A Four-time MVP, Two-time NBA All-Defensive First Team. The Only player in NBA history to record a 100-point game. Impressively never fouled out in his career.
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In debates centered around who is the “Greatest NBA player of all-time”, you’ll likely hear the name Michael Jordan, or LeBron James, or maybe even Kobe Bryant. But the best that ever was and always will be would be none other than Wilton ‘Wilt’ Chamberlain. He represented the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
He played for the University of Kansas and for the Harlem Globetrotters before playing in the NBA.
Standing tall at 7’1″, 275 pounds, he wore the ‘unlucky’ number 13. But that did not stop him from becoming the greatest player of the sport. There might have been taller, heavier athletes, but none as good as Wilt, the man who fabricated the finger roll, the player that dominated the game so much that other players and coaches thought it was unfair.
The way he took charge of the game with one giant swat of the ball or one little fade away while balancing on one leg was a thing of beauty. He intimidated other players in the league, made them change the direction of their shots, and changed the course of the NBA game as we know it today.
It’s an indisputable fact that the average NBA player in the 60’s was smaller than the average player of today. During the 1961-62 season, for example, there were only three seven-footers in the league.
So, the big men like Chamberlain had a major advantage, right? Wrong.
If that were true, we’d be talking about Swede Halbrook, the 7’3″ center for the Syracuse Nationals as the best ever. Surely his massive height advantage over everyone, including Wilt Chamberlain, would have made him the preeminent dominant force in the league.
In that ’61-’62 season, Halbrook had a hideous .360 field goal percentage and averaged just 6.3 points per game along with a very poor 6.2 rebounds per game. Numbers so poor that his NBA career ended immediately after his sophomore effort.
There weren’t a lot of giants in the NBA because the true big men simply weren’t very good players. They were slow, they were lanky and they fatigued quickly.
Wilt Chamberlain changed all that. He was able to use his size in a way no one else could. He could move like a guard, he could finish around the rim, he could rebound, and he seemingly never ran out of gas. Modern centers, like Shaquille O’Neal, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Hakeem Olajuwon and Dwight Howard, exist because Chamberlain set the standard and created the stereotype.
Wilt was simply playing a game that no one else had ever seen and that no one knew how to deal with.
His domination around the rim forced the NBA to change the rules and widen the key (The key, officially referred to as the free throw lane). Although it took more than a decade for the rest of the league to catch up, it became a necessity for players to get bigger, faster and stronger to compete against his singular talent.
With his Size, quickness, offensive and defensive skill, Wilt Chamberlain was one of the most complete players the NBA has ever seen. A man of extraordinary skill who changed the way basketball is played.
