Ranking NBA Christmas Day performances: Where does Luka Doncic's 50-point game rank?

3. Wilt Chamberlain - 1961

Wilt Chamberlain's Christmas Day performance in 1961 was nothing short of amazing as the big man dropped 59 points and a Christmas Day record 36 rebounds. There's unfortunately no footage of the game just as was the case for Rick Barry's performance, but it doesn't take away from the overt statistical significance of Chamberlain's performance.

Chamberlain, who was playing for the San Francisco Warriors at the time, unfortunately lost the game as he didn't get much help from his teammates supposedly in a double-overtime loss to the New York Knicks. Chamberlain was playing in an era of basketball that was still developing in nature, and he had a clear physical advantage over almost everyone he played against at the time.

Despite how insane his statistics are, his team still lost the game and the competition that he was playing against isn't comparable to today's NBA whatsoever. That being said, Luka Doncic's performance on Christmas Day against Phoenix was much more significant than Chamberlain's for a variety of reasons, but that doesn't take away from how much of sheer force Chamberlain was at the time.

Chamberlain would likely still dominate in today's NBA when you take into account the changes made to the game that benefit players nowadays, but his Christmas Day performance in 1961 was still an absurd performance nonetheless. It's doubtful anyone will break his Christmas Day rebounding record for a very long time, but our next candidate certainly has the potential to score more than Chamberlain's 59 points on Christmas Day some time in the future.