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Sept 6, 2003 |
Wilt Chamberlain
"The most dominant player in NBA history" - InsideHoops.com
Full Name: Wilton Norman Chamberlain
Born: 8/21/36 in Philadelphia
Died: 10/12/99 in Los Angeles
High School: Overbrook (Philadelphia)
College: Kansas
Drafted: Philadelphia Warriors (1959)
Transactions: Traded to Phila. 76ers, 1/15/65, Traded to L.A. Lakers, 7/9/68
Height: 7-1; Weight: 275 lbs.
Nicknames: The Stilt, Big Dipper, Dipper, Dippy
Honors: Elected to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (1978); NBA champion
(1967, '72); NBA Finals MVP (1972); NBA MVP (1960, '66, '67, '68); All-NBA First
Team (1960, '61, '62, '64, '66, '67, '68); Second Team ('63, '65, '72); All-Defensive
First Team (1972, '73); Rookie of Year (1960); One of the 50 Greatest Players
in NBA History (1996).
Career Stats:
Games: 1,045. Points per game: 30.1. Rebounds per game:
22.9. Assists per game: 4.4. Total points: 31.419. Field goal percentage: 54%.
Free throw percentage: 51.1%.
InsideHoops.com notes on Wilt Chamberlain:
Wilt was a track and field star in high school.
In 1955, the NBA made a new "territorial" draft
rule that allowed an NBA team to take a "local" college player in exchange
for giving up its first round pick. Promotional possibilities were behind the
rule, as this meant that college players popular in a certain area would get to
join the local NBA team, already enjoying the college fan base. The Philadelphia
Warriors, owned by Eddie Gottlieb, said that because Kansas had no NBA team, and
Chamberlain had grown up and gone to high school in Philadelphia, and therefore
should be considered a "territorial" draft pick of the Warriors. Gottlieb
got his wish, as the league approved and Wilt joined the Warriors. Chamberlain
was the only player in NBA history to be taken as a "territorial" draft
pick due to roots established prior to college.
Wilt's first NBA game was against New York. He scored
43 points and gathered 28 rebounds.
As an NBA rookie, Wilt averaged 37.6 points and 27.0 rebounds
and was named NBA Rookie of the Year, All-Star Game Most Valuable Player and NBA
Most Valuable Player, and made the All-NBA First Team.
Over his career, Wilt, on his various teams, faced Bill
Russell and the Boston Celtics eight times in the playoffs. Russell's Celtics
won seven of those matchups.
Wilt got angry a lot during his career, even right from
the start, because of how hard opponents would bang him and try to hurt him. But,
Wilt had incredible restraint and rarely got into fights.
Wilt never fouled out of a single NBA game. Not once.
He played 14 years and over 1,200 games, yet never got ejected due to too many
personal fouls.
In his second season, 1960-61, Wilt averaged 38.4 points
and 27.2 rebounds per game.
In his third season, 1961-62, Wilt scored 50.4 points
per game.
On March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, against the
New York Knicks, Wilt scored 100 points. The game didn't even go overtime. The
final score was Warriors 169 Knicks 147. Chamberlain hit 36 of 63 shots, and 28
of 32 free throws, amazing considering how bad he usually was from the charity
stripe (50.6% from the line at that point in the season).
In 1962, the Warriors moved from Philadelphia to San Francisco.
A few days after the 1965 All-Star Game, the San Francisco
Warriors traded Wilt Chamberlain to the Philadelphia 76ers (who used to be the
Syracuse Nationals) for Connie Dierking, Paul Neumann, Lee Shaffer and $150,000.
In Philly as a 76er his teammates included guards Hal Greer and Larry Costello
and forwards Luke Jackson and Chet Walker.
The next season, 1966-67, Wilt's first full season with
this new team, the 76ers added Billy Cummingham. Philly started the year winning
45 of their first 49 games, and finished with a 68-13 regular season record, the
best ever at that time.
Finally, that season, in the 1967 playoffs, Wilt's Sixers
beat Russell's Celtics in five games in the division finals, breaking Boston's
streak of eight straight championships. The Sixers then faced Wilt's old team,
the Warriors, in the finals. Wilt's Sixers prevailed, winning the championship
in six games.
In Chamberlain's first seven years in the NBA, he averaged
39.4 points per game.
In Chamberlain's second seven years in the NBA, he averaged
20.7 points per game.
In the mid 1960's, Wilt once led the entire league in
assists per game.
Chamberlain was eventually traded to the Los Angeles Lakers
for Jerry Chambers, Darrall Imhoff and Archie Clark.
In 1972, Chamberlain's Lakers, who also had Jerry West
and Gail Goodrich, won 33 games in a row, setting the NBA record at the time for
season record at 69-13, and beat the New York Knicks in the finals in five games
for Wilt's second and final NBA championship.
Wilt flooded the record books with his incredible stats,
mostly scoring records.
He was impossible to guard despite constant double and
triple teams
Wilt was so unstoppable that tons of NBA rule changes
taking place during his reign were blatantly related to stopping him, including
the creation of the offensive goaltending call, widening the lane, revised rules
on inbounding, etc.
Wilt retired at the end of the 1972-73 season.
Wilt was also famous for his massive quantity of female
companions. Oh baby.
Chamberlain passed away on October 12, 1999 at the age
of 63.
He was the most dominant player in NBA history.
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