PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- No one is questioning that after the 1962 game in which Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points, a teenager named Kerry Ryman ran on to the court and grabbed a basketball.

On Friday, Ryman, now 52, sold that basketball through an auction house to a collector for $551,844. No one questions that either.What is being questioned is whether the ball Ryman took that night is the one Chamberlain used to score 100 points.

"He may think he has the ball," said Harvey Pollack, now a statistician for the Philadelphia 76ers, "but myself and a lot of other people are challenging the authenticity of that ball."

Pollack, who was working for the Philadelphia Warriors when that game against the New York Knicks was played in Hershey, said referee Willie Smith took the ball out of the game after Chamberlain scored his 100th point. Another ball was taken from a bag beneath Pollack's seat and used for the remainder of the game, he said.

"That's the one the kid took," Pollack said. "The only problem was that in the last 46 seconds, or however much time was left, Wilt never touched that ball."

Pollack said the ball Chamberlain used was signed by Chamberlain, his teammates and several others.

"(Ryman) said he played with that ball for a while," Pollack said. "He wouldn't have done that if the ball had signatures all over it."

View Comments

The ball was then displayed in the Warriors' office in downtown Philadelphia until the team was sold to a group of San Francisco investors, he said.

"The problem is: All of the people who worked in that office are dead," Pollack said.

He said the Warriors memorabilia moved with the team. But a spokesman for the Oakland, Calf.-based Golden State Warriors said he had no idea what happened to the Philadelphia Warriors memorabilia.

Josh Evans, the president of Leland's, the auction house that sold the ball for Ryman, said he remains convinced that the ball he sold is the one Chamberlain used.

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.