Wilt Chamberlain

• 1. Introduction

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  Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single game. Not in a pickup game, not in some forgotten exhibition. On the 2nd of March 1962, on a neutral court in Hershey, Pennsylvania, against the New York Knicks, a man who stood 7 feet 1 inch tall did something no professional basketball player has done before or since. There was no video camera in the building. Only a radio broadcast of the fourth quarter survived. The lack of footage, as one writer observed, only added to the mystique. But the numbers did not need a camera to speak. Chamberlain holds 72 NBA records. He is the only player ever to average 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a single season, and he did it seven times. He once averaged 50 points per game for an entire season. His former teammate Billy Cunningham put it plainly: the NBA record book reads like Wilt's personal diary. What kind of person produces feats like these? And why, for so long, did winning elude him?

• 2. Before the NBA

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  Wilton Norman Chamberlain was born on the 21st of August 1936 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the sixth of nine children. His father William worked as a welder and handyman; his mother Olivia was a domestic worker. The family settled in the Haddington section of West Philadelphia, a middle-class neighborhood. As a fourth grader, Chamberlain ran the 300-yard shuttle at the 1946 Penn Relays alongside older teammates. He nearly died of pneumonia in his early years and missed a full year of school. Basketball, he later recalled, was something he dismissed as a game for sissies. He did not take it up until seventh grade at Shoemaker Junior High School, once he accepted what he called basketball's status as king in Philadelphia. By the time he reached Overbrook High School, the sport had already been reshaped around him. During his three seasons there, Overbrook posted a 56-3 record and won two city championships. He surpassed Hall of Fame guard Tom Gola's Philadelphia high-school scoring record of 2,222 points and graduated with 2,252, averaging 37.4 points per game. In one stretch of his final season, he scored 74, 78, and 90 points in three consecutive games. Before he ever reached college, Chamberlain had already played professional games under a pseudonym. On the 21st of December 1952, using the name George Marcus, he played for the Pittsburgh Raiders against the Cumberland Old Germans. He also suited up for the semi-professional Quakertown Fays during the 1954-55 season, keeping those appearances secret from the Amateur Athletic Union so he would not lose his amateur eligibility. More than 200 universities recruited him after his final Overbrook season. He chose Kansas, largely because coach Phog Allen had convinced him; UCLA had offered him a movie career, and the University of Pennsylvania had reportedly offered diamonds. The South he ruled out because of racial segregation. He left college after two seasons, selling a story called Why I Am Leaving College to Look magazine for $10,000, at a time when NBA players typically earned $9,000 in a season. Before joining the NBA he played for the Harlem Globetrotters, earning $50,000. The team toured the Soviet Union in 1959 and were greeted by General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev before a game at Moscow's Lenin Central Stadium. Globetrotter captain Meadowlark Lemon, who weighed 210 lb at the time, later called Chamberlain the strongest athlete who ever lived after Chamberlain lifted him several feet into the air during a team skit.

• 3. Records Without Rings

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  Chamberlain made his NBA debut on the 24th of October 1959 for the Philadelphia Warriors, listed at 258 lb. His rookie contract paid $30,000, making him the league's highest-paid player; the previous top earner, Bob Cousy of the Celtics, had earned $25,000. In his very first NBA game against the New York Knicks, Chamberlain scored 43 points and grabbed 28 rebounds. In his third game he pulled down 40 rebounds. In his first season he averaged 37.6 points, 27.0 rebounds, and 46.4 minutes per game, breaking previous records in all three. He was named both Rookie of the Year and MVP. The following season, 1960-61, he became the first player to score more than 3,000 points and the first and still only player to exceed 2,000 rebounds in a single season, pulling down 2,149 boards. Then came the 1961-62 season. He averaged 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds per game. He played for an average of 48.53 minutes, more than the regulation 48, because of overtime games. He played 3,882 of his team's 3,890 available minutes. He scored 4,029 points, making him the only player in history to cross the 4,000-point threshold in a season. On the 2nd of March 1962, the 100-point game happened. He shot 36 of 63 from the field and made 28 of 32 free throws, a remarkable percentage for someone the game remembered as a poor shooter. Joe Ruklick got the assist on the 100th point. The morning after, the score had already transformed into legend. For years, the phone hold music at former NBA Commissioner David Stern's office played announcer Bill Campbell's call of that final basket: "He made it! He made it! He made it! A Dipper Dunk!" Yet in each of those seasons, the Boston Celtics stood between Chamberlain and the championship. The teams were a study in contrasts. In Game 7 of the 1961-62 Eastern Division Finals, with 16 seconds to go and the game tied at 107, Celtics shooting guard Sam Jones hit a clutch shot with two seconds left to end the series. Coach Frank McGuire said Chamberlain had been super-human but that the Warriors lacked a consistent second scorer, a playmaker, and a second big man.

• 4. The Russell Shadow

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  Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics won eight consecutive NBA championships. Chamberlain faced Russell repeatedly in the playoffs through the early and middle portion of his career, and the losses accumulated into a defining narrative the press was eager to attach to him. The rivalry began in Chamberlain's fourth NBA game, when he outscored Russell 30 to 28 but Boston won. Their head-to-head matchups became what one observer called one of the NBA's greatest rivalries of all time. In Game 7 of the 1964-65 Eastern Division Finals, with Boston leading 110-109 and five seconds left, Chamberlain had just scored a slam dunk on Russell. Russell's inbound pass hit a guy-wire supporting the backboard, giving possession back to Philadelphia. Coach Dolph Schayes chose not to pass to Chamberlain, fearing the Celtics would intentionally foul him. When guard Hal Greer attempted to inbound to Chet Walker, John Havlicek stole the pass to preserve Boston's lead. Chamberlain later said it was in this game that people began calling him a loser. The pattern was psychological as much as tactical. In the 1966-67 season, all of that changed. New coach Alex Hannum told Chamberlain he had to act like a man on and off the court. Hannum persuaded him to shift away from scoring and toward defense, passing, and efficiency. Chamberlain averaged a career-low 24.1 points and took only 14% of the team's shots. He shot .683 from the field, a record-breaking figure. He led the league in rebounds, finished third in assists, and won his third MVP award. The Philadelphia 76ers went 68-13 that season, including a 46-4 start. In Game 5 of the 1967 Eastern Division Finals, the Sixers outscored Boston 140-116. Philadelphia fans chanted "Boston is dead." In Game 6 of the 1967 NBA Finals against the San Francisco Warriors, with the score 123-122 and 15 seconds left, Chamberlain defended Rick Barry and forced a botched shot, and the Sixers won the championship. Russell himself, who rarely praised opponents, said during the series: "Right now, he is playing like me." Chamberlain later reflected that being a champion felt like having a big round glow inside of you.

• 5. Los Angeles and Legacy

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  On the 9th of July 1968, Chamberlain was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, the first time a reigning NBA MVP had been traded in the following season. Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke paid him $250,000 after taxes. By comparison, Jerry West, the previous top earner on the team, had earned $100,000 before taxes. His time in Los Angeles brought both his second championship and some of the most contested moments of his career. In Game 7 of the 1969 NBA Finals, with the Lakers trailing 103-102 in the final minutes, Chamberlain twisted his knee and was replaced by Mel Counts. He had at that point scored 18 points and grabbed 27 rebounds; Counts shot 4 of 13 for 10 points. Many critics questioned why he stayed on the bench. Russell, who had argued throughout their careers, said any injury short of a broken leg or broken back was not enough. Van Breda Kolff, who had feuded with Chamberlain all season, came to his defense, saying Chamberlain could barely move. West's performance that night, a triple-double of 42 points, 13 rebounds, and 12 assists, made him the only player in NBA Finals history to be named MVP while on the losing team. The championship finally came in 1971-72. Under new coach Bill Sharman, who introduced morning shoot-arounds, Chamberlain embraced a role modeled on Russell's defensive style. He averaged 14.8 points and 19.2 rebounds. The Lakers won 33 consecutive games, a record at the time, and finished the regular season with 69 wins. Jerry West called Chamberlain's performance in Game 6 against Milwaukee the greatest ball-busting performance he had ever seen: Chamberlain scored 24 points, grabbed 22 rebounds, played all 48 minutes, and outran the younger Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on fast breaks with a broken right hand. In the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks, Chamberlain played Games 4 and 5 with his hands packed into thick pads used by football defensive linemen, refusing a painkilling injection for fear of losing his shooting touch. He was named Finals MVP. His final NBA season ended in 1973 with a loss to the Knicks; his last act as a professional basketball player was a dunk with one second remaining in Game 5. Chamberlain was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978. He was elected to the NBA's 35th, 50th, and 75th anniversary teams. He never fouled out in his career. He is still the only center to lead the league in total assists for a season, a feat he compared to Babe Ruth leading the league in sacrifice bunts. Following basketball, Chamberlain played in the short-lived International Volleyball Association, served as its league president for one term, and was enshrined in the IVA Hall of Fame. He died on the 12th of October 1999. His jersey number 13 was retired by the Harlem Globetrotters on the 9th of March 2000.