Through the shroud, Wilt Chamberlain's record stands above

That Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game is the single most unbreakable record in major American sports, shouldn’t even be up for debate.

There are more than enough reasons for this, starting with Friday being the 50th anniversary of his feat—March 2, 1962—and continuing with the utter inability of the legions of great players since then to come anywhere close.

— Sporting News' 10 greatest records: See where Wilt clocks in

— Wilt by the numbers: A look at the game and his other records

Sadly, there are also plenty of reasons why there is a debate. The biggest? Hardly anybody saw it happen then, and literally, there is no way to look back at it now.

There is plenty of video that has survived the last seven decades to show the world that Joe DiMaggio indeed hit in 56 straight games. There is filmed proof that Don Larsen actually pitched a perfect game in the World Series. There’s video of Jack Johnson winning the heavyweight championship, for goodness’ sake, and that was more than 100 years ago.

But for the only 100-point game ever produced in the league representing the highest level of basketball on the planet, turned in by the greatest scoring machine, biggest stats-generator—biggest anything-you-want-to-name, for that matter—virtually nothing.

The NBA has produced a documentary about the game, “Wilt 100,’’ to air on NBA-TV Friday, and at its core is that exact point: Few moments of this magnitude in sports were documented less than this one.

As much as the NBA propelled the whole sports world into the next century, and itself into the mainstream, with its mastery of video in the Magic-Bird-Michael years, that’s how far behind the curve the league was in the Chamberlain-Russell era. Its own network is terribly limited in which of its classic moments and players it can show. It was sketchy even in the 1970s, when Jabbar and Dr. J and Willis Reed ruled, so the '60s are a black hole. Oscar, Elgin, West, Cousy—forget it.

No wonder records like DiMaggio’s, Babe Ruth’s and the like stick in the mind so well, and these NBA greats don’t.

What sticks in the mind from the 100-point game? The photo of Wilt sitting in the locker room holding a sheet of paper with “100” scribbled on it. Unforgettable, but even one clip or photo of him scoring, maybe, one basket would’ve been better.

The game wasn’t televised, of course; hard to believe in a world where you can now see summer-league games live—and, last summer, lockout games. The radio broadcast did survive; it’s basically the stone tablet from the mountain for this game, but chances are hardly anyone tuned in that night.

A news story or column? Neither New York or Philadelphia papers sent a reporter. No radio or TV reporter, either.

Nope, no cell-phone cameras, either, for you kids. Imagine telling someone in 1962 that what they knew as a camera and a telephone would one day be one device and fit into your pocket. It would have been easier for them to believe … well, that someone would score 100 points in an NBA game. Which, at the time, was still beyond the realm of imagination, if only because as overwhelming as Chamberlain was, his previous best was 78 points.

If there was just something more tangible for people in past and future generations to grasp from that game, then this record might get the respect it truly deserves.

Not that it’s disrespected. Over the years, we have had chances to put what Wilt did into perspective.

This era got to see Michael Jordan do things on a basketball court we’d only imagined before, and he never got within 30 of a 100-point game. We also saw Kobe Bryant score 81, saw it in real time, and were able to alert anyone we knew that it was happening right now. That’s still not even in the ballpark, and that was with the three-point shot available.

It’s the kind of record that no one really ever expects to be broken.

A baseball player gets past 30 games in a hit streak once a decade or so, and the anticipation builds. In the 1970s, Pete Rose got into the 40s. That’s a lot closer to DiMaggio than anyone has gotten to Wilt in half a century.

Plenty of other iconic records have gone down lately, or at least been threatened. There now has been a postseason no-hitter pitched. Ruth no long owns the big home-run marks, nor is Lou Gehrig’s games-played streak the record anymore. Wayne Gretzky blew away the major records in hockey. NFL records fall seemingly every year.

Even Chamberlain’s career NBA scoring total is long gone; he’s fourth all-time, and is one healthy Kobe season away from falling to fifth.

But that 100-point game … no one has even gotten a sniff of it in 50 years. There’s no reason to believe anyone will get a sniff in the next 50.

That’s how great, and unbreakable, that record is.

You want details of how great, though? You’ll have to see and hear the handful who were there, and take their word for it.