Wilt Chamberlain

Wilton Norman Chamberlain (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center. Standing at tall, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 years and is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the sport's history. Several players and publications have argued that Chamberlain is the greatest basketball player of all time. He holds numerous NBA regular season records in scoring, rebounding, and durability categories; most notably he is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game, or to average 50 points in a season, or to gather 55 rebounds in a game. Further records that Chamberlain achieved include being the only player in NBA history to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season, a feat he accomplished seven times, and the only player to reach this milestone over the entire course of his NBA career.

Chamberlain played for the Kansas Jayhawks and the Harlem Globetrotters before joining the NBA, where he played for the Philadelphia / San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers. During his time in college, he led Kansas to the national championship game, but lost to North Carolina in triple overtime. In the NBA, Chamberlain enjoyed an on-court rivalry with the Boston Celtics' center Bill Russell. Chamberlain suffered a long string of losses to Russell and the Celtics during his career, always battling the "loser" label, before finally breaking through and winning the 1967 NBA Finals as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Chamberlain ultimately won two NBA championships, earning four regular-season NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, the NBA Rookie of the Year award, one NBA Finals MVP award, and one NBA All-Star Game MVP award, and he was selected to thirteen NBA All-Star Games and ten All-NBA Teams (seven First and three Second teams). He won seven scoring, eleven rebounding, nine durability, and nine field goal percentage titles, and he led the league in assists once. He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, elected into the NBA 35th Anniversary Team in 1980, chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996, and in 2021 was named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.

Chamberlain was known by several nicknames during his basketball playing career. He disliked the ones that called attention to his height, such as "Goliath" and "Wilt the Stilt". A Philadelphia sportswriter coined the nicknames during Chamberlain's high school days. He preferred "The Big Dipper", which was inspired by his friends who saw him dip his head as he walked through doorways. After his professional basketball career ended, Chamberlain played volleyball in the short-lived International Volleyball Association (IVA), was president of the IVA, and is enshrined in the IVA Hall of Fame for his contributions. He was a successful businessman, authored several books, and appeared in the 1984 movie ''Conan the Destroyer''. Chamberlain was also a lifelong bachelor and became notorious for his statement of having had sexual relations with as many as 20,000 women.

Early years

Chamberlain was born on August 21, 1936, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, into a family of nine children, the son of Olivia Ruth Johnson, a domestic worker and homemaker, and William Chamberlain, a welder, custodian, and handyman. He was a frail child, nearly dying of pneumonia in his early years and missing a whole year of school as a result. In his early years, Chamberlain was not interested in basketball because he thought it was "a game for sissies". As an avid track and field athlete, Chamberlain high jumped 6 feet, 6 inches, ran the 440 yards in 49.0 seconds and the 880 yards in 1:58.3, put the shot 53 feet, 4 inches, and long jumped 22 feet. According to Chamberlain, "basketball was king in Philadelphia", so he eventually turned to the sport.Cherry, 19.

Chamberlain was a very tall child, already measuring at age 10,Cherry, 9. and he was when he entered Philadelphia's Overbrook High School. Chamberlain had a natural advantage against his peers; he soon was renowned for his scoring talent, his physical strength, and his shot-blocking abilities. According to ESPN journalist Hal Bock, Chamberlain was "scary, flat-out frightening ... before he came along, very few players at the center position possessed his level of athleticism, stature, and stamina. Chamberlain changed the game in fundamental ways no other player did." It was also in this period of his life when his three lifelong nicknames "Wilt the Stilt", "Goliath", and his favorite, "The Big Dipper", were born.

High school career

As the star player for the Overbrook Panthers, Chamberlain averaged 31 points a game during the 1953 high school season and led his team to a 71–62 win over Northeast High School of Guy Rodgers, Chamberlain's future NBA teammate. He scored 34 points as Overbrook won the Philadelphia Public League title and gained a berth in the city championship game against the winner of the rival Catholic league, the West Catholic High School.Cherry, 25–26. In that game, West Catholic quadruple-teamed Chamberlain the entire game, and despite his 29 points, the Panthers lost 54–42. In his second Overbrook season, he continued his prolific scoring when he tallied a high-school record 71 points against Roxborough. The Panthers comfortably won the Public League title after again beating Northeast in a game in which Chamberlain scored 40 points, and later won the city title by defeating South Catholic 74–50. He scored 32 points and led Overbrook to a 19–0 season.Cherry, 30. During summer vacations, he worked as a bellhop in Kutsher's Hotel. Subsequently, owners Milton and Helen Kutsher kept up a lifelong friendship with Chamberlain; they were "his second set of parents" according to their son Mark. Red Auerbach, the coach of the Boston Celtics, spotted the talented teenager at Kutscher's and had him play one-on-one against University of Kansas (KU) standout and national champion B. H. Born, elected the NCAA Most Outstanding Player in 1953. As Chamberlain won 25–10, Born was so dejected that he gave up a promising NBA career and became a tractor engineer, recalling: "If there were high school kids that good, I figured I wasn't going to make it to the pros."Cherry, 32–33. Auerbach wanted him to go to a New England university, so he could draft him as an NBA territorial pick for the Celtics, but Chamberlain did not respond.

In Chamberlain's third and final Overbrook season, he continued his high scoring, logging 74, 78, and 90 points in three consecutive games.Cherry, 34–35. The Panthers won the Public League a third time, beating West Philadelphia 78–60; in the city championship game, they met West Catholic once again. Scoring 35 points, Chamberlain led Overbrook to an 83–42 victory. After three years, Chamberlain had led Overbrook to two city championships, logged a 56–3 record and broken Tom Gola's high school scoring record by scoring 2,252 points, averaging 37.4 points per game. After his last Overbrook season, more than two hundred universities tried to recruit the basketball prodigy. Among others, UCLA offered Chamberlain the opportunity to become a movie star, the University of Pennsylvania wanted to buy him diamonds, and Chamberlain's Panthers coach Cecil Mosenson was even offered a coaching position if he could persuade him.Cherry, 35–39. In his 2004 biography of Chamberlain, Robert Allen Cherry describes that Chamberlain wanted a change and did not want to go to or near Philadelphia, also eliminating New York City, was not interested in New England, and snubbed the South because of racial segregation; this left the Midwest as Chamberlain's probable choice. In the end, after visiting KU and conferring with the school's renowned college coach Phog Allen.

College career

Kansas University (1956–1958)

In 1955, Chamberlain entered Kansas University (KU). Chamberlain was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, where he was the president of his pledge class. Chamberlain came to KU to play basketball for the Kansas Jayhawks under legendary coach Phog Allen

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