Wilt With Sheed
Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain (August 21, 1936–October 12, 1999), nicknamed Wilt the Stilt, The Big Dipper, and Chairman of the Boards, was an American professional National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers; and also played for the Harlem Globetrotters.
The 7 foot 1 inch Chamberlain, who weighed 250 lb as a rookie before bulking up to 275 lb and eventually over 300 lb with the Lakers, played the center position and is widely considered one of the greatest and most dominant players in the history of the NBA. Chamberlain holds numerous official NBA all-time records, setting records in many scoring, rebounding and durability categories. Among others, he is the only player in NBA history to average more than 40 and 50 points in a season or score 100 points in a single NBA game.
He also won seven scoring, nine field goal percentage, and eleven rebounding titles, and once even led the league in assists.
Although suffering a long string of professional losses, Chamberlain had a successful career, winning two NBA titles, earning four regular-season Most Valuable Player awards, one NBA Finals MVP award, and being selected to 13 All-Star Games and ten All-NBA First and Second teams.
Chamberlain was subsequently enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, elected into the NBA's 35th Anniversary Team of 1980, and chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History of 1996.
After his basketball career, Chamberlain played volleyball in the short-lived International Volleyball Association, was president of this organization and enshrined in the IVA Hall of Fame for his contributions.
Chamberlain was also a successful businessman, authored several books and appeared in the movie Conan the Destroyer.
He was a lifelong bachelor, but became notorious for his claim to have had sex with 20,000 women, a statement which has entered popular culture
HIGH SCHOOL CAREER
As a player of the Overbrook Panthers, Chamberlain averaged 31 points during the 1953 high school season and led his team to a 71–62 win against the Northeast High School of his future NBA team mate Guy Rodgers.
He scored 34 points, won Overbrook the Public League title and a berth for the Philadelphia city championship game against the winner of the rival Catholic league, West Catholic.
In that game, West Catholic triple-teamed Chamberlain the entire game, and despite the center's 29 points, the Panthers lost 42–54.
In his second Overbrook season, Chamberlain continued his prolific scoring, among them scoring a high school record 71 points against Roxborough. The Panthers comfortably won the Public League title after again beating Northeast in which Chamberlain scored 40 points, and later won the city title by defeating South Catholic with 74–50.
Chamberlain scored 32 points and had led Overbrook to a flawless 19–0 season. During summer vacations, Chamberlain worked as a bellhop in an affluent Jewish hotel named "Kutsher's". One day, Red Auerbach, the Jewish coach of the Boston Celtics, showed up.
He spotted the talented teenager and had him play 1-on-1 against Kansas University standout and national champion, B. H. Born, elected the Most Valuable Player of the 1953 NCAA Finals. Chamberlain won 25–10; Born was so dejected that he gave up a promising NBA career and became a tractor engineer ("If there were high school kids that good, I figured I wasn't going to make it to the pros"), and Auerbach wanted Chamberlain to go to a New England university, so he could draft him as a territorial pick for the Celtics, but Chamberlain did not react.
In Chamberlain's third and final Overbrook season, he continued his high scoring, once logging 74, 78 and 90 points in three consecutive games. The Panthers won the Public League a third time, beating West Philadelphia 78–60, and in the city championship game, they met Western Catholic once again.
Scoring 35 points, Chamberlain led Overbrook to an easy 83–42 win. After three years, Chamberlain had won Overbrook two city championships, logged a 56–3 record and had broken Tom Gola's high school scoring record by scoring 2,252 points, averaging 37.4 per game. After his last Overbrook season, over 200 universities wanted to recruit the basketball prodigy.
Among others, UCLA offered Chamberlain to become a movie star, the University of Pennsylvania wanted to buy him diamonds, and Chamberlain's Panthers coach Mosenson was even offered a coaching position if he could get the center. Cherry described that Chamberlain wanted a change and therefore not want to go to or near Philadelphia (which also eliminated New York), was not interested in New England, and snubbed the South because of segregation; this left the Midwest.
In the end, after visiting the University of Kansas, also commonly known as KU, with renowned college coach Phog Allen, Chamberlain then proclaimed he was going to play college basketball at KU.
COLLEGE CAREER
In 1955, Chamberlain joined KU. Cherry described how shocked the young teenager was when he first arrived in the still-segregated city of Lawrence, Kansas: after being treated like a star in his native Philadelphia, he now saw places black people were prohibited to enter. Chamberlain reacted by simply ignoring these signs, eating and going out wherever he wanted. When he found out nobody heckled him, he gave up his antipathy, and blacks were eventually treated better.
Cherry is split on Chamberlain's attitude: whilst Chamberlain was African-American, he argued that he was also sacrosanct from anti-black racism because he was too famous; had Chamberlain been more political and less self-centered, he could have made things better for African-Americans in general at Lawrence. In any case, Chamberlain soon liked living in Kansas, especially enjoying the rich jazz scene in the near Kansas City.
At KU, Chamberlain became a player for the Kansas Jayhawks freshman team under future Hall-of-Fame coach Phog Allen, whom he admired, and also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc, where he was the president of his pledge class. Announced as "looking lighter than his 240 pounds, [able to] reach 9'6" up in the air [flatfooted], and a [wingspan of] 7'2"", his debut was highly anticipated, and he delivered: in Chamberlain's debut game for the freshman squad, the freshman Jayhawks were pitted against the varsity Jayhawks, who were favored to win their conference that year.
Chamberlain dominated his older college mates by scoring 52 points (16-35 from the field, 10-12 on free throws), grabbing 29 rebounds and registering four blocks. However, Chamberlain's prospect of playing under Allen was destroyed, because Allen turned 70 shortly after; by KU regulation, Allen had to retire. Chamberlain had a bad relationship with Allen's successor Dick Harp, fueled by resentment and disappointment: Cherry doubted whether he would have chosen KU if he had known that Allen was going to retire soon. On December 3, 1956, Chamberlain made his varsity debut.
In his first varsity game, the center scored 52 points and grabbed 31 rebounds, breaking both all-time college records in a 87–69 win against the Northwestern team of future NBA team mate Joe Ruklick. His team mate Monte Johnson testified how athletic he was: "Wilt... had unbelievable endurance and speed... and was never tired.
When he dunked, he was so fast that a lot of players got their fingers jammed [between Chamberlain's hand and the rim]." Reportedly, Chamberlain also broke Johnny Kerr's toe with a slam dunk. By this time, Chamberlain had developed several offensive weapons that became his trademarks: his finger roll, his fadeaway jump shot, which he could also hit as a bank shot, his passing and his shot blocking.
Leading a talented squad of starters Maurice King, Gene Elstun, John Parker, Ron Lonesky and Lew Johnson, the Jayhawks went 13–1 until they lost a game 56–54 versus Oklahoma State in which Oklahoma held the ball the last 3:30 minutes without any intention of scoring a basket; in the days before the shot clock (introduced 1984 in the NCAA), this was still possible. As he did at Overbrook, Chamberlain again showcased his diverse athletic talent.
He ran the 100-yard dash in 10.9 seconds, threw the shotput 56 feet, triple jumped more than 50 feet, and won the high jump in the Big Eight track and field championships three straight years. In 1957, in the days before the current 65-team March Madness was introduced, 23 teams played for the NCAA title.
The Midwest regional tourney was held in Dallas, Texas, which was segregated back then. In the first game, the Jayhawks played the all-white Southern Methodist team, and KU player John Parker later told: "The crowd was brutal. We were spat on, pelted with debris, and subjected to the vilest racial epiphets possible." In overtime, KU won 73–65 against SMU, and police had to escort the Jayhawks out to prevent the angry crowd from hijacking the team bus.
The next game against Oklahoma City was equally unpleasant, with KU winning 81-61 under intense racist abuse. In the semi finals, Chamberlain's Jayhawks defeated the University of San Francisco 80–56.
Chamberlain made the First Team of the All-America squad and led his Jayhawks into the NCAA finals against the Tar Heels of North Carolina. In that game, Tar Heels coach Frank McGuire used several unorthodox tactics to thwart Chamberlain.
At the tip-off, he sent his shortest player, Tommy Kearns, in order to rattle him, and the Tar Heels spent the rest of the night triple-teaming Chamberlain, one defender in front, one behind and a third arriving as soon as he got the ball.
Due to the extreme fixation on Chamberlain, the Jayhawks shot a miserable 27% from the field, as opposed to 64% of the Tar Heels, and trailed 22–29 at halftime. Later, North Carolina led 40–37 with 10 minutes to go, and then stalled the game: they passed the ball around without any intention of scoring a basket. After several Tar Heel turnovers, the game was tied at 46 at the end of regulation.
In the first overtime, both teams scored 2 points each, and in second overtime, Kansas in return froze the ball, keeping the game tied at 48. In third overtime, the Tar Heels scored two consecutive baskets, but Chamberlain executed a three point play, and KU only trailed 51–52.
After King scored a basket, Kansas was ahead by one point, but then Tar Heel Joe Quigg was fouled on a drive with 10 seconds remaining and made his two foul shots.
For the final play, Dick Harp called a play in which Ron Loneski should pass the ball into Chamberlain in the low post; however, the pass was too soft and was intercepted, and the Tar Heels won the game. Nonetheless, Chamberlain, who had scored 23 points and 14 rebounds, was elected the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. However, Cherry speculates that this loss was a watershed in Chamberlain's life: it was the first time that he was called a loser despite putting up impressive individual stats, the first of many occurrences during his career.
Chamberlain later admitted that this loss was the most painful of his life. In Chamberlain's junior year, the 1957–58 NCAA season, the Jayhawks matches were frustrating for him.
Knowing how dominant Chamberlain was, the opponents resorted to freeze-ball tactics and routinely used three or more players to guard him. Team mate Bob Billings commented: "It was not fun basketball... we were just out chasing people throwing the basketball back and forth." In addition, Chamberlain grew weary of the punishment inflicted on him; after a game against Missouri, he showed imprints of two rows of teeth in his arm. Still, Chamberlain averaged 30.1 points for the season and led the Jayhawks to a 18–5 record, losing three games when he was out with a urinary infection: because KU was only second and back then, only conference winners were invited to the NCAA tourney, the Jayhawks' season had ended.
It was only a small consolation that he was again named an All-American, along with future NBA Hall-of-Famers Elgin Baylor and Oscar Robertson plus old rival Guy Rodgers.
Having lost the fun in NCAA basketball and wanting to earn money, he left college and sold the story named "Why I Am Leaving College" to Look magazine for $10,000, a large sum when NBA players earned $9,000 in a whole season. In two seasons at Kansas, Chamberlain averaged 29.9 points and 18.3 rebounds per game while totaling 1,433 points and 877 rebounds, and led Kansas to one Big Seven championship.
By the time Chamberlain was 21, he had already been featured in Time, Life, Look and Newsweek magazines, even before he turned professional. For many years following Chamberlain's departure from the University of Kansas, critics claimed that he either wanted to leave the very white Midwest or was embarrassed by not being able to bring home the NCAA basketball tournament victory.
In 1998, Chamberlain returned to Allen Field House in Lawrence, Kansas to participate in a jersey retiring ceremony for his number 13. Around this time, he is quoted as saying: "There's been a lot of conversation, since people have been trying to get my jersey number retired, that I have some dislike for the University of Kansas. That is totally ridiculous."
Pro Career
Harlem Globetrotters
After his frustrating junior year, Chamberlain wanted to become a professional player before finishing his senior year.
However, at that time, the NBA did not accept players who had not finished their last year of studies.
Therefore, Chamberlain was prohibited from joining the NBA for a year, and decided to play for the Harlem Globetrotters in 1958 for a sum of $50,000.
Chamberlain became a member of the Globetrotters team which made history by playing in Moscow in 1959, enjoyed a sold out tour of the USSR and prior to the start of a game at Moscow's Lenin Central Stadium, were greeted by the General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev.
One particular Trotter skit involved Trotters captain Meadowlark Lemon collapsing to the ground, and instead of helping him up, Chamberlain threw him several feet high up in the air and caught him like a doll. "[Chamberlain] was the strongest athlete who ever lived", the 210 lbs. heavy Lemon recounted later.
In later years, Chamberlain frequently joined the Trotters in the off-season and fondly recalled his time there, because he was no longer jeered at or asked to break records, but just one of several artists who loved to entertain the crowd.
On March 9, 2000, Chamberlain's number 13 was retired by the Trotters.
Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors
On October 24, 1959, Chamberlain finally made his debut as an NBA player, starting for the Philadelphia Warriors. The Warriors' draft pick was highly unusual, as it was a so-called "territorial pick" despite the fact Chamberlain had spent his college years in Kansas, which is not a region covered by Philadelphia. However, Warriors owner Eddie Gottlieb, one of the NBA's founding fathers, argued that Chamberlain had grown up in Philadelphia and had become popular there as a high school player; and because there were no NBA teams in Kansas, he argued, the Philadelphia Warriors held his territorial rights and could draft him. The NBA agreed, marking the only time in NBA history that a player was made a territorial selection based on his pre-college roots.
Chamberlain immediately became the NBA's best paid player, earning $30,000 in his rookie contract; in comparison, the previous top earner was Bob Cousy of the Boston Celtics with $25,000, and Gottlieb had bought the whole Warriors franchise for $25,000 seven years earlier.
In the 1959-60 NBA season, Chamberlain joined a Warriors squad which was coached by Neil Johnston and contained Hall-of-Fame guards Tom Gola and Paul Arizin, plus Ernie Beck and his old rival Guy Rodgers — remarkably, all five Warriors starters were Philadelphians. In his first NBA game against the New York Knicks, the rookie center scored 43 points and 28 rebounds.
In his fourth game, Philadelphia met the reigning champions, the Boston Celtics of Hall-of-Fame coach Red Auerbach, whose offer Chamberlain had snubbed several years ago, and his old NCAA rival Bill Russell, who was now lauded as one of the best defensive pivots in the game.
In what was the first of many Chamberlain-Russell match-ups, the Warrior outscored the Celtic with 30 points versus 28 points, but Boston won the game; Cherry called this outcome the first of many great duels between these pivots. The rivalry between Chamberlain and his perennial nemesis Bill Russell would grow out to become the NBA's greatest on-court rivalry of all time. Nevertheless, the two also became friends in personal life, similar to later rivals Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
In his first season, Chamberlain averaged 37.6 points and 27 rebounds, convincingly breaking the previous regular-season records. He only needed 56 games to score point number 2,102, which broke the all-time regular season scoring record of Bob Pettit, who needed 72 games to score 2,101 points.[36] Chamberlain won both the NBA Most Valuable Player and NBA Rookie of the Year awards in the same season — a feat equaled only by fellow Hall-of-Famer Wes Unseld in the 1968-69 NBA season — and broke eight NBA records.[4][36] Chamberlain capped off his rookie season awards by also winning the NBA All-Star Game MVP award with a 23 point, 25 rebound performance for the East. However, it also became evident that he was a miserable free throw shooter, hardly making half of his foul shots. As time progressed, Chamberlain became even worse, and acknowledged he was simply a head case on that matter.
The Warriors entered the 1960 NBA Playoffs and beat the Syracuse Nationals, setting up a meeting versus the Eastern Division champions, the Boston Celtics. Cherry described how Celtics coach Red Auerbach ordered his forward Tom Heinsohn to commit personal fouls on Chamberlain: whenever the Warriors shot foul shots, Heinsohn grabbed and shoved Chamberlain to prevent him from running back quickly; his intention was that the Celtics would throw the ball in so fast that the prolific shotblocker Chamberlain was not back under his own basket yet, and Boston could score an easy fastbreak basket.
The teams split the first two games, but in Game 2, Chamberlain got fed up by Heinsohn and punched him. In the scuffle, the Warriors' center injured his hand, and Philadelphia lost the next two games. In Game 5, his hand was back to normal, and Chamberlain scored 50 points on Bill Russell.
But in Game 6, Heinsohn got the last laugh, scoring the decisive basket with a last-second tip in. The Warriors lost the series 2 games to 4.
The rookie Chamberlain then shocked the Warriors' fans by saying he was thinking of retiring. He was tired of being subjected to double- and triple teams, and teams coming down on him with hard fouls. Chamberlain feared he might lose his cool one day.
As Celtics forward Tom Heinsohn said, himself no stranger to dirty play against Chamberlain: "Half the fouls against him [Chamberlain] were hard fouls ... he took the most brutal pounding of any player ever". In addition, Chamberlain was seen as a freak of nature, jeered at by the fans and scorned by the media. As Chamberlain often said, quoting coach Alex Hannum's explanation of his situation, "Nobody loves Goliath."[4] Eddie Gottlieb coaxed Chamberlain back into the NBA, sweetening his return with a salary raise to $65,000.
In the following next season, Chamberlain surpassed his rookie season statistics as he averaged 38.4 ppg and 27.2 rebounds per game. He became the first player to break the 3,000-point barrier and the first and still only player to break the 2,000-rebound barrier for a single season, grabbing 2,149 boards.
Chamberlain also won his first field goal percentage title, and set the all-time record for rebounds in a single game with 55. Chamberlain was so dominant on that team that he scored almost 32% of his team's points and 30.4% of their rebounds.
However, Chamberlain again failed to convert his play into team success, this time bowing out against the Syracuse Nationals in a three game sweep.
Cherry noted that Chamberlain was "difficult" and did not respect coach Neil Johnston, who was unable to handle the star center. In retrospect, Eddie Gottlieb remarked: "My mistake was not getting a stronghanded coach... [Neil Johnston] wasn't ready for big time."
In his third Warriors season, the Warriors were coached by Frank McGuire, the coach that had masterminded Chamberlain's painful NCAA loss against the Tar Heels. In that year, the center set several all-time records which have never been threatened since. In the 1961-62 NBA season, he averaged 50.4 points and grabbed 25.7 rebounds per game — Chamberlain's 4,029 regular-season points made him the first and only player to break the 4,000-point barrier.
To place this in perspective the only player other than Chamberlain to break the 3,000-point barrier is Michael Jordan, who scored 3,041 points in the 1986-87 NBA season. Chamberlain once again broke the 2,000 rebound barrier by grabbing 2,052 rebounds. Additionally, he was on the hardwood for an average of 48.5 minutes, playing 3,882 of his team's 3,890 minutes.
Because Chamberlain played in overtime games, he averaged more minutes per game than the 48 minutes in regulation; in fact, Chamberlain would have hit the 3,890 minute mark if he had not been ejected in one game after picking up his second technical foul with 8 minutes left to play.
On March 2, 1962, Chamberlain delivered another remarkable performance and became the first player to score 100 points in a single NBA game, in the 169–147 victory of his Warriors against the New York Knicks.
His extraordinary feats in the 1961–62 season were later subject of the book Wilt, 1962 by Gary M. Pomerantz (2005), who used Chamberlain as a metaphor for the uprising of Black America.[43] In addition to Chamberlain's regular season accomplishments, he scored 42 points in the NBA All-Star Game — still the all-time record — on 17-23 shooting and pulled down 24 rebounds.
In the 1962 NBA Playoffs, the Warriors met the Boston Celtics again in the Eastern Division Finals, a team which Bob Cousy and Bill Russell called the greatest Celtics team of all time.[44] Each team won their home games, so the series was split 3–3 after six games. In a closely contested Game 7, Chamberlain tied the score at 107 with 16 seconds to go, but then Celtics shooting guard Sam Jones sank a clutch shot which won Boston the game and the series.
In later years, Chamberlain was criticized for averaging 50 points, but not winning the title. In his defense, Warriors coach Frank McGuire said "Wilt has been simply super-human", and pointed out that the Warriors lacked a consistent second scorer, a playmaker, and a second big man to take the pressure off Chamberlain.
In the 1962-63 NBA season, Eddie Gottlieb sold the Warriors franchise for an amount of $850,000 to a group of businessmen led by Marty Simmons from San Francisco, and the team relocated to become the San Francisco Warriors under a new coach, Bob Feerick.
However, this also meant that the team broke apart: Paul Arizin chose to retire rather than moving away from his family and his job at IBM in Philadelphia, and Tom Gola was homesick, requesting a trade to the lowly New York Knicks halfway through the season.
With both secondary scorers gone, Chamberlain continued his array of statistical feats, scoring 44.8 points and grabbing 24.3 rebounds per game that year.
But as Chamberlain was the sole quality player on his squad, the Warriors lost 49 of their 80 games and missed the playoffs.
In the 1963-64 NBA season, Chamberlain got yet another new coach, namely Alex Hannum, and was joined by a promising rookie center named Nate Thurmond, who would enter the Hall of Fame.
Ex-soldier Hannum, who later entered the NBA Hall of Fame as a coach, was a crafty psychologist who emphasized defense and passing; most importantly, was not afraid to stand up to the dominant Chamberlain, who was known to freeze out coaches he did not like.
Backed up by valuable rookie Thurmond, Chamberlain had another good season with 36.9 ppg and 22.3 rpg,
and the San Francisco Warriors went all the way to the NBA Finals. In that series, they succumbed to the Boston Celtics team of Bill Russell again, this time losing 1–4.
But as Cherry remarked, not only Chamberlain, but in particular Hannum deserved much credit because he had basically had taken the bad 31–49 squad of last year plus Thurmond and made it into a NBA Finalist.
In the summer of 1964, Chamberlain made the acquaintance of a tall, talented 17-year old teenager who played in the famous Rucker Park basketball arena in New York City. Soon, the young Lew Alcindor was allowed into his inner circle, and quickly idolized the ten year older NBA player. Unfortunately, Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as Alcindor would name himself later, would develop an intense personal antipathy.
In the following 1964-65 NBA season, the Warriors ran into financial trouble. At the 1965 All-Star break, Chamberlain was traded back to Philadelphia to the Philadelphia 76ers, the new name of the relocated Syracuse Nationals. In return, the Warriors received Paul Neumann, Connie Dierking, Lee Shaffer (who opted to retire rather than report to the Warriors), and $150,000.
When Chamberlain left the Warriors, owner Franklin Mieuli said: "Chamberlain is not an easy man to love
the fans in San Francisco never learned to love him. Wilt is easy to hate
people came to see him lose."
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