Daniel Gafford Being On The Verge Of Breaking Wilt Chamberlain's Record Of 35 Straight Made Baskets Is Wildly Impressive

Tim Heitman. Getty Images.

Listen, did I ever think I'd be sitting here writing a Daniel Gafford blog? Heavens no. I imagine there's a large percentage of stoolies who may have clicked on this blog who have no idea who Daniel Gafford even is and only clicked on this blog to comment that they have no idea who Daniel Gafford is. 

But here's the thing. I also live by one general rule when it comes to this stuff. If you're going to go out and do something we haven't seen since WILT CHAMBERLAIN, then I don't really care who you are. You're getting a blog and you're getting the proper amount of respect.

I don't care if a ton of these are alley oops or dunks and you shouldn't either. 33 straight made baskets is one of the more insane things I've ever seen to the point where my brain can't fully comprehend it. No rim outs? No smoked bunnies? Things that happen to every NBA player all the time and yet here Gafford is on the brink of history. To put into perspective just how ridiculous Wilt was, while his 35 straight is the record, he also had a separate stretch of 32 straight makes as well that took place a few weeks prior. 

I can only imagine what's going through Gafford's mind at this point. You have to be terrified to miss, even if he's saying all the right things

If I'm Luka and JKidd, the first thing I'm doing is getting Gafford some easy, wide open dunks. If I'm Gafford, I'm not taking anything that isn't a wide open dunk until I get the record. Can you imagine getting to 34 and missing? That would be brutal. Just run a P&R, make the defender commit to Luka and lob it up. As someone who appreciates witnessing NBA history, I'm rooting for the guy. 3 Getting to 36 straight makes and breaking Wilts record is something many of us might never see again considering it's been since the late 60s when Wilt did it. For those not aware, it's 2024.

I'm also rooting for Gafford because it's not like he's just a FGM merchant during this streak. He's also defending his ass off

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so to me, this is something that the Basketball Gods should reward. Gafford is respecting the game, he's playing both ends, and it's not like he's out there stat padding or anything like that. He's just finishing plays/fulfilling his role.

The good news is the Mavs next game is against OKC, who doesn't exactly have a ton of size outside of Chet. For a Mavs team that is fighting tooth and nail to get out of the Play In and have won 4 straight, it'd be pretty cool to see Gafford get the record and for the Mavs to leave OKC with a huge win. As I blogged yesterday, I want as much chaos as possible for the final month of the season when it comes to the bottom of the West standings, and if we get some NBA history along the way that's cool with me too.