game for an entire season, and once grabbed 55 rebounds in a game. And he remains the only center in NBA history to lead the league in ... wait for it again ... total assists.

That long, tall shadow. It does linger, right, SGA?

"Honestly, it feels almost like a mythical creature," he said the other night, when asked about Chamberlain's legacy. "It's not real."

Indeed.