A Facebook Post About Wilt

The following was a write up from a Facebook post regarding Wilt Chamberlain.

Wow.. where to begin? Here is something I posted on another thread:

My dad ref’d a few of Wilt’s Globetrotter games. He played point guard to show off his ball handling, shooting, & passing skills - never before or since seen by a guy over 7’ tall. They would get a ladder & place a quarter on top of the backboard. Wilt would take one step, jump up & get the quarter. With a 9’6” standing reach, he would have to have at least a 45” vertical to get the quarter. It’s listed many places as 48” which seems very possible. The blocked shot in the photo came off a one step jump. Wilt averaged 8.1 blocks per game in the 112 games in which there are multiple credible sources of verification, video being the best - like the nationally televised Christmas Day 1968 game against Phoenix where he blocked 23 shots. Blocks didn’t become an official NBA stat until the ‘73-‘74 season, and the ‘official’ single game record is 17 by Elmore Smith. Wilt had more than that many times. Mark Eaton holds the ‘official’ NBA career record for blocks per game at 3.5.

Wilt’s HOF teammate, Hal Greer, was considered the fastest guard in the league in his prime, but Hal never beat Wilt, and they raced many times. Wilt loved track & field and excelled in the long jump (22’+), triple jump (50’+), high jump (6’6”), & shot put (56’)

His best track times:
100 yards: 10.0
220: 20.9
440: 48.9
880: 158.3

He led the NBA in assists because he “decided to”. He was the strongest player in the league. He led two different teams to the most regular season wins in NBA history. He led one of them to the most consecutive wins in NBA history. He made 73% of his FG attempts that season. He never fouled out & only had 5 fouls in 30 of 1205 games, so he almost never had to back off on defense due to foul trouble. Or take his offense off the floor. In an era with many more possessions (many more trips up & down the court), he didn’t take games or possessions off. He averaged 45.8 minutes in 1045 regular season games & 47.1 in 160 playoff games.

There’s much more, and again, this doesn’t take anything away from all the other great players. Nothing wrong with any of us having our favorites or our own criteria for greatness. Had Wilt been born in 1986 instead of 1936, but with the same genetics, I think he would have been an even bigger & better player, but different due to the evolution of the game & everything related to it. Just as modern day players, even with their same genetics, wouldn’t play the same as they do today had they been born in 1936.