Here is a clip of Wilt playing volleyball. Wilt Chamberlain is not the greatest basketball player ever, (hes my third best) but he is a better athlete than any man, woman, or demigod who has ever done what he did. I decided to use only NBA clips, without more famous college footage. Wilt was getting on an elevator while two delivery men were having trouble lifting a cart. Incredible how fast he got down the court, takes like 12 steps to go the full length of the court. For a player to score 100 points in an NBA game, he must not only want to do it, he must on, on a deeper level, need to do it. Even though the era in which he played and the level of his competition will always be used to contextualize his feats, his jaw-dropping stats are still an official part of NBA lore and are likely never to be seen again. Imhoff committed six fouls and therefore fouled out of the game after playing just 20 minutes. All rights reserved. Only Kobe Bryants 81-point performance has even come close and it doesnt seem physically possible that a player could fit in 19 more points than he did in that game. He averaged 8.8 blocks in those 122 games. Quarterback is the most important position in football. As a teenager, Chamberlain was sought after by more than 100 colleges and universities after his play at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia. Most seasons leading the league in minutes: 8, Highest scoring average in a season: 50.4, Most seasons leading the league in field goal percentage: 9, Highest average in rebounds over a career: 22.9, Most free throws made in a game: 28 (and he was an awful free throw shooter). Before you look away and start commenting, let me explain. Wilt Chamberlain - Age, Bio, Personal Life, Family and Stats - CelebsAges A dipper dunk! In the end he was able to win the Big 8 track and field championships three straight years. I was glued in front of my old black and white TV trying to fix the rabbit ears so I could see the Sixers play the Boston Celtics on the old parquet floors of the Boston Garden. 1 | One of the fastest men on the planet. Wilt skipped his Senior season at Kansas choosing instead to play with the famed Harlem Globetrotters. Harveys Take: Wilt and Russell played against each other 142 times throughout their careers. 1.Wilt s 100-point game (vs. New York Knicks, March 2, 1962, Hershey, Pa.) Harvey s Take: Wilt s 100-point game was part of his transcendent . I watched Wilt pass the ball to Hal Greer, Luke Jackson, and Billy Cunningham. Six-Hundred Pounds. Chamberlains single-season scoring record is so out of reach that only one player Michael Jordan in 198687 has even come within 1,000 points of it. 3. Amid so many sports records, why does this milestone still resonate? Kobe finished his with 60 points and Wilt finished with a massive double-double that was routine for him, but a career night for almost anyone else. YouTube Gold: The Immense Power Of Wilt Chamberlain Would race his teammates giving them basically a 1/4 of the court head start (they start at FT line, he starts at baseline), and they'd have to run as fast as they could just to still not get beat, Faster than 6-3 Hal Greer in only a 1/2 court distance race in two different attempts after Greer challenged Wilt, Greer is cited as the fastest guard in the NBA at that time, Faster than Al Attles (and the rest of his Warriors team) in a full court race after Wilt and Attles' coach Alex Hannum set up races to see who the fastest players on the Warriors team were. Even when a player sustains greatness like Harden did, it only serves to highlight the magnitude of the statistical gap between Wilt and everyone else. Wilt Chamberlain is the greatest ATHLETE of all time, and its not even close. But we dont have a complete audio or video record of this incredible game. As told by K.C., During a game near the end of Wilts career against Boston, Paul Silas and Happy Hairston were about to get into a fight. After his 11-year career ended, Hairston. That record still stands to this day and no one will come near it. Yes. Jim Brown too. Here's what really sets Wilt apart. Powered by phpBB Forum Software phpBB Limited. Wilt Chamberlain is the greatest ATHLETE of all time, and it - Medium And then there's Wilt Chamberlain. There wasn't anything he couldn't do in sports. He had six games with 43 or more, topping out at 55. Eddie Gottlieb was the owner of the Philadelphia Warriors. The team featured several prominent track athletes. Not anymore. Its easy to imagine a future legend take the league by storm and erupt for a huge game in his first season, but the fact that so few freshmen have even come close to Wilts mark makes it seem very unlikely. No one had as much impact in professional sports as Wilt. In warm ups he made hook shots fron half court with ease. When the Los Angeles Lakers got Wilt Chamberlain (see cover) in a trade last summer, the immediate popular supposition was that they had dealt themselves a . Really not a reason for that one. Well, a few things happened off the court that allowed him to reach this unsurpassed peak of 100 points. " to imply that the number was actually more like 2,000. The following year the IVA All-Star game was televised only because Chamberlain played in it. He used his size and athletic ability perfectly. Wilt was a dominant player, and that season he was particularly dominant as a scorer. According to David M. Pomerantz's exquisite must-read Wilt, 1962, lifelong friend and confidante Lynda Huey thought that number sounded about right. Wilt used to work at a hotel as a bellhop and sometimes people would pull up with flat tires but had no jack. Against the Knicks, Wilt took 63 of the teams 115 field goal attempts and made 36 of them. When someone asked Wilt to explain why he did so well from the line, he responded: I cant., We knew something big was in store because earlier that day, Wilt lit up the arcade in Hershey, taking on all comers and knocking em down whether it was shooting clay pigeons or pinball., Im glad I wrote 100 on a piece of paper for Wilt to hold up after the game for The Associated Press photographer because otherwise, Im not so sure people to this day would believe he actually scored 100.. Lol thats not impressive. The mere mention of the Big Dipper's name evokes images of hoops dominance and romantic impossibilities. Even after Wilt scored 78, no one was thinking about 100.. Best we can tell if we are to listen to Wilts narration the night before, thats what he was doing. Phillies fans who booked trips to Clearwater for Spring Training frustrated by MLB lockout. Oscar Robertson, the great NBA star, would later say that Wilt saves the league. In addition to all these legendary tales, Wilt toured with the Harlem Globetrotters in 1959. According to Chamberlain's sister Barbara, the former NBA star was known to run across the roofs of Los Angeles on the hunt for a swimming pool in which he could soak his hulking frame. 5 Things You Didn't Know About Wilt Chamberlain | Mental Floss After Lunch he boarded the team bus to Hershey. announcers would introduce the starting lineups before the game, and then they would introduce each fan in the crowd because there were so few of them. Jerry West, from "Wilt: Larger than Life". NBA rules didn't allow players who hadn't finished college, though, so Wilt signed up with the Globetrottters.
