Wilt Chamberlain strength and domination

[Chicago76]

I know that Wilt was given to a lot of hyperbole, but there is really no way to overstate his athleticism. What we do know about him is what is documented in his 100 yd, 440, 880, long jump, high jump, and shot put scores. Not by him, but by his actual, recorded times in meets. We have a pretty good idea of what he could do in the 1500m and its easy to convert 100yd and 440 times to 100m and 400m times. This means that we can figure out what he would do in these events in the decathlon.

I think it's fair to say that he could equal all of his personal bests in a decathlon if he actually focused on track. It's probably also fair to say that he could shave 0.2 seconds off a 100m time running on a modern surface vs. cinders and add 3-4 inches to his high jump using the flop technique rather than the scissor technique in the 50s. Using those assumptions, this is how Wilt would look through 5 events in the 2004 Olympics. Yeah, I said 2004, 40 years after his day, at 7-1 250 lbs, against guys using better training and nutrition:

1 *Dmitriy Karpov*(KAZ) 4689
2 *Roman Šebrle*(CZE) 4594
3 *Bryan Clay*(USA) 4554
4 *Dean Macey*(GBR) 4454
5 *Tom Pappas*(USA) 4415
6 *Claston Bernard*(JAM) 4408
7 *Chiel Warners*(NED) 4387
8 Wilt Chamberlain (USA) 4330
9 *Attila Zsivoczky*(HUN) 4294
10 *Jaakko Ojaniemi*(FIN) 4261
10 *Laurent Hernu*(FRA) 4199

The next question out of everyone here is: "If he was so great at the decathlon, why did he never do it in the Olympics?" The answer is here, from World Champion and Gold Medalist Al Oerter, who threw discus for Kansas while Wilt was high jumping, shot putting, and running the 440:

”A person can physically throw 80 metres, the limiting factor is the size of the circle. A young person with a height of about 190 cm, a good arm length and a phenomenal turning capacity can definitely throw much further than the World record. I tried to show basketball player Wilt Chamberlain how to throw the discus once, but he couldn’t do it because, at 216 cm, he was too tall for the ring.”

Chamberlain was simply too big to get the torque in the discus ring and he was also probably too heavy for the pole vault poles.

There is a video out there of Chamberlain high jumping. If you notice, his technique isn't great, and he only takes a three step jog to the bar, while everyone else takes a 6 to 8 step run. He's on at 0:08 jumping 6-4. Bud Smith, the second man in history to jump 7-0 won the meet at 6-9. Chamberlain ended up second at 6-6. It still gives you an idea that if he treated this as more than a "hobby" he could have been world class in anything he did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCLDu4HBYtc

I don't doubt for a second that he could dunk a basketball from 15 feet with a two step approach. And I think he could get two steps in by running along the circle.

A lot of the young guys on this board say Wilt just beat up on smaller guys. The truth is, he was gifted with 1 in a 10 million athleticism. He just happened to combine that with one in a million height. The odds were incredible and we'll only see something like this once every century on earth, which means a fair amount of you reading this will be dead by then. Olajuwon, Jabbar, Robinson, O'Neal aren't even close.

[OutOfPlace]

Wilt's athleticism is wildly overblown. Guy wasn 't even on Ryan Hollins level.

Scrub.

[inclinerator]

um no he was just tall and skinny dwight howard could probably jump over that you just need hops and agile

[VeeCee15]

Look at videos of wilt on youtube.

He is nothing special athletically nowadays.

Shaq would own him so hard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLrMw3vvhQw

Wilt = a stiff by today's standards.

[Heretik32]

There hasn't been anyone on Earth as convinced of Wilt's greatness as Wilt himself. If someone had asked him whether he could fly he'd have responded in a heartbeat that yes indeed, he could. Without even breaking a smile.

[Heretik32]

On Wilt's dominance:

I always compare players with other players of their "generation", and I abhore topics like "If Ewing played today". If you take prime Ewing as was and put him into today's game he'd be nothing special. My opinion, as said. You can compare Kobe and McGrady until the cows come home, but you can't really compare Ewing to Yao because, quite simply, the game never stops evolving, and player skillsets are evolving, too. More importantly, the game's athleticism increases at ever higher speeds.

That said, there are always players that somehow "skip" a generation, thus dominating their competition. Those guys are athletic freaks or just incredibly innovative or effective with their skillsets. Those are the kind of players that are indeed able to compete with the next generation. Pre-injury Vince was an example. Kobe, of course. LeBron. Heck, Jordan skipped three or four generations. But in my opinion, and bash me all day for all I care, there will be a time when even a prime Jordan with his back-then athleticism and skillset wouldn't dominate the league. Those guys are legends because they were that good at that time, and they laid the foundations for future generations.

Wilt was bunches of generations ahead of his time. He slaughtered his opponents just because of his immense athleticism, much like Shaq generations later. But even mighty Wilt, and again, that's probably just my opinion, would be nothing special in today's league.

[Younggrease]

On Wilt's dominance:

I always compare players with other players of their "generation", and I abhore topics like "If Ewing played today". If you take prime Ewing as was and put him into today's game he'd be nothing special. My opinion, as said. You can compare Kobe and McGrady until the cows come home, but you can't really compare Ewing to Yao because, quite simply, the game never stops evolving, and player skillsets are evolving, too. More importantly, the game's athleticism increases at ever higher speeds.

Ignorance..prime Ewing was skilled and more athletic then ever center in the league except one. And I would take Ewings athletic package over Howards because Ewing was more coordinated and had a touch around the rim. Nothing special?? you must be like 12 and never watched Ewing play, these centers in the league today can barely score on the block. Chris Kaman and Marcus CAmby are top 5-10 centers in the league. But Ewing would be nothing when he is better defensively then Camby and 10 times better offensively then Kaman.

Nothing special?

I guess all the centers today do this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxnB9...eature=related

and this is the same Zo that was blocking EVERYONE but with 2 of his own kidneys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5f6T...eature=related

Greg Oden wishes he was as good as Ewing was in college

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B23Ki5px57g

Wilt was bunches of generations ahead of his time. He slaughtered his opponents just because of his immense athleticism, much like Shaq generations later. But even mighty Wilt, and again, that's probably just my opinion, would be nothing special in today's league.

More ignorance. Nothing special? In a league where the Yao and Dwight are the 2 best centers? Dwight is 6"9 with no post moves and Yao is 7"6 nd shoots fadeaway jumpers in the clutch and watches games from the sidelines. But Wilt 7"1 and world class athlete with more touch then Dwight, better moves, would be nothing special.

[Heretik32]

you must be like 12 and never watched Ewing play

You expect people to lead intelligent discussion with you on that basis?

[Younggrease]

You expect people to lead intelligent discussion with you on that basis?

there is no other explanation for someone to say Ewing would be nothing special in the NBA today... Pls feel free to enlighten me...

[Vendetta]

Wilt would not be able to contain a prime Shaq. Shaq would have just pushed him out of the way like he has done every single player he's ever faced.

[Heretik32]

there is no other explanation for someone to say Ewing would be nothing special in the NBA today... Pls feel free to enlighten me...

You got to be aware that you know those players only in one certain context, and that's them playing back when they played against those players they played against. Athleticism in sports is evolving at a terrifying rate, and any player that even remotely relied on athleticism back then would be hopelessly outmatched in that area today.

You also mustn't forget every generation of players learns from the players that came before them.

The problem is that you can't argue with hero worship. And fact is that we'll never know just how good Ewing at al would do against today's players. It's all just speculation.

[Younggrease]

You also mustn't forget every generation of players learns from the players that came before them.

The problem is that you can't argue with hero worship. And fact is that we'll never know just how good Ewing at al would do against today's players. It's all just speculation.

And well it seems lie no one as learned to have a game like Ewing had. Its really not even speculation. A talent like Ewing doesnt come along too often. He is a legit 7 footer, crazy wing span and could run the floor, he could shoot a jumper and he could hit jump hooks. Its about as much speculation as wondering if Hakeem could still play today, but I guess you think that's just hero worship too.

[SoCalMike]

The problem is that you can't argue with hero worship. And fact is that we'll never know just how good Ewing at al would do against today's players. It's all just speculation.

I don't disagree with this statement about speculation, but some of you dismiss the guy with very little basis in fact because he was around before most of you were born and you never really saw him play. I find that very poor reasoning. I wonder how many of you ever watched him play via ESPN classic or other documentary films?

Wilt was a gifted athlete with incredible size, strength, heart and hustle whether it was in today's era or yesterday's.

This is not about "hero worship" and that statement you make tries to sumarily dismiss Wilt's greatness and I think its a bit silly with all due respect.

[VCMVP1551]

LOL Wilt was even worse than Kobe "I can get mine whenever I want to except in the Finals" Bryant when talking about himself. He's basically saying that he used to dunk FT's from behind the line off a single step run-up. GTFO.

Wilt is a legend and without a doubt a top 10 player of all-time but he lied a lot and had a massive ego.

There's no way in hell he had a 46-48 inch vertical. Subtract 10 inches from that claim and you have a realistic best case scenario for Wilt's prime vertical.

I've also heard comments by Wilt saying things like "If I knew all of my records wouldn't be unbreakable I would have actually tried to make my free throws."

It's also funny how people criticize Shaq for demanding 2 trades, fighting with teammates ect. when Wilt did the same thing as well as getting multiple coaches fired.

Most people ignore all of Wilt's flaws. Pretty much any of the criticisms of Shaq apply to Wilt as well.

[SoCalMike]

All of my comments regarding Wilt have nothing to do with his ego which was bigger than his size. Yes, he was on arrogant mofo which really stood out in his time.

You cannot dismiss anyone's achievements because of their ego or because you don't like thier personality.. Think of Ali in boxing... same kind of thing... Huge ego, but he backed it up.