Chamberlain, Wilt
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Wikipedia-Article "Wilt Chamberlain"
Wilton Norman Chamberlain, commonly known as Wilt Chamberlain (August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was a former National Basketball Association basketball player. Known as Wilt the Stilt (a nickname he hated) or The Big Dipper, he is regarded as one of the greatest and most dominant basketball players of all time[1] for the incredible statistical achievements he attained throughout his playing career.
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Early Life
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Chamberlain drew national attention playing at Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia. Wilt played two years for the University of Kansas (freshmen were ineligible at the time), where he earned All-American honors twice and led the Jayhawks to the 1957 championship game (which they lost to North Carolina 54-53 in three overtimes).
After a frustrating junior year in which Kansas did not even reach the NCAA Tournament (at the time, teams that had lost their league championship were denied admission), he decided to turn pro, citing that he wanted to be paid for being double and triple teamed every night. The Philadelphia Warriors owned his NBA rights, having picked him in 1955 as a territorial pick. However, he wasn't eligible to play in the NBA until his college class graduated in 1959. He played a season with the Harlem Globetrotters until finally becoming eligible to join the Warriors. He was listed as the third pick in the NBA draft but was actually a territorial pick.
NBA Career
In his first year with the Warriors (1960), Chamberlain lead the league in scoring, with 37.6 points per game, and rebounding, with 27 rebounds per game. He became the first of two players to be named MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season; in 1969 this feat would again be achieved by Wes Unseld. The Warriors lost to the Boston Celtics in the Conference Finals that year, which would be an ongoing occurrence in Chamberlain's career.
The fact that the Celtics were in the same Eastern Division as the Warriors meant that Chamberlain and Co. could not even reach the NBA Finals without finding a way to beat the Celtics. His rookie year was the first of the Celtics' record eight straight NBA titles. In 1963 the Warriors had relocated to San Fransisco and in 1964 Chamberlain and San Fransisco Warriors lost to the Celtics in the NBA Finals. After that season, Chamberlain was traded back to Philadelphia, where the Syracuse Nationals had recently moved to become the 76ers. Back in the Eastern Division, he was blocked from an appearance in the finals by the Celtics on-going dynasty. The Eastern Conference Finals that year came down to the final seconds of Game 7, and the Celtics won by one point when the 76ers' Hal Greer attempted to get the ball inbounds, and John Havlicek stole it to preserve the Celtic lead.
Chamberlain was the centerpiece of the Sixers team that finally beat the Celtics dynasty in 1967, winning a then-record 68 games en route to the NBA title. Only two years later, he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he won another title in 1972, and was instrumental in setting a new record for most victories in a season (69), as well as that team's 33-game winning streak, the longest such streak in any American professional sport. Chamberlain, however, was not that impressed. "I played with the Harlem Globetrotters and we won 445 in a row," he said at the time. "And they were all on the road."
In 1973, the San Diego Conquistadors of the American Basketball Association offered Chamberlain a $600,000 contract as player-coach, and Chamberlain accepted. The Conquistadors quickly circulated publicity photos of Chamberlain in a Conquistadors uniform holding an ABA ball. The Lakers sued to keep Chamberlain off the court, and he never played another game. Chamberlain did coach the Conquistadors in that season and he played on the court in practices and scrimmages with the team.
Legacy
The 7-foot 1-inch (2.16 m) Chamberlain holds nearly 100 NBA records, including the record for most points in a game -- 100.
Going into the 1961-62 season, this record was held by Elgin Baylor of the Lakers, with 71 points. On December 8, 1961, Chamberlain and the Warriors played Baylor and the Lakers. In that game, Chamberlain scored 78 points, breaking Baylor's record. However, the game had gone into triple overtime. Legendary Laker broadcaster "Chick" Hearn often told the story that he asked Baylor after the game whether Baylor was bothered that he'd lost the record in that manner, with Chamberlain having had 15 extra minutes of game time to score the points he needed to reach and then surpass Baylor's previous-record 71. According to Hearn, Baylor replied that he wasn't bothered by it because "one day, that guy is going to score 100."
Indeed, not three months later, on March 2, 1962, against the New York Knicks in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single game--no overtime periods necessary. In fact, it is reported that Chamberlain scored the pivotal basket in the forty-sixth minute, and there was nothing that could be done to stop the relatively small crowd from completely mobbing the floor. Unfortunately, there exists no video footage of this phenomenal accomplishment because the game was not televised.
Chamberlain's 78-point game against the Lakers also still stands as the second-highest point total.
The current record for players other than Chamberlain is 73, set by David Thompson in 1978.
Chamberlain also set a record for rebounds in a game with 55, against the Boston Celtics on November 24, 1960. (The opposing center in that game was Bill Russell, who had held the former record of 51.) Chamberlain averaged 30.1 points and 22.9 rebounds per game for his career.
In addition to the fact that he led the NBA in rebounding 11 times, led in shooting percentage seven times, and led in scoring seven times, less eye-catching stats also server to demonstrate Chamberlain's sheer dominance. After critics called him a one-dimensional (or even selfish) player, Chamberlain defiantly promised to lead the league in assists the next year, which he did in 1968, at a clip of 8.6 per game - numbers good enough to match with today's point guards.
The indefatiguable Chamberlain was the defensive bulwark for every team he ever played for. Despite the fact that he was relied upon so heavily on defense, in his 14 years in the NBA he never once fouled out of a game. What makes this more remarkable is how many minutes he was still able to log. In 1962 he even managed 48.5 minutes per game - meaning he played practically every minute of the overtime contests as well the regulation. His 3882 minutes played out of the team's possible 3890 mean an average of six seconds rest per game. Chamberlain played over 46 minutes per game for seven seasons, and his career 45.8 average is unparalleled.
Chamberlain also holds the top five marks in minutes played in a season and the top seven marks in minutes-per-game played in a season, including 3882 minutes out of a possible 3890 minutes in his superlative 1961-62 season, an average of more than 48 minutes per game in a game that runs 48 minutes of regulation time!
Despite his astounding scoring and rebounding, it is important to note that Chamberlain's formidable defensive presence can be missed at a casual glance. Chamberlain played in an era during which blocks and steals were not officially kept statistics. Were this the case, many sportswriters attest that Chamberlain would have had many quadruple- if not quintuple-doubles, and average a triple double for his career (blocks).
His 1961-62 scoring average of 50.4 ppg, accomplished with the Philadelphia Warriors, is by far the NBA record. Chamberlain also holds the next three spots on the NBA's season scoring average list with 44.8, 38.9 and 38.4 points per game. The next closest player is Elgin Baylor, who averaged 38.3 ppg in the same '61-62 season in which Chamberlain set the record. Chamberlain is also the only player in NBA history to achieve a double-triple-double (20 points, 20 rebounds, 20 assists), in one game.
Chamberlain scored 31,419 points in 1,045 professional games. This was the best in NBA history when he retired in 1973, though his scoring total has since been exceeded by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone, both of whom played several more seasons than Chamberlain, and by Michael Jordan. His career scoring average of 30.06 points per game (ppg) is second-highest in league history, fractionally behind Jordan's 30.12 ppg.
Chamberlain ranked #2 in SLAM Magazine's Top 75 NBA Players of all time in 2003.
Personal life
His battles with center Bill Russell were legendary; they were fierce competitors on the court, yet were close personal friends off the hardwood. Wilt also earned accolades for other sports, including track and field (in which he ran the 100-yard dash in 10.9 seconds in high school), volleyball (he founded and starred in a pro league) and auto racing, among others. He flirted with boxing, and was offered a pro football contract by the Kansas City Chiefs in 1966. He also was an actor, celebrity and businessman after his playing career concluded. In 1984, he co-starred (along with future Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger) in Conan the Destroyer. He also could bench press 500 pounds.
He authored four books before his death on October 12, 1999, including an autobiography, A View from Above, in which he controversially claimed to have had sex with almost 20,000 women — this would have averaged 1.2 women per day from age 15 until his death. Many people doubted his specific number, though few questioned the fact of wild sexual behavior. He drew heavy criticism from many public figures, who accused him of fulfilling stereotypes about African Americans, and of behaving irresponsibly (especially given the AIDS crisis, which was well underway by the 1980s, when many of the conquests were made). Chamberlain defended himself, saying "I was just doing what was natural — chasing good-looking ladies, whoever they were and wherever they were available". He also noted that he never tried to sleep with a woman who was married.
Chamberlain always wore a rubber band around his wrist, due to a superstition, and was fond of saying that "Nobody roots for Goliath." He died unexpectedly of a heart attack in his sleep in his Los Angeles, California home.