FanHouse Adrian Dantley

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Tuesday, there are 28 days remaining.

For one night, Wilt Chamberlain felt like a little guy.

He stood at the foul line and drilled free throws as if he were Oscar Robertson, Jerry West or some other sharpshooting guard from his era.

The result was Chamberlain, a 51.1-percent career marksman, hitting 28-of-32 free throws. That showing is a primary reason why the big man was able to become the only player ever to score 100 points in a game as his Philadelphia Warriors beat New York 169-147 on March 2, 1962 in Hershey, Pa.

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Saturday, there are 38 days remaining.

Before Jerry Rice made shambles of NFL marks and before Wayne Gretzky was done tearing up the NHL, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was doing a skyhook on the NBA record book.

The big fellow scored an NBA-record 38,387 points in a 20-year career that spanned from 1969-89.

The number 38 figures prominently in a few other Abdul-Jabbar accomplishments. It was 38 years ago he won his first of six NBA titles, and the 7-foot-2 center was 38 when he won his second of two NBA Finals Most Valuable Player awards.

The Basketball Hall of Fame revealed its seven newest members on Monday: Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and Pat Riley were all accepted in their first year of eligibility while Adrian Dantley, announcer Dick Vitale, Pistons owner Bill Davidson and women's collegiate coach Cathy Rush were finally accepted after falling short as finalists in the past.

Much will be written about the three big names to get the nod -- Olajuwon, Ewing and Riley -- and deservedly so, but I'm most happy for Dantley, who had to suffer through being a finalist in six of the past seven years before finally getting the nod. Dantley, who's currently a Nuggets assistant coach, was so used to being stuck as the bridesmaid that he almost didn't answer the phone when the Hall called on Thursday. From the Denver Post:

Dantley found out Thursday. "He's a funny cat, because he didn't want to take the phone call because he thought he was going to get rejected again," [Nuggets coach George] Karl said. "I kept saying: 'Tell him to take the phone call! It's gonna be a yes!' "

Dantley never has been shy about talking about his apprehension to answering the phone when the Hall calls. "Every time around the last week of March, I start feeling kind of funny, seeing whether they are going to say yea or nay," Dantley said in an interview with The Post in February. "It's a weird feeling when the guys say, 'Sorry you didn't make it, you're eligible for next year.' . . . The last couple of years I haven't even answered my phone."

I think part of the reason it was easy to overlook Dantley's contributions to the game is because he spent the bulk of his prime years in relative obscurity with the (pre-Stockton/Malone era) Utah Jazz. But he retired as one of the league's top 10 scorers of all-time, and he's still in the top 20. Had he played in the spotlight of a major market like New York, he'd have been a shoe-in years ago.