<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">He was arguably the dominant sports figure of his time, and Los Angeles can be grateful that some of that was spent here. If Wilton Norman Chamberlain had lived, he would have been 70 Monday. To the sports public, he was Wilt the Stilt, or the Big Dipper. He hated both nicknames and wished, at least on the latter, that they'd call him Aurora Borealis, something a bit more sophisticated. Whenever they pick any all-time basketball team, Wilt has to be on it. If he isn't, the team is a fraud. He died Oct. 12, 1999. In his playing days, he was listed at 7 feet 1 1/16 inches. He was probably closer to 7-4 and weighed between 270 and 320 most of his career. He never challenged the height listing, knowing that, in his case, bigger would not make things better. "Nobody loves Goliath," he used to say. Mark Heisler, longtime NBA columnist for The Times, recalls the intimidation of just being around Chamberlain. "I had long interviews with him twice, both at L.A. delis," Heisler says, "and sitting in the booth with him made you feel like you were sitting in the lap of an octopus." At one time or another, in his 14 seasons for three teams in the NBA, Chamberlain led the league in scoring, rebounding, assists, and field-goal percentage, and was inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame in 1979. He won two titles, with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967 and the Lakers in '72, and of his incredible statistical achievements, at least two, both when he was a young player with the Philadelphia Warriors, stand above the rest. One is the 55-rebound game, Nov. 24, 1960, against the Boston Celtics. George Kiseda, a retired Times staffer who worked as a sports reporter in Philadelphia during Wilt's best days with the 76ers, calls that record "the one I consider the most unbreakable in sports. A lot of teams don't get that many most nights." The other is his 100-point night against the New York Knicks, March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pa. He made 36 of 63 shots and 28 of 32 free throws, and, according to Rod Hundley, Wilt's friend and longtime NBA broadcaster, stopped in a bar in Hershey afterward. "A guy is sitting at the bar," Hundley says. "He sees Wilt and asks him, 'How many you get tonight?' Wilt says, 'Got 100.' "The guy turns, looks at him, and says, 'C'mon, don't be such a jerk.' " There is a third statistic that will forever spice the memory of Chamberlain, one he created himself when he said, in a book written about him, that he'd had sex with 20,000 women. Somebody quickly did the math and said, for that to be true, Wilt would have had to have started when he was 3. In dozens of ways, Chamberlain was quirky. He was known to eat fried chicken just before game time, and hot dogs at halftime. When he traveled, he wanted his seat on the plane to be front row, aisle seat, right side. He played 1,045 games without fouling out. His soft drink was 7-Up. Always 7-Up. Kiseda cites Chamberlain's incredible athleticism. "I saw him palm a bowling ball," he says. "I also saw him go up for a jump ball against K.C. Jones and tip it in. I saw him standing in a hospital gown, in a room with a high ceiling, and jump at least 42 inches straight up and palm the ceiling." Chamberlain was first to get a then-unheard-of contract worth $100,000. The next day, the Celtics announced that Bill Russell's contract had been increased to $100,001. The Chamberlain-Russell rivalry defined the sport in the 1960s, much as Magic-Bird did in the '80s. To commemorate Chamberlain's 70th birthday, NBA.com did an interview with Russell, who sheds light on how they really felt about each other: "We used to play a Thanksgiving night game in Philly," Russell says. "That afternoon, Wilt would come and pick me up at the hotel, drive me to his house and we'd have Thanksgiving dinner together. Afterward, I'd go in and take a nap, in his bed. Then, I'd get up so he could drive us to the game. On the way out, his mother would take me aside and say, 'Now, you be good to my boy tonight.' " Chamberlain was stubborn, but not inflexible. Elgin Baylor, now the Clippers' general manager, was in the last of his 14 seasons with the Lakers in 1971-72. He tells the story of the arrival of Bill Sharman that season as coach. "Sharman pioneered the idea of morning shoot-arounds," Baylor recalls. "One of our first games that season, we had a morning shoot-around scheduled. We are on the bus, and everybody is there but Wilt. Sharman sends an assistant into the hotel to call him. No answer. Sends him up to the room, where he knocks on the door. Wilt is told it is time for the shoot-around. Wilt asks what time the game is, and is told 7 o'clock. Wilt sends the assistant with a message for Sharman: 'Tell him I'm only gonna go over there once, now or 7.' "When Sharman heard that, he said, 'OK, driver. Let's go.' " Sharman, a special assistant with the Lakers, acknowledges that morning shoot-arounds were not Wilt's favorite thing.</div> Source
made a basket off the tip-off? thats unreal. 42 inch vert in a hospitol gown? this guy was completely amazing.
the most dominate force the game has ever seen it's crazy all of the records he set we could make a whole thread about that
My view I think Wilt influenced the whole game and kept it alive. He bent the entire game to his will that night. Amazing. What a legend.
Wilt was the man, he'd be the best player in the league right now putting up some insane 30 PPG, ~17-19 RPG, 4-5 APG, and like 5-6 or more BPG. Definately a great player.
I heard that they didn't keep block shots for Russell and he was the best at it. So they recorded Wilt's blocks for 1 game and he had 25 blocks!!!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting og15:</div><div class="quote_post">Wilt was the man, he'd be the best player in the league right now putting up some insane 30 PPG, ~17-19 RPG, 4-5 APG, and like 5-6 or more BPG. Definately a great player.</div> I don't know about that. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't get that many rebounds though, the game was different back then. The extra 1500+ shots a year per team, allowed the old legends to get so many rebounds.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting huevonkiller:</div><div class="quote_post">I don't know about that. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't get that many rebounds though, the game was different back then. The extra 1500+ shots a year per team, allowed the old legends to get so many rebounds.</div> If Ben Wallace could average 15 RPG, then Wilt could definitely averaged 17-19 RPG in todays game.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Bobcats:</div><div class="quote_post">If Ben Wallace could average 15 RPG, then Wilt could definitely averaged 17-19 RPG in todays game.</div> Well I don't know maybe for a season and such, he wouldn't average that for a career though (19 rebounds per game), is what I was really getting at. Anyway, he wouldn't be getting no 55 rebound game either.
Wilt would be dominant in any era he played, i couldn't picture any center today dealing with wilt. the closest would be shaq but in his prime.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">I don't know about that. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't get that many rebounds though, the game was different back then. The extra 1500+ shots a year per team, allowed the old legends to get so many rebounds.</div> I was trying to adjust to pace, his career average is 20 RPG, and you do realize that I put it down, I just screwed up my quick random calculations. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting huevonkiller:</div><div class="quote_post">Well I don't know maybe for a season and such, he wouldn't average that for a career though, is what I was really getting at. Anyway, he wouldn't be getting no 55 rebound game either.</div> It's about MPG. Dwight Howard grabbed 12.5 RPG in 36.8 MPG. Wilt would play about 47-48 MPG if the coach allowed it, and since he's able to stay out of foul trouble he should be able to. I got the numbers a little off, but if he's getting those huge minutes, he'd grab about 14-16 rebounds, probably in the mid 15 range in his beast seasons, and for his career about 14 RPG. He wasn't really a better rebounder than Dwight showed last season. Also you're right that he wouldn't get 55 rebounds, there just aren't enough rebounds to grab in the games now, but he'd probably have some high rebound record, something in the high 20's to 30's.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting og15:</div><div class="quote_post">I was trying to adjust to pace, his career average is 20 RPG, and you do realize that I put it down, I just screwed up my quick random calculations. It's about MPG. Dwight Howard grabbed 12.5 RPG in 36.8 MPG. Wilt would play about 47-48 MPG if the coach allowed it, and since he's able to stay out of foul trouble he should be able to. I got the numbers a little off, but if he's getting those huge minutes, he'd grab about 14-16 rebounds, probably in the mid 15 range in his beast seasons, and for his career about 14 RPG. He wasn't really a better rebounder than Dwight showed last season. Also you're right that he wouldn't get 55 rebounds, there just aren't enough rebounds to grab in the games now, but he'd probably have some high rebound record, something in the high 20's to 30's.</div> Well I agree with most of this (nice post) however, how many people since 1980 have been able to play 43 MPG? It could be possible but he might get into more foul trouble, etc. , in today's game.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting huevonkiller:</div><div class="quote_post">Well I don't know maybe for a season and such, he wouldn't average that for a career though, is what I was really getting at. Anyway, he wouldn't be getting no 55 rebound game either.</div> I still think your underrating Wilt. It wouldn't be out of the question for him to average 17 RPG for his career.
<u><font color=""Blue"">1962</font></u> (the year Wilt averaged 50 PPG and 26 RPG) - Teams attempted an average of 8,619 field goals in a total of 80 games. That's about 107.735 Shots per game. <u><font color=""Red"">2006</font></u> - Teams attempted an average of 6,477 field goals in a total of 82 games. That's about 78.987 shots per game. -- That's 2,142 more field goals attempted in two less games. Anyway, if we do some calculations.... 78.987/107.735 is 73.316%. If Wilt plays the SAME number of minutes in his career with an adjusted figure in Shots per game, his new RPG would be 16.782. So if he plays, let's say, 43 MPG, his RPG total would be, (.938 x 16.782) 15.741. This would be within my previous accepted range of 15-17 RPG. I was just too lazy to explain it before.
