Wilton CHAMBERLAIN was an American basketball player who He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA. He is widely considered one of the greatest and most dominant players in NBA history. Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season, which he accomplished seven times. He is also the only player to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game over the entire course of his NBA career. Contemporary colleagues were often terrified to play against Chamberlain. Bill Russell regularly feared being embarrassed by Chamberlain, Walt Frazier called his dominance on the court "comical", and when 6 ft 11 in 250-pound (in his early years) Hall-of-Fame center Bob Lanier was asked about the most memorable moment of his career, Lanier answered: "When Wilt Chamberlain lifted me up and moved me like a coffee cup so he could get a favorable position." I have been around some athletes in my day. But nobody and I mean nobody was stronger than Wilty. He was a man's man!!! Said Arnold schwarzenneger who has been many times “ Mr Olympia.”
When the topic of all-time greatest player was once raised, none other than the legendary Larry Bird didn't hesitate. "Open up the record book and it will be obvious who the greatest is," he said.
When he retired in 1973 after 14 NBA seasons, Chamberlain owned 128 league records. Today, nearly four decades later, he still holds 71.
Scored 74, 78 & 90 points in 3 consecutive games in High School- 42pts and 29rebs in his college debut- Won rookie of the year after averaging 38pts and 27rebs and breaking 8 NBA records- Was MVP of the All-star game as a rookie with 23pts and 25rebs - 2nd season averaged 38pts and 27reb and became the 1st player to pass 3k points and 2k rebounds- - Averaged 48.53 minutes a game in 1962. A regulation game is 48 minutes- Set NBA All-Star game record with 42pts and 24rebs -Averaged 50pts against Bill Russell and the Celtics in 62 Playoffs - Won MVP in 1966 after leading the league in rebounding and third in assist (8ast). - In 1967 he became the first center to lead the league in assist beating out Lenny Wilkens. Won Finals MVP & helped Lakers win their 1st championship in 1972. He had 24pts 29rebs 8ast 8blks in Game 5- Was offered a contract by the Cavs in 1980 when he was 45 and the Nets even offered him a contract when he was 50....and more and more
On March 2, 1962 Wilt Chamberlain did something no one has ever done in an NBA game. Chamberlain scored 100 points as the Warriors beat the New York Knicks 169-147 in a neutral court game in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Officially, only 4,124 people were in attendance. He was averaging 50 points a game that year, so it was normal for him to score a lot of points. Only when they decided that they did not want me to score anymore points that my team decided to do just the opposite.” Wilt averaged 50 points a game and he did this missing 15, 20 or 25 foul shots a game. They looked for Wilt anyway,” A knick player remembered. “The Knicks lost perspective on winning the game,” “They were more concerned with stopping me from scoring points than winning the game. It wasn’t the greatest shooting night I ever had, but it’s the game I’m most remembered for.” Said Wilt.
The hundred-point game was a revolutionary act in a sense that is not enough talkedAgainst the Knickerbockers , the Dipper symbolically broke the NBA owners’ arbitrary quota that limited the number of black players, a tacit understanding that was systemic in America His hundred-point game was also a hyperbolic announcement of the ascendency of the black superstar in professional basketball. A wave of black athletes had been achieving superstardom in other professional sports for more than a decade .the year before the Dipper had broken into the league, Elgin Baylor rated as the only black player among the NBA’s top ten scorers. in 1961-62, there were five scoring leaders who were black, and by the later Sixties there would be seven.
Wilt did not decide to score that many points ...He had already led the league in scoring in his first two NBA seasons, when Frank McGuire took over as head coach of the Philadelphia Warriors. He told Chamberlain he wanted him to score even more. "I told coach McGuire I didn't think we could beat Boston," Wilt said in his 1973 autobiography. "I thought they just had too many good players. But I said I'd try my best to do things his way.
"'OK,'" he said. "We aren't as good as Boston -- not with you scoring 37, 38 points a game like you did your first two years. We can't get enough scoring out of the rest of our guys to equal them. But if you can score 50, I think the rest of the guys can make up the difference to get us even with Boston.'"Fifty?" I yelped. "Impossible." "But Coach McGuire said he knew he could do it .
Wilton Chamberlain is rarely ever picked as the best basketball player of all-time today although back then, it wasn't even a debate. The simple fact that they had to change for multiple rule in the NBA speaks for itself, They widened the lane to try to keep him farther away from the hoop, instituting offensive goaltending and revising rules governing inbounding the ball and shooting free throws (such as making it against the rules to inbound the ball over the backboard). Chamberlain, who had a 48-inch vertical leap, was physically capable of converting foul shots via a slam dunk without a running start (beginning his movement at the top of the key).[146] When his dunks practically undermined the difficulty of a foul shot, both the NCAA and the NBA banned his modus operandi. In basketball history, pundits have stated that the only other player who forced such a massive change of rules is 6'10" Minneapolis Lakers center George Mikan, who played a decade before Chamberlain and also caused many rule changes designed to thwart so-called "big men".
Although Chamberlain, who racked up some of the most impressive statistics in the history of Northern American professional sports, because he won "just" two NBA championships and lost seven out of eight playoff series against the Celtics teams of his on-court nemesis Bill Russell, Chamberlain was often called "selfish" and a "loser". Frank Deford of ESPN said that Chamberlain was caught in a no-win situation: "If you win, everybody says, 'Well, look at him, he's that big.' If you lose, everybody says, 'How could he lose, a guy that size?' " Chamberlain himself often said: "Nobody roots for Goliath."
When Wilt had the opportunity to share the ball with effective scoring options in Hal Greer, Chet Walker and Billy Cunningham, He did. He even led the team in assists multiple times. He changed his game in the prime of his career and won a championship in the process. He's not praised enough for that.
After his nba career, Wilt became professional volleyball player. "I started playing volleyball very late in my athletic career, around the age thirty-three of thirty-four, but I became quite proficient. It's a highly skilled and very fast-paced game. Being able to hold my own against the best in the world, on the beach or indoors, is something I am very proud of." He said.
Wilt was, a very effective hitter. The rest of his game was spotty because he hadnt played that much. It was a specialized game at that time. There was no rotation. And he was very effective in his role.
"Michael, they changed the rules so you can dominate........, when i was playing, they changed all the rules so i could not dominate. "!
To know more about the subject:
Chamberlain, Wilt; Shaw, David (1973). Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door
Cherry, Robert (2004). Wilt: Larger than Life. Chicago: Triumph Books.
Pomerantz, Gary M. (2005). Wilt, 1962: The Night of 100 Points and the Dawn of a New Era.
Sheridan, Chris (February 10, 2007). "Until his dying day, Wilt was invincible".
Warriors riding high on Wilt the Stilt". Sportingnews.com. March 5, 2007. Archived from the original on December 13, 2007. Retrieved January 26, 2008.
Taylor, John (2005). The rivalry : Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and the golden age of basketball. New York: Random House
nba.com (February 10, 2007). "Willis Reed Bio". Retrieved January 27, 2008.
Schwartz, Larry (February 10, 2007). "Wilt battled loser label".
