Wilt Chamberlain's one-step vertical-reach revealed in Photographers Light

[Round Mound]

A 1957 photographers flash reveals Wilt Chamberlain's incredible reach from a one-step gather during a regular season NCAA game. Wilt's hand appears to be well above the square in spite of leaping from a near stand-still!

The footage comes from Northwestern University in their matchup vs the Kansas Jayhawks on December 9th 1957.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDMCh5HrcG0

Wilt the Greatest Athlete That Ever Lived

[9erempiree]

It's a testament to his long reach because if you look at his head it's still way below the rim.

[crisoner]

This is at an angle.....

[Round Mound]

Wilt Will Forever Be Underrated Cause He Played Way Before Our Times.

[jongib369]

It would be epic to see Wilt try to block this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFYxLN5yvwg

[deja vu]

Look at that vertical!

[Round Mound]

Look at that vertical!

[B]Its Fake!...Its Dwight Howard Dunking in 2013...They Just Photoshoped Dwight With Wilt

[CavaliersFTW]

You are all fools. Wilt only has a 24 inch vertical and he was basically just like Mutombo but with less coordination.

[Round Mound]

You are all fools. Wilt only has a 24 inch vertical and he was basically just like Mutombo but with less coordination.

And He Was Guarded By Slow, White, Skinny, Unathletic White Boys All of His Career

[PHILA]

Wilt at Overbrook High School.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNw0c19DhIU&t=2m

[Round Mound]

[B]People Here Have a Problem When Trying To Admit How Athletic Wilt Was and Yes, It Was The 50s and 60s. Same Thing That Happens When They Say "Sir Charles was 6

[eliteballer]

A 1957 photographers flash reveals Wilt Chamberlain's incredible reach from a one-step gather during a regular season NCAA game. Wilt's hand appears to be well above the square in spite of leaping from a near stand-still!

The footage comes from Northwestern University in their matchup vs the Kansas Jayhawks on December 9th 1957.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDMCh5HrcG0

Wilt the Greatest Athlete That Ever Lived

Idiot...he's clearly much closer to the camera than the rim

[CavaliersFTW]

Guys I have to come clean. I sped up the footage to make Wilt jump higher. Sorry

[La Frescobaldi]

A 1957 photographers flash reveals Wilt Chamberlain's incredible reach from a one-step gather during a regular season NCAA game. Wilt's hand appears to be well above the square in spite of leaping from a near stand-still!

The footage comes from Northwestern University in their matchup vs the Kansas Jayhawks on December 9th 1957.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDMCh5HrcG0

Wilt the Greatest Athlete That Ever Lived

Wilt is the greatest athlete I've ever seen - greater even than Mark Spitz.

My dad always said the greatest athlete he ever saw was Jim Thorpe; he saw all the greats from Walter Johnson, Ruth, Red Grange, Gino Bartali right through the 80s with Jordan, Joe Montana, and all the steroids sprinters.

One interesting thing he used to say was that Josh Gibson has always been horrifically overrated, mostly by people who never saw him. He didn't hit well against great pitchers; often misjudged batters (Gibson was a catcher) - something you NEVER saw Johnny Bench do; mostly played against basically sandlot teams, and couldn't possibly be held in the same esteem as Satchel Paige.
I have no frame of reference, since I never saw ANY of them (except the immortal Bench, of course). But my dad had a great eye for athletes and always hated the loss of natural athleticism that we started seeing in the mid 80s as America turned from a country of outdoorsmen to a more purely sports culture.

[La Frescobaldi]

It's a testament to his long reach because if you look at his head it's still way below the rim.

It's awe-inspiring to see how easily it had to be for him to get to the top of the backboard.
He was, like all men who blow out their knee, very nervous about putting pressure on his leg in the '70 playoffs. I will always protest guys who never saw him play, that say he choked in the Willis Reed game. The Lakers got shelled by the Knicks outside shooting. Anyhow, that nervousness about his leg was an example of what he could do. He was going up for a rebound and somebody from the Lakers was under him. Maybe it was Johnny Egan, im not sure, but Wilt just lifted up off one foot, right off the ground and went up... and kept going up... right over his teammate. Incredible power and he was just using one leg!
Another guy who has that kind of amazing awareness of where he is, and where everybody else is.... is D Wade. Those kinds of athletes, they are like a cat the way they can twist and twirl in mid-air and land on their feet at a sprint!! Like a panther.