New York ? The half-million dollar sale of the basketball advertised as the one Wilt Chamberlain used to score 100 points was called off Thursday because of questions about its authenticity.
“We’ve decided to pull it back until we can further investigate the claims being made about the ball,” said Mike Hefner, president of Leland’s, the auction house which sold the ball on April 28 for $551,844 — a record for a basketball and the third highest figure of any sports memorabilia item sold at auction.
Hefner said he was still convinced the ball was the real thing, but he acknowledged the ball’s credibility had suffered from the controversy.
“Our credibility is at stake,” Hefner said. “The ball sold for six figures, but our reputation is worth a lot more.”
Leland’s has refused to identify the winning bidder for the ball that was stolen from Chamberlain after his historic feat for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pa. Chamberlain died in October.
Kerry Ryman, who as a 14-year-old ran off with the ball after shaking Chamberlain’s hand, insisted Thursday that the ball was the genuine piece of sports history.
“There is no way it is not the ball,” the 52-year-old crane operator said from his home in Anneville, Pa.
“There are other people who may be confused about what happened, and others who may be upset about what I did, but the fact is, this is the ball.”
No it isn’t said two other people at the game — Harvey Pollack, there as official statistician and public relations director for the Warriors, and Joe Ruklick, one of Chamberlain’s teammates.
“Why did he wait 38 years to sell the ball? He waited for Chamberlain to die so he could not refute him,” Pollack said of Ryman.
It was Pollack who first cast doubt on the ball’s authenticity after it was sold
“That ball Wilt used to score 100 points was taken out of the game,” Pollack said again Thursday from his office in Philadelphia. “The ball the kid stole was the one put into the game for the final 46 seconds.”
Pollack said the historic ball was taken out of the game by referee Willie Smith, given to the Warriors’ ballboy, and later to Chamberlain.
Ruklick, now a reporter for the Chicago Defender, had a different version. He said he took the historic ball to the free throw line where he “deliberately missed” a foul shot and gave the ball to the ballboy for Chamberlain.
Both agreed the ball was later autographed by Warriors players and officials and put on display in Philadelphia.
Pollack said when the Warriors were sold and moved to the San Francisco-Oakland area, much of the memorabilia was shipped west.
“But, Eddie Gottlieb, the owner, might have given the ball to Chamberlain,” Pollack said.
“Wilt gave the ball to a friend, he told me in 1998, and he told me who,” said Ruklick, who described himself as “Wilt’s understudy for three years.” Ruklick would not name the person, but said the two had talked since the sale of the now-questioned ball.
Both Pollack and Ruklick laughed off a statement by a security guard at the arena, who after being outrun by Ryman, said Chamberlain told him to let the youngster keep the ball.
“Wilt would have led a posse to get that ball,” Pollack said.
“Wilt saved everything,” Ruklick said.
Hefner said the ball may be put up for auction again in August, “and by then we hope to produce the evidence to prove the ball’s authenticity.”
Only two other pieces of sports memorabilia topped the controversial ball at auction — Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball, which sold for $3.05 million, and a 1910 Honus Wagner card, which sold for $640,000.
