Great Wilt story

[AirFederer]

The gentle giant.

Even long after his playing days, his strength was apparent, as is seen in the following story:


Several years after Wilt stopped playing; he toyed with the idea of a comeback. On the day he visited the Knicks' offices in Madison Square Garden; he talked to Red Holzman, and then strode out to the elevator.


When it opened, two deliverymen were struggling with a dolly piled high with boxes of office supplies, mostly letterheads and envelopes.


The load was so heavy, the elevator had stopped maybe four inches below the floor level and now the deliverymen were huffing and puffing, but they couldn't raise the dolly high enough to get it on the floor level.


After maybe two minutes of the deliverymen's huffing and puffing, Wilt, his biceps bulging in a tank top, peered down at them and intoned, "Gentlemen, maybe I can help."


They stepped back, he stepped into the elevator, grabbed each end of the rope slung under the dolly and without much exertion, quickly lifted the dolly onto the floor level.


Looking up in awe, the deliverymen said, "Thank you." Wilt said, "You're welcome."


Wilt stepped into the elevator and rode down to the street level as another witness followed the two deliverymen toward the Knick offices and asked, "How much does all this weigh?"


They quickly surveyed the stack of big boxes of office supplies. "Close to 600 pounds," one said.

[Bawkish]

only 2 'ships doe

[StephHamann]

I bet he threw them out of the elevator like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITxDdnzpnU8

[Marchesk]

How much do cougars weigh?

[AirFederer]

Another great Wilt story in the words of jlauber/LAZERUSS

One of Simmons' "Myths" is that Wilt was not highly regarded by his peers in the NBA. In fact, he goes so far as to say that in 1965, the Laker had an opportunity to trade for Chamberlain, and the Laker owner went to the players and had them vote. They voted 9-2 against acquiring Wilt. Why?

Simmons' uses that vote as some kind of acknowledgment that Wilt was not a "valuable" player.

Here is MY take on that subject:

It was not that Wilt was not highly regarded by his peers, it was that he was highly resented by his peers. Wilt so completely dominated the league, and was so far ahead of every other player who was playing, and who had played before, that there was a natural resentment of him. It was similar to the reception that greeted Jordan in his first few years in the NBA. Remember Isiah Thomas and his Eastern teammates "freezing" MJ out of the All-Star game?

I addressed that "vote" earlier in this topic, but it also bears worth repeating. The Lakers did not trade for Wilt, in 1965, and what happened? The Sixers grabbed him, and in his first year, he took a medicore team to a game seven, ONE point loss to the 62-18 Celtics in the Eastern Playoffs. Within two years the Sixers were world champions. In fact, for the last three years that Wilt played in Philly, they had the best record in the league.

Meanwhile, the Lakers continued to lose in the Finals. They finally broke down and traded for Chamberlain before the '68-'69 season. While he did not pay immediate dividends, in terms of titles, he led the Lakers to four finals in five years, including what many observers believe to be the greatest team of all-time, the '71-'72 Lakers.

And while I contend that Wilt would have won more championships had he remained in Philly (I honestly believe that with Greer, Jackson, Walker, and Cunningham, all in their prime, ...and with the demise of the Celtic "Dynasty", that the Sixers would have won 3-4 more championships)...it would have been interesting had Chamberlain been paired up with West, and a Baylor in his prime, instead of the shell that he was by the time Chamberlian joined LA in that '68-'69 season.

The bottom line, though, was, once again, Wilt was RESENTED by many of his peers in the NBA. Not because he wasn't regarded as talented...but BECAUSE he was so talented.

I`m with LAZ on this one (also).

[AirFederer]

More LAZERUSS gold:

Originally Posted by jlauber
Incidently,

I wasn't trying to diminish Jordan's greatness by my comparison about the quality of teammates that he had, with what Russell had, or who Chamberlain played with. My point was obvious, though...Jordan was no more of a "winner" until his supporting cast was among the best in the league. Wilt played with putrid personnel for the first half of his career, while Russell was surrounded by a HOF supporting cast his entire career. Does ANYONE really believe that Russell could have carried the '61-'62 Warriors to a game seven against the Celtics, had Wilt been playing center for Boston????

As for my All-Time Top-10...it currently is this...

1. Wilt
2. Shaq
3. Kareem
4. MJ
5. Russell
6. Magic
7. Kobe
8. Duncan
9. Bird
10. Oscar

I hate to leave West off of that list...he, and Jordan, were arguably the greatest post-season scorers of all-time...but Kobe has shot up the charts the last few years.

[AirFederer]

https://books.google.no/books?id=nCe...%20toe&f=false

[aj1987]

More LAZERUSS gold:

That is one of the WORST top 10 lists ever. Oscar above Hakeem and LeBron? MJ at #4 and Shaq at #2?

The worst part, he has the greatest choker the game has ever seen as the GOAT.

[Asukal]

That is one of the WORST top 10 lists ever. Oscar above Hakeem and LeBron? MJ at #4 and Shaq at #2?

The worst part, he has the greatest choker the game has ever seen at the GOAT.

Laz is just a weirdo obsessed with ILt. All he sees are numbers, he is too stupid to understand the game because he never played it. I wouldn't be surprised if he was homo for ILt. We should all thank him for his antics really, I wouldn't have known ILt was a choking loser otherwise.

[Marchesk]

Top 10 lists are subjective. What exactly puts Hakeem above Oscar, Dr J or Moses Malone anyways? Because he won two titles when MJ went to play baseball?

Hakeem was great, but what makes him better? He's more recent, that's what. It's subjective. For every single player in someone's top 10, including MJ, you can always make a case for someone else being ranked at that spot. The guys typically in the 10-15 range have a top 10 case, and the guys typically in the top 5 have a GOAT case.

[aj1987]

Top 10 lists are subjective. What exactly puts Hakeem above Oscar, Dr J or Moses Malone anyways? Because he won two titles when MJ went to play baseball?

Hakeem was great, but what makes him better? He's more recent, that's what. It's subjective.

One of the greatest defenders and post players. Dude was amazing on both offense AND defense. He was a pretty good passer as well. Couple that with a bunch of titles and FMVP's, MVP, and DPOY, you've got a player who's better than Dr. J, Oscar, and Moses.

Not to mention the fact that he won one title averaging 33/10/5/3 and the other one averaging 29/11/4/4. 31/11/4/4/2 combined.

[Marchesk]

One of the greatest defenders and post players. Dude was amazing on both offense AND defense. He was a pretty good passer as well. Couple that with a bunch of titles and FMVP's, MVP, and DPOY, you've got a player who's better than Dr. J, Oscar, and Moses.

Because those 3 don't have accomplishments you can argue for ahead of Hakeem, such as Moses being a superior rebounder with 3 MVPs. Dr. J with his ABA career matches up to anyone, and what Oscar did in the 60s is unparalleled. He just didn't have the fortune of playing with Kareem until he was older.

[aj1987]

Because those 3 don't have accomplishments you can argue for ahead of Hakeem, such as Moses being a superior rebounder with 3 MVPs. Dr. J with his ABA career matches up to anyone, and what Oscar did in the 60s is unparalleled. He just didn't have the fortune of playing with Kareem until he was older.

Yeah, but he wasn't even close to being as good as Hakeem defensively. Hakeem was also a better passer. People consider Moses to be one of the best rebounders ever and he only averaged like 1 more RPG than Hakeem (over their careers).

Don't forget pace as well.

Meh. The ultra high paced ABA. I don't really give it that much cred. I do have Dr. J in my top 13 though.

Oscar? Fancy stats while routinely playing at 115-125 pace.