A Largely Unknown Mavericks Center Is Closing In On One Of Wilt Chamberlain’s NBA Records

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Wilt Chamberlain is one of the best big men to ever step foot on a basketball court. It’s doubtful Mavericks center Daniel Gafford will ever earn a similar reputation, but he does have a chance to break one of the many records that was set by the NBA legend.

I’m going to assume most people reading this aren’t intimately familiar with Daniel Gafford, who made a name for himself at the University of Arkansas before being selected by the Bulls in the second round of the 2019 NBA Draft.

He spent two seasons in Chicago before he was traded to the Wizards in 2021, and last month, he found himself on the move again after Washington shipped him off to the Dallas Mavericks ahead of the trade deadline.

Gafford has averaged 8.6 points and 5.3 rebounds in the 305 games he’s appeared in over the course of his NBA career.

As a result, he’s probably not the first player who springs to mind when it comes to guys who have the potential to break one of the 72 NBA records held (or shared) by Wilt Chamberlain, a man who averaged 30.1 points and 22.9 boards in the 1,045 regular season contests he played in over a span of 14 seasons.

However, Gafford inched closer to doing exactly that when the Mavericks faced off against the Bulls on Monday night in a game where he scored 20 points while sinking all nine of the field goals he attempted (with all of those shots coming from deep in the paint).

As J.E. Skeets notes, Gafford has gone 28-for-28 from the floor (thanks in no small part to easy buckets coming off of assists from Luka Doncic) while making every single field goal he’s attempted in the past four games, which means he only needs to make seven more in a row to tie the record Chamberlain set in 1967.

Gafford will have the chance to make history when the Mavericks face off against the Warriors on Wednesday.