basketball
player for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers
and the Los Angeles Lakers
; he also played for the Harlem Globetrotters
prior to playing in the NBA. The 7 foot 1 inch Chamberlain weighed 250 pounds as a rookie before bulking up to 275 pounds with the Lakers. He played the center
position and is considered by his contemporaries as one of the greatest and most dominant players in NBA history.
Chamberlain holds numerous official NBA all-time records, setting records in many scoring, rebounding
and durability categories.
"What's unfortunate is that most people regard the great leapers as being only the short guys who could dunk," said the 7-1 1/16 Wilt Chamberlain. "My sergeant [vertical leap] was higher than Michael Jordan|Michael Jordan's. When I went to Kansas, they had a 12-foot basket in the gym, because Dr. Phog Allen|Phog Allen was advocating the 12-foot basket. I used to dunk on that basket. It was an effort, but I could do it."
Wilt Chamberlain claims that his sergeant, during his prime, was "46 to 48 inches, easy."
"When I was a freshman, I fooled around with shooting free throws this way: For some reason, I thought you had to stay within the top half of that free-throw circle, so I would step back to just inside the top of the circle, take off from behind the line and dunk. They outlawed that, but I wouldn't have done it in a game, anyway. I was a good free throw shooter in college." Actually he was a 62% free throw shooter, which is poor except in comparison to his 51% as a pro.
In Denver, Nugget Coach Dan Issel|Dan Issel said, "As I grew up, Wilt the Stilt was the player. Just the things he was able to do. I guess one year they told him he couldn't make as much money as he wanted because he couldn't pass the ball, so he went out and led the league in assists. "Watching Wilt, you always kind of got the idea he was just playing with people. That he was on cruise control and still 10 times better than anybody else that was playing at that time."
"I just remember he was dominating, a scoring machine, unstoppable," Walt Frazier|Walt Frazier, the Knicks' Hall of Famer, said. "The guy looked indestructible. He was such a physical specimen, I never thought something like this would happen to him at 63. "His legacy is comical. When you read about his records, it makes you laugh. He has records that are just remarkable. I don't care if he was 10 feet tall, the things that he did.
Former NBA center and Chicago Bull coach Johnny "Red" Kerr, who played part of one season in Philadelphia with Wilt and against him for six-plus years, said, "He was the NBA. He was the guy on the top. Wilt was the guy you talked about--he and Bill Russell. He was the most dominating center--the best center to ever play in the NBA."
Former Celtics guard K.C. Jones|K.C. Jones remembered his casual run-in with Wilt. "He stopped me dead in my tracks with his arm, hugged me and lifted me off the floor with my feet dangling," Jones said. "It scared the hell out of me. When I went to the free-throw line, my legs were still shaking. Wilt was the strongest guy and best athlete ever to play the game. [Source: Goliath's Wonderful Life, Hoop Magazine; May 1999; Chris Ekstrand]