Wilt Chamberlain
Wilton Norman Chamberlain was an American professional basketball player. Standing tall, he played center in the National Basketball Association for 14 seasons. He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, and was elected to the NBA's 35th, 50th, and 75th anniversary teams. Chamberlain is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
According to former teammate Billy Cunningham, "The NBA Guide reads like Wilt's personal diary." Chamberlain holds 72 NBA records, including several regular season records in scoring, rebounding, and durability; blocks were not counted during his career. He is best remembered as the only player to score 100 points in a single game. He also once gathered 55 rebounds, and never fouled out. Chamberlain is the only player to average 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season, a feat he accomplished seven times. He once averaged 50 points per game, as well as 48 minutes per game, in a season. Chamberlain ultimately won two NBA championships, four regular-season Most Valuable Player awards, the Rookie of the Year, one Finals MVP, and one All-Star Game MVP; he was selected to thirteen All-Star Games and ten All-NBA Teams. He won seven scoring, eleven rebounding, nine durability, and nine field goal percentage titles; he is the only center to lead the league in total assists.
While in college, Chamberlain played for the Kansas Jayhawks, and lost the national championship game to the North Carolina Tar Heels in triple overtime his sophomore year. He also played for the Harlem Globetrotters before joining the NBA, where he played for the Philadelphia / San Francisco Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers, and Los Angeles Lakers. Chamberlain had an on-court rivalry with Boston Celtics' center Bill Russell, suffering a long string of losses before breaking through and winning the 1967 NBA Finals as a member of the 76ers. Chamberlain won his second championship as a member of the 1972 Lakers, a team which set a record with a 33-game winning streak. Following his professional basketball career, Chamberlain played volleyball in the short-lived International Volleyball Association. He served one term as league president and is enshrined in the IVA Hall of Fame.
Sportswriters had known Chamberlain by several nicknames during his playing career, calling attention to his height since his high school days. He disliked the ones that negatively portrayed his height, such as "Wilt the Stilt" and "Goliath", preferring "the Big Dipper", inspired by his friends who saw him dip his head as he walked through doorways. The name was retained in one of Chamberlain's signature moves, the "dipper dunk". He was one of the first players to make prominent use of shots like the fade away jump shot, and the finger roll. His success near the basket led to the widening of the lane, offensive goaltending rules, and the banning of inbound passes over the backboard. Chamberlain, always a poor free throw shooter, had the ability to dunk from the foul line, which led to the ruling that a free-throw shooter must keep his feet behind the line.
Early years
Wilton Norman Chamberlain was born on August21, 1936, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the sixth of nine children to southerners Olivia Ruth, a domestic worker, and William Chamberlain, a welder and handyman. The family lived in a middle-class neighborhood in the Haddington section of West Philadelphia. Chamberlain was raised as a Baptist.Chamberlain's first competitive sport was track. As a fourth grader, he ran the 300-yard shuttle in the 1946 Penn Relays among older teammates. Tall from an early age, he stood by 10 years old. He nearly died of pneumonia in his early years and missed a whole year of school as a result. During early childhood, he was not interested in basketball, which he regarded as "a game for sissies". According to Chamberlain, however, "basketball was king in Philadelphia", so he eventually turned to the sport in seventh grade, while attending Shoemaker Junior High School.
High school career
Overbrook High School (1953–1955)
Chamberlain stood when he entered Philadelphia's Overbrook High School. As an avid track and field athlete, he high jumped 6 feet, 6 inches, ran the 440 yards in 49.0 seconds and the 880 yards in 1:58.3, put the shot 53 feet, 4 inches, and long jumped 22 feet.Chamberlain was the star player for the Overbrook Hilltoppers basketball team, wearing jersey number five. Chamberlain had a natural advantage against his peers; he became renowned for his scoring talent, physical strength, and shot-blocking abilities. According to ESPN journalist Hal Bock, Chamberlain was "scary, flat-out frightening ... before he came along, very few players at the center position possessed his level of athleticism, stature, and stamina. Chamberlain changed the game in fundamental ways no other player did." In this period of his life, his three lifelong nicknames "Wilt the Stilt", "Goliath", and "The Big Dipper"—his favorite—were coined.
Chamberlain led the team to two city championships over three seasons, with Overbrook logging a 56–3 win-loss record. He broke Hall of Fame guard Tom Gola's Philadelphia-high-school scoring record and graduated with 2,252 points, averaging 37.4 points per game.
1953: city runner-up
Chamberlain averaged 31 points per game during his 1953 high-school season and led his team to a 71–62 win over the Northeast High School team of Hall of Fame guard Guy Rodgers. Chamberlain scored 34 points as Overbrook won the Philadelphia Public League title and gained a spot in the city championship game against West Catholic High School, the winner of the rival Catholic league. In that game, West Catholic quadruple-teamed Chamberlain throughout the game, and despite his 29 points, the Hilltoppers lost 54–42.1954: city champions
In his second season, Chamberlain led Overbrook to a 19–0 season. He scored a high-school record 71 points against Roxborough. The Hilltoppers comfortably won the Public League title after again beating Northeast High, as Chamberlain scored 40 points. Overbrook then won the city title by defeating South Catholic 74–50. Chamberlain scored 32 points and Overbrook finished the season undefeated.During his summer vacations, Chamberlain worked as a bellhop at Kutsher's Hotel. Owners Milton and Helen Kutsher maintained a lifelong friendship with Chamberlain. Red Auerbach, the coach of the NBA's Boston Celtics, was also athletic director of the summer basketball league at Kutscher's; Auerbach spotted Chamberlain playing there and had him play one-on-one against University of Kansas standout and national champion B. H. Born, elected NCAA Most Outstanding Player in 1953. Chamberlain won 25–10; Born was so dejected he gave up a promising NBA career and became a tractor engineer; according to Born, "If there were high school kids that good, I figured I wasn't going to make it to the pros". Auerbach wanted Chamberlain to go to a New England university so the Celtics could draft him as a territorial pick but Chamberlain did not respond.
1955: city champions
In Chamberlain's third and final Overbrook season, he continued his high scoring, logging 74, 78, and 90 points in three consecutive games. The Hilltoppers suffered just one loss, to Farrell High 59–58. Overbrook won the Public League a third time, beating West Philadelphia 78–60; in the city championship game, they again played West Catholic. Chamberlain scored 35 points and led Overbrook to an 83–42 victory. He was retroactively honored as Mr. Basketball USA for 1955, the earliest year for which such a selection was made.Christian Street YMCA
In 1953, while still a sophomore in high school, Chamberlain won his first championship. He led Christian Street YMCA to the title in the national YMCA tournament in High Point, North Carolina, beating the local favorite and defending champion High Point team 85–79. Chamberlain was the youngest member of the team.Pittsburgh Raiders and Quakertown Fays
On December 21, 1952, Chamberlain played for the Pittsburgh Raiders under the pseudonym of George Marcus in a professional game against the Cumberland Old Germans. At the ages of 16 and 17, Chamberlain, using the same pseudonym, played several games for the semi-professional team Quakertown Fays of Quakertown, Pennsylvania, during the 1954–55 season. The games were reported in local publications, but Chamberlain tried to keep them secret from the Amateur Athletic Union as they jeopardised his eligibility to play amateur basketball.College career
After his last Overbrook season, more than 200 universities tried to recruit Chamberlain. Among others, UCLA offered Chamberlain the opportunity to become a movie star, the University of Pennsylvania wanted to buy him diamonds, and Cecil Mosenson, Chamberlain's coach at Overbrook, was offered a coaching position if he could persuade Chamberlain to accept an offer.Chamberlain wished to experience life away from home, so he eliminated colleges from the East Coast; he also ruled out the South because of racial segregation and felt West Coast basketball was of a lower quality than in other regions. This left the Midwest as Chamberlain's probable choice. After visiting KU and talking with the school's coach, Phog Allen, Chamberlain announced he was going to play college basketball at Kansas.
University of Kansas (1956–1958)
In 1955, Chamberlain entered the University of Kansas ; he was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and was president of his pledge class. As he had at Overbrook, Chamberlain displayed his diverse athletic talent at KU. He ran the 100-yard dash in 10.9 seconds, shot-putted, triple jumped more than, and won the high jump in the Big Eight Conference track-and-field championships in three consecutive years. Chamberlain allegedly dunked on an experimental 12-foot basket set up by Phog Allen.Chamberlain's freshman team debut was highly anticipated; the freshman team played against the varsity, who were favored to win their conference that year. Chamberlain dominated his older college teammates by scoring 42 points, grabbing 29 rebounds, and registering 4 blocks.
Chamberlain was the catalyst for several 1956 NCAA basketball rule changes, including the requirement for a shooter to keep both feet behind the line during a free-throw attempt. He had a vertical leap, and was capable of converting foul shots by dunking without a running start, beginning his movement just steps behind the top of the key. An inbounds pass over the backboard was banned because of Chamberlain. Offensive goaltending, also called basket interference, was introduced as a rule in 1956 after Bill Russell had exploited it at San Francisco and Chamberlain was soon to enter college play.
Chamberlain's prospects of playing under coach Allen ended when Allen turned 70 and retired shortly after in accordance with KU regulations. According to biographer Robert Cherry, it is doubtful Chamberlain would have chosen KU if he had known Allen was going to retire. Chamberlain had a poor relationship with Allen's successor, Dick Harp. For many years following Chamberlain's departure from KU, critics said he wanted to leave the Midwest or was embarrassed by not being able to win a championship. In 1998, Chamberlain returned to Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, to participate in a jersey-retiring ceremony for his No. 13 jersey. He said, "There's been a lot of conversation ... that I have some dislike for the University of Kansas. That is totally ridiculous."