[6], Chamberlain was the catalyst for several 1956 NCAA basketball rule changes, including the rule which requires that a shooter maintain both feet behind the line during a free-throw attempt. All Rights Reserved. "Wilt was one of the greatest ever, and we will never see another like him," said basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. By conventional wisdom, Chamberlain now should have dominated against little-used Knicks backup centers Nate Bowman and Bill Hosket Jr., or forwards Bradley and DeBusschere, who gave up more than half a foot against him. Wilt Chamberlain won 2 championships. [106] In the second half of Game 7, Chamberlain did not attempt a single shot from the field. In his recently published book, "A View From Above," the 7-foot-1 Chamberlain claims that the Lakers tried to coax him out of retirement in . [5] As an avid track and field athlete, Chamberlain 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 had a history of cardiovascular disease, and was briefly hospitalized in 1992 for an irregular heartbeat. [38] It is considered one of the sport's greatest games. [6], He was the star player for the Overbrook Panthers basketball team, wearing jersey number 5. Shoots: Wilt Chamberlain. "If he were here, I think he would have enjoyed this," said his sister . [52] In his fourth game, Philadelphia met the reigning champions, the Boston Celtics of Hall-of-Fame coach Auerbach, whose offer he had snubbed several years before, and Bill Russell, who was lauded as one of the best defensive pivots in the game. The matchup between Chamberlain and Abdul-Jabbar was hailed by Life as the greatest matchup in all of sports. Inside the Insane World of Sports Today, in which he criticized the NBA of the 1990s for being too disrespectful of players of the past.[148]. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. Despite the loss, Chamberlain, who scored 23 points and 14 rebounds,[38] was elected the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. "[12], Rick Barry wrote Ill say what most players feel, which is that Wilt is a loserHe is terrible in big games. This article concerns the career achievements of Wilt Chamberlain, . [j] Chamberlain capped off his rookie season with a selection to the Eastern Conference All-Star team, winning the All-Star Game and the All-Star Game MVP award with a 23-point, 25-rebound performance. Chamberlain did it in 1966-67 and 1967-68; Only player in NBA history to average . He had five seasons where he committed less than two fouls per game, with a career-low of 1.5 fouls during the 1962 season, in which he also averaged 50.4 points per game. home/away, monthly, etc More Wilt Chamberlain Basketball Reference pages, Compare Wilt Chamberlain to other players. Teammate Monte Johnson stated that Chamberlain had "unbelievable endurance and speed and was never tired. [88] Off the court, Chamberlain invited the team to restaurants and paid the entire bill, knowing he earned ten times more than all the others. [47] On March 9, 2000, his No. Chamberlain's Lakers coach Bill Sharman said: "First he was a scorer. Over a ten-day period, there were 23 checks in the book, which would be a rate of 2.3 women per day. Being a talented hobby volleyballer during his Lakers days,[135] he became a board member of the newly founded International Volleyball Association (IVA) in 1974 and its president in 1975. In his first game, he scored 52 points and grabbed 31 rebounds, breaking both all-time Kansas records in an 8769 win against the Northwestern Wildcats, a team having Chamberlain's future NBA teammate Joe Ruklick. Cherry says that Reed, a prolific mid-range shooter, was a bad matchup for Chamberlain. Chamberlain would help lead the Lakers past Abdul-Jabbar and the Bucks in six games. Despite the Sixers' injury woes, coach Hannum was confident to "take the Celtics in less than seven games", and he referenced the age of the Celtics, a team built around Russell and Jones, both 34. He played on the school's varsity team for three years, scoring more than 2,200 points in total. [132] Prolific outside shooter Lucas helped New York to win Game 1, hitting nine of his 11 shots in the first half alone. After his retirement, Chamberlain explored other opportunities. Chamberlain had a bad relationship with Allen's successor Dick Harp fueled by this disappointment. He was interested in world affairs, sometimes he'd call me up late at night and discuss philosophy. It almost worked. 13 in ESPN's list "Top North American Athletes of the Century" in 1999. Wilt had long since retired when Jordan emerged, but he alluded to a much-ballyhooed one-on-one clash in the 1980s between 7-foot-1 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the 6-7 Julius Erving. Owing to his strong start, he still managed to put up a season-average 27.3 points, 18.4 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game. [106] In a game called "unreal" and "devoid of emotion", the Sixers lost 127118 on April 5. [69] Each team won their home games, so the series was split at three after six games. Javascript is required for the selection of a player. [207], Cherry says that although Chamberlain was an egotist, he had good relationships with many contemporaries and enjoyed a great deal of respect. [65] Additionally, he was on the hardwood for an average of 48.53 minutes, playing 3,882 of his team's 3,890 minutes. [q] The team also featured an All-Rookie forward Billy Cunningham in the new sixth man role. "[137] The players were split on Chamberlain, who was seen as competent but often indifferent and more occupied with promotion of his autobiography Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door than with coaching. Chamberlain said: "I've got to hit forty points or so, or this team is in trouble. Scoring 35 points, Chamberlain led Overbrook to an 8342 victory. In his last season, the Lakers lost substance, as Happy Hairston was injured, Robinson and LeRoy Ellis had left, and the veteran West struggled with injury. Milwaukee closed out the series at home with a 11698 victory in Game 5. Peterson felt that the assault was "creepier" because Chamberlain had been a personal friend.[215][216]. [f], In Chamberlain's junior season of 195758, the Jayhawks' matches were even more frustrating for him. He had played in 1,045 games and achieved an average of 30.1 points per gamethe NBA points-per-game record until Michael Jordan broke it in 1998. [62][10] In addition, the formerly egotistical Chamberlain began to praise his teammates, lauding hardworking Lucious Jackson as the "ultimate power forward", calling Greer a deadly jump-shooter, and Jones an excellent defender and outsider scorer. Just Wilt Chamberlain and Pete Maravich share the honor to have their jersey retired by three different teams. "[187] Chamberlain outscored Russell 30 to 14.2 and outrebounded him 28.2 to 22.9 in the regular season, and he outscored him 25.7 to 14.9 and outrebounded him 28 to 24.7 in the playoffs as well. We were spat on, pelted with debris, and subjected to the vilest racial epithets possible. "[111] The greatest problem was his tense relationship with Van Breda Kolff. [24] There were contemporary reports of the games in Philadelphia publications, but he tried to keep them secret from the Amateur Athletic Union. Now, we have got the complete detailed explanation and answer for everyone, who is interested! Cherry says that the Sixers shot badly (Greer, Jones, Walker, Jackson, and Guokas hit a combined 25 of 74 shots), while Chamberlain grabbed 34 rebounds and shot 4-of-9 for a total of 14 points. [43] According to Ramsay, Chamberlain threatened to jump to the ABA after Hannum left and forced the trade. [12] In an April 1965 issue of Sports Illustrated, Chamberlain conducted an interview titled "My Life in a Bush League" where he criticized his fellow players, coaches, and NBA administrators. That's the reason why I was single. [42], However, Russell and Chamberlain were friends in private life. Answer (1 of 6): An interesting fact: in Wilt's two championship seasons, both his teams set regular season win records. According to Sixers general manager Jack Ramsay, "Harvey [Pollack] said he used to tell one of his statisticians to keep track of Wilt's blocks in big games. College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com, Scores from any date in BAA/NBA or ABA history, Frequently Asked Questions about the NBA, WNBA and Basketball, Basketball-Reference.com Blog and Articles, Subscribe to Stathead Basketball: Get your first month FREE. To date, he is one of only two players to have his jersey retired by 3 different teams, alongside Pete Maravich. [77], In the summer of 1964, Chamberlain, one of the prominent participants at the famed Rucker Park basketball court in New York City,[78] made the acquaintance of a tall, talented 17-year-old who played there. 2 in Slam ' s top 500 NBA players of all time in 2011, In honor of Chamberlain, his jerseys have been retired six times, by Overbrook High . [10][12][p] 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. [42] Chamberlain likened his assist title to legendary home-run hitter Babe Ruth leading the league in sacrifice bunts, and felt he dispelled the myth that he could not and would not pass the ball. Chamberlain had other plans, however, pursuing interests outside of basketball. In all, he claimed 60 athletes with aspirations of expanding to 100. [111] Van Breda Kolff was perceived as "pig-headed" for benching Chamberlain and soon resigned as Lakers coach. In my onion, Wilt was robbed of MVP when he averaged an NBA . Wilt Chamberlain averaged 30.1 points, 22.9 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game. The NBA did not formally track blocks and thefts until 1972, thus while these quadruple doubles may have occurred, they are not official. In the scuffle, Chamberlain injured his hand, and Philadelphia lost the next two games. He played for the Philadelphia Warriors (which later became the San Francisco Warriors), the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Chamberlain was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, where he was the president of his pledge class. He once skipped a game to sign autographs for the book. Winning the regular season with 66 wins, the Bucks were seen as favorites against the depleted Lakers; still, many pundits were looking forward to the matchup between the 34-year-old Chamberlain and the 24-year-old Alcindor. Then with our great Laker team in 1972, he concentrated on the defensive end." [89] Jerry West called him a "complex very nice person",[208] and NBA rival Jack McMahon even said: "The best thing that happened to the NBA is that God made Wilt a nice person he could have killed us all with his left hand. [92] In Game 2, the Sixers won 107102 in overtime, and player-coach Russell grudgingly praised Chamberlain for intimidating the Celtics into taking low percentage shots from further outside. [47], Despite his foul line woes, Chamberlain set the NBA record, later tied by Adrian Dantley, for most free throws made (28) using the underhand technique in a regular-season game in his 1962 100-point game. "[131], In the NBA Finals, the Lakers again met the New York Knicks, a team that was shorthanded after losing the 6'9" Reed to injury, and undersized 6'8" Jerry Lucas had the task to defend against the 7'1" Chamberlain. Wilt Chamberlain was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In response, Chamberlain had everybody put all the pens in the middle of the floor and stepped on them.