Record Records - Part 4, NBA-II: Wilt Chamberlain
Sporting achievements that will probably never be repeated or bettered, an opinion
Scrutinising sport is a funny thing. It’s a competition of physical prowess, mental toughness, team work, preparation, all that jazz that coaches go on about. But it’s hard to put a number on mental toughness, hard to precisely define how prepared an athlete is, hard to objectively state the team work at play. But we want to know these things! The inherent nature of competition drives the desire to quantify who is competing the best, and those really invested in the culture and fabric of a sport know that winning titles and medals doesn’t always reflect this. And so we get statistics, analytics, numbers based solely on output and production by the athletes, an imperfect but inescapable surrogate for what we really want.
This series is a celebration of those in their sports that have statistical achievements so impressive I don’t think they’re likely to ever be bettered or even repeated. This is by no means supposed to fulfil some perfect list of the most impressive records and statistics across the sporting world, these are just records that are interesting and incredible in my opinion, and are therefore of course very much centred on the sports that I love or pay attention to. This series of articles is focused on sports that I am attached to, so, apologies for inevitably missing some incredible record in a field I’m ignorant of.
This week we’re continuing with basketball and more or less continuing the story we told last week.
For those new to the series:
To hear the breakdown of Jerry Rice and his records, as well as an introduction to statistics in American football, see the first part of this series.
The explore the incredible career of Tom Brady see the second part of this series.
To get an introduction to basketball statistics and then journey through the remarkable career of Bill Russell, see the third part of this series
I apologised last week on how cumbersome the Brady piece was, but in hindsight I didn’t do much better with the Russell one. The intro to basketball was pretty dry, sorry about that. On reflection I also feel the main part was a little too much “school report” and not enough fun. I tried to get back to just having fun with this week’s piece, which I hope comes across. It’s fitting I’ve tried to find more entertainment this time around, as we’re looking at:
Wilt Chamberlain - Oh So Many Records…
Wilt Chamberlain, Harlem Globetrotter, Philadelphia/San Francisco Warrior, Philadelphia 76er, LA Laker, legend. Picture taken from Wikipedia
No list of remarkable sporting records would be complete without Chamberlain. In a sport where individual super stars shine brighter than in other team codes his numbers are astonishing. But he's also a fascinating study in the fallacy of statistical emphasis. His records and achievements are truly remarkable, as we'll explore, yet he won just 2 championships, and has only a middling success rate to show for all of his dominance on the court.
Wilt Chamberlain is a household name (well maybe not in all households but he's up there) because he was amongst the pioneers that made basketball the sporting entertainment that it is. He typified what was unique and special about the sport, captivatingly tall athletes doing captivating things. He wasn't the first black superstar of the game, he wasn't the first 7ft+ player to dominate, he wasn't the first to wow audiences with flashy ball movement and spectacular skills, but he was all of those things. At 7'1" (that's 216 cm for us metric folk) with a wingspan even greater (234cm!) Chamberlain was a towering specimen, and not just tall, he was broad and immensely strong. But he wasn't just huge, well I mean, obviously he was huge, but he was incredibly athletic and fast, and he could do things you wouldn't expect someone of his size to do. He excelled in all college athletics, was offered pro contracts in baseball and football, but basketball was where he truly dominated. But just to reiterate, he was crazy big and crazy strong. Arnold Schwarzenegger described meeting Wilt and working out together in an interview (make sure you read this with Arnie’s accent):
“Wilt Chamberlain would be in the gym - we eventually ended up doing a movie together, Conan the Destroyer. I was a big fan of him because he came to the gym, he would do a tricep extension — the big guys, the strongest guys would do 120 pounds, let’s say — he would come and do 150, 170 pounds. That’s how strong he was. I remember that he lifted me up with one arm like nothing.”
I mean, that’s quite the endorsement. Now, I know you can visualise Arnie, he’s an icon. Well, I want you to conjure a picture of him in your head, maybe as Conan, or the Terminator, or going up against the Predator, massive right? Well, check out this shot from the set of the Conan sequel that Chamberlain featured in:
Chamberlain (left), Andre (right), with renowned small-guy Arnie. Picture taken from IMDb
Ooh boy, that hurts my brain. I mean holy moly, that’s a crazy photo right? That’s Andre the Giant on the right. Andre the bloody GIANT! Of course he’s big (giant even), but my mental calibration of Arnie was that he was himself no miniature. But just look at Chamberlain next to him! That film came out in 1984 by the way, 11 years after Chamberlain had retired from basketball. A decade after he decided he wasn’t athletic enough to keep up in the NBA and look at the man. Pick up Schwarzenegger with one arm all right.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, talking about his post career already!
Chamberlain dominated college basketball (because how could he not?) and was a national story in the days when pre-professional athletes didn’t get the hype they do now, appearing in Time, Life and other major outlets before finishing college. He was frustrated with college basketball and wanted to be making money for his efforts, but the NBA still had a policy whereby a player couldn’t be drafted into the professional league until their graduating class was completed, (unlike the modern game where a player only has to be at least one year out of highschool and older than 19…). Not wanting to play his final year of college basketball Chamberlain took the best paying option after the NBA, the Harlem Globetrotters.
A quick aside on the Globetrotters. When Wilt Chamberlain was looking to go pro in basketball black players were no longer a novelty in the NBA, it had been 8 years since the first black player joined the league. They weren’t the most common ethnically represented group (as they are today) but if you were very good at basketball and wanted to make money playing it, being black was no longer a huge obstacle. But when basketball first went pro that obstacle was very real. Enter the Harlem Globetrotters. The Globetrotters were not part of the National Basketball League, or the Basketball Association of America (the NBL and BAA were the two leagues that merged into the NBA in 1949) and the Trotters offered an alternative to those racially segregated competitions. Founded in the 1920’s, they initially played purely exhibition games, touring America and promoting the sport through entertainment. They did however compete in the World Basketball Championships, a now defunct invitation only competition held annually in Chicago. The winner was almost always the best team from the NBL, though the Globetrotters won in 1940. They were one of the most famous basketball teams in the country, I’ll let Wikipedia explain:
“In 1948 the Globetrotters made headlines when they beat one of the best white basketball teams in the country, the Minneapolis Lakers. The Globetrotters continued to easily win games due to Harlem monopolizing the entire talent pool of the best black basketball players in the country.”
Because the Globetrotters paid black players to play for them! Funny how that helps. That victory over the twice recent champion Lakers is credited with accelerating black integration to the NBA, indeed the first black player was a Globetrotter (Nathan Clifton), whose contract was bought by the New York Knicks in 1950. The Globetrotters also properly earned their title in the 50s as they started touring the actual globe instead of just the American portion of it. These tours were immensely successful and in 1959 they performed a sold out tour of the Soviet Union (hard to imagine during the Cold War), and took their recent signing Chamberlain along for the tour. By the way, Chamberlain signed a $50,000 contract for a single season with the Globetrotters, double the highest paid player in the NBA at the time, no wonder he didn’t want to wait until after college! The tour was a huge success, with the entire team receiving the Athletic Order of Lenin medal, even if it took the locals time to warm to the style:
“According to one report; however, spectators were initially confused: "A Soviet audience of 14,000 sat almost silently, as if in awe, through the first half of the game. It warmed up slightly in the second half when it realized the Trotters are more show than competition."”
On this tour Chamberlain continued to impress with his physical prowess:
“One Globetrotter skit involved Captain Meadowlark Lemon collapsing to the ground; instead of helping him up, Chamberlain threw him several feet into the air and caught him like a doll. Lemon, who at that time weighed 210 lb (95 kg), later said Chamberlain was "the strongest athlete who ever lived".”
Remember that pic with Arnie above…
That was the only full season Chamberlain played with the Globetrotters, being drafted into the NBA the following year. He signed for $30,000 with the Philadelphia Warriors, becoming the highest paid player in the league despite being a rookie, even if it was a pay cut from his Trotter days. He would throughout his career continue to appear for the Globetrotters whenever his NBA commitments allowed. In 2000 his number 13 jersey was retired, one of only 8 players to have their number retired by the Globetrotters.
Before we go on I just wanted to share something else I discovered when reading up on the Globetrotters. Throughout their long history they have inducted 10 honorary members, including Nelson Mandela, activist Jesse Jackson, and two popes! Most recently Pope Francis in 2015, and I just had to share this picture of the occasion, it makes me inexplicably happy:
Ballin’ popes are the best popes. Picture taken from PRNews
Alright, back to Chamberlain joining the NBA. Some players take a little time to reach their lofty peaks as a player in the big leagues. Others start strong but then flame out and can’t take the further steps to true stardom. What I mean is, the league has had many players that ended up in the hall of fame but weren’t in strong consideration for the rookie of the year award, and it’s also littered with players who won that award but retired without a true legacy or a well stocked trophy cabinet. But then there are players like Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, LeBron James, players who win rookie of the year and just keep on getting better. Chamberlain was like that, only a lot more so. Those players are obviously amazing, true legends of the game, and while Shaq’s rookie year was something else (few players see his rise to global stardom in their first year), nothing will quite compare to Wilt Chamberlain. In his first year in the NBA he broke the record for points scored in a season. The most points ever scored in a season! That record had been set by one of the superstars of the era, Bob Pettit (the first player to win multiple MVP awards), over a 72 game season. Chamberlain broke it in his first 56 games. By the end of his rookie season Chamberlain had broken 8 different league records and was voted the MVP, the first time a rookie had won the award, which has only happened once since (Wes Unseld, 1969). They went to the playoffs but didn’t make the finals as they couldn’t get past the Celtics in the semis, and if you read the previous piece on Russell you know why.
Chamberlain would spend the most productive part of his career stymied by Russell. He would put up eye-watering numbers, truly remarkable as we’ll see soon, for a decade, but only came away with one championship. Russell retired after 13 years in the NBA but by then Chamberlain had lost that edge that made him so dominant, his freakish speed and athleticism for a man his size. His rebounding and blocking prowess continued to make him a force in the league but his scoring fell away as he was asked to play a more facilitating role. Or maybe having to go against the best defender the world had seen in Bill Russell was what made Chamberlain so good against other teams:
Points per game in the seasons that Russell was an active player: 34.42 (11 seasons)
Points per game after Russell retired: 16.75 (4 seasons)
Though that is including his last 2 seasons when his scoring truly plummeted. But even ignoring those, so just his 2 best years after Russell left compared to the full 11 while Russell played it’s 34.42 v 21.54. Either way, even with Russell no longer in the league to thwart his championship hopes, Chamberlain’s decline in impact meant his teams struggled to win finals. He would win one final championship in 1972, but the following season would be his last one.
I’ve kept his playing career relatively subdued in detail, and that’s because I have so much to cover in regards to his truly insane records.
So let’s get into the stats.
We covered last time - with the Russell piece - how truly insane his and Chamberlain’s rebounding success was. Yes the league has changed a lot in terms of playing style (longer range shots leads to rebounds that arc further from the rim and distribute rebounds to more players), NBA rules (the area you can’t linger in is larger than before), and player shooting skill (league shooting has increased overall and so there are less rebounds up for grabs); but even by the era’s standards the two titans of the 1960s had truly remarkable rebound statistics. Remember these gems:
And then there’s the career numbers:
Pretty amazing. Every guy on that list apart from Howard is in the basketball hall of fame. But most of those in the wake of Russell and Chamberlain played a lot more games, big guys (the most common high volume rebounders) are playing longer than they used to. Check out what happens when we go to per game values:
Oh my stars, that is insane. I think we can comfortably put his rebounding records in the unbreakable basket. Some select examples (there are so many other more specific ones):
Most career rebounds
Highest career rebounds per game
Most seasons leading the league in rebounds
Most seasons with 1000+ rebounds
Highest rebounds per game in a season (as well as the next two best seasons)
Most rebounds in a game
Only player to pass 2000 rebounds in a season
He and Russell are the only players to never have a season with less than 18 rebounds per game (so their lowest yearly per game numbers would be the season leaders in almost every other year they weren’t in the league…)
But rebounding isn’t a particularly sexy statistic, (some fools might try and convince you that there are no sexy statistics, don’t let them) whereas scoring a whole lot of points tends to get the attention. Most MVP awards are handed out to players who score buckets of points. The top scorers are usually the faces of their teams and the league as a whole. Michael Jordan’s legacy is in large part due to his phenomenal scoring (and yes, MJ fans, I know he won defensive player of the year awards and has the Bulls franchise records for assists and steals as well as points, but his truly superstar statistics are all for scoring). Well, for all of Chamberlain’s rebounding dominance, his scoring records are even more astounding.
Before we get into it a quick note on scoring in the NBA. Average scores per game for a team grew gradually after the formation of the league, but since the end of the 1950s have surprisingly held pretty constant:
And in terms of player contribution to their team scores, in general a score of 20+ is a solid game, while 40+ is a great night, and many players never crack 50 in a game. The 2nd best individual score in a game is 81 by Kobe Bryant, and he would all-in-all end up with 25 games of 50 or more out of his 1346 game career. Chamberlain had 118 games of 50 or more in his 1045 game career. Or, in 11.3% of his games he scored 50 or more, compared to 1.9% for Kobe, and by the way that percentage for Jordan is 2.9%. What?!
But that’s just freakish performances, what about week-in week-out? Well, Michael Jordan won MVPs for his phenomenal scoring seasons, where in his three best years he averaged 37.1, 35.0 and 33.6 points per game. Wilt Chamberlain had six seasons averaging more than 37.5. SIX SEASONS AVERAGING MORE THAN MICHAEL JORDAN’S BEST YEAR!
Ahem, sorry about that, didn’t mean to shout, it’s just looking through Chamberlain’s scoring records is truly stunning. I said before that Kobe Bryant’s 81 was the second highest score ever, and it’s very impressive, but it’s second because Chamberlain is number 1 (of course). He scored 100 points in a game in 1962. What?! Most years there are teams who barely average 100 points a game…
Let’s do a quick run through of his impressive scoring achievements (again, there are some very specific records I have omitted):
Most points and points per game in a season (he also holds the next three spots for per game)
Most points in a game, or a half
Most 50+ games over career and in a season (and second most), same records for 40+ games
Equal most seasons leading the league in points per game
Only player with consecutive games scoring 60+
Longest streak of consecutive games scoring 50+ (also owns the next three longest streaks)
Also the longest streak for consecutive 40+, 30+, and 20+ games
Most points per game in rookie season (so still the best scoring season by a rookie ever)
Most points in a game by a rookie
Fewest game to reach 15, 20, 25, and 30,000 points (Jordan is second in all 4 records)
Most field goals in a season (and the next 3 spots)
And for many of these (as I’ve alluded to in the numerous parentheses) he doesn’t just hold the record, he absolutely dominates.
Quick aside, a lot of the following stats make more sense when you realise just what a crazy number of games basketballers play. A regular season in the NBA is 82 games. 82! Most good to great players will crack 1,000 games in their careers. So yeah, when I say someone “only achieved something 25 times in their career”, that’s a very small percentage because they play so much.
Okay, get ready for graph overload.
First, let’s start with those stats regarding high scoring games. We already saw that Wilt has the most 40+ and 50+ games, but how do they compare? Well, 14 players have managed 60 or more career games of 40+ (as of 2023):
Hahaha. So good. But the jump from 40 to 50 points is apparently a big one, as although those players have put up 40 or more points on 60 or more occasions, the number of players with a mere 10 or more games with 50+ falls to 11 players:
Just look at that. Move the bar from great game to amazing game and Chamberlain’s advantage is insane. The players above not named Wilt converted 40 points to 50 on average 20% of the time. The best of them, Lillard, goes on to score 50 or more on 27% of the games he cracks 40. For Wilt the percentage is 44%!
But what about 60 points in a game? Well that’s only been done a total of 82 times in the history of the NBA. Only 6 players have ever managed it more than once. The best not named Wilt is Kobe Bryant, who cracked 60 points in a game on 6 occasions. Chamberlain on the other hand did so 32 times. THIRTY TWO TIMES!!!
Goodness gracious.
I feel like I have an endless supply of mind-blowing Chamberlain scoring stats. So let's have some more!
Enough of great games, how about great seasons? Maintaining that greatness over time. Well, in the history of the league a player has accumulated 2,500 or more points in a season a total of 32 times (the first ever was Chamberlain, as a rookie…) 7 of those were Chamberlain and 6 were Michael Jordan. Change the threshold to 2,750 points and the total drops to 12, of which Chamberlain accounts for 4 and Jordan 3 (so together more than half). Change it further to 3,000 points, that’s only happened 4 times. 3 by Chamberlain, once by Jordan. You can see a theme here… But the difference is that Chamberlain’s good seasons were phenomenally good:
If that graph doesn’t sell the argument that Chamberlain is the greatest scorer of all time and that his scoring records are unbreakable then I am doing a terrible job explaining all this. I know I go on about impressive records (in my defence that is the point of the exercise), but Chamberlain’s numbers to start the 1960s are truly immortal. I mean Michael Jordan is one of the most well known athletes in history, and the very best he could muster is only 75% of the record. And no one else has come even close to that effort since then! Despite the recent shift of the NBA described by experts as heliocentric (because the teams revolve around their stars), there’s only 2 people in that graph from the last 20 years, and they were so, so, so far from Chamberlain’s efforts of 1961/1962.
However, Chamberlain doesn’t hold the career scoring records. He played 15 seasons, so other legends (all in that graph above) who played longer eclipsed him for total points. He would hang on to the highest scoring average (points per game) over a career, until Michael Jordan retired for the 3rd and final time. Chamberlain’s average was 30.07, Jordan, 30.12, Jordan getting one up on the otherwise unbeatable Wilt in terms of scoring records:
All players (who play for a significant career) go through a less productive patch before they retire. This is true for Jordan, but particularly Chamberlain. If he had retired after 13 years in the league (like Russell) he would have the most points per game. But Jacob, that’s not fair, what if Jordan retired 2 years earlier? Or the other guys high up on that points per game chart? Well, if you subtract the last two seasons from each of those players, they all get a boost in points per game, and Chamberlain comes out way on top:
This is obviously a cheeky loop-hole to make Chamberlain win, but it does serve to show just how bad his last 2 years were compared to the first 13. Though honestly, it’s hard to over-hype how insane his peak production was. I said earlier that Chamberlain had six seasons all averaging more points than Jordan’s best, but we didn’t fully explore Chamberlain best. That year he cracked 4,000 points, the first and almost certainly only time a player has done so, he averaged a truly unbelievable 50.4. We said before that 50 points is an incredible game, and many all-time legends only achieve the feat a few dozen times over their career. Chamberlain had a whole season averaging it! His average the year after wasn’t shabby either, 44.8. Check out this truly mind-blowing graphic I saw the other day on social media:
Picture taken from X
I mean, that’s hard to even fathom. Alright, I think you get the picture surrounding his scoring records. Lastly, let’s talk defence and legacy.
In terms of defence, we’ve already covered his insane (and let’s not forget unbreakable) records for rebounding. The other key defensive stat is blocks, which weren’t officially recorded by the NBA until the mid 70s. We covered it last time with Russell, and saw that there were unofficial tallies that give Russell some mind-blowing block statistics compared to other players. The same is true for Chamberlain, where some unofficial block tracking gives him similar career numbers to Russell, though without as large a sample size. There are anecdotes of his coaches asking statisticians to track blocks, and we’re told in one game he clocked 25, compared to the official record of 17 by Elmore Smith in 1973. Another record that he doesn’t officially get (also due to blocks not being recorded) is triple and quadruple doubles. We covered this a little in the basketball intro (which was a bit dry, my apologies) but a quick recap here. The 5 key stats in basketball are points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals. If you manage to get 10 or more in three of those stats you have a triple-double, and if it’s four of those stats crossing double digits it’s a quadruple double. Well, with blocks and steals not officially recorded by the NBA until the mid 70s the list of most triple doubles is dominated by modern players. Even still, Chamberlain is 7th on the list with 78 triple-double games. If he could have used blocks as one of the three stats required to reach a triple-double it is universally held that he would be miles ahead of this record also. It was also officially impossible for him to record a quadruple-double, as two of the five categories didn’t exist during his career. The record for most career quadruple-doubles in the NBA is 1. Four players have managed the rare feat once each. Chamberlain is reported to (again, unofficially) have recorded at least 4 just in play-off games! One of those had 10 or more in every one of those 5 stats, making it the only quintuple-double ever in the NBA. But alas, unofficial.
Finally, let's talk about legacy. An interesting, if dubious and once again unofficial, record Chamberlain can claim is changing the game. Rule changes are introduced to the NBA from time to time, big ones like introducing the 3-point line (1979) shift entire game dynamics. Well, it might not be a record that will go down officially, but Chamberlain is credited with influencing the league into the most rule changes. An article on the NBA website itself has this to say:
“During his career, his dominance precipitated many rules changes. These rules changed included widening the lane, instituting offensive goaltending and revising rules governing inbounding the ball and shooting free throws (Chamberlain would leap with the ball from behind the foul line to deposit the ball in the basket).”
That’s right, he wasn’t a very good free-thrower so instead could do a standing leap dunk from the free-throw line. What!? This was considered unfair, along with his scoring, rebounding and blocking. So unfair on the rest of the league that the NBA had to change the laws. Is there higher praise of a player’s abilities?
Chamberlain left the Lakers after the 1972-73 season and intended to act as player-coach for a team in a new rival league to the NBA. But, a judge ruled he could not play for this new team due to unresolved contractual obligations to the Lakers, but he could coach. Disenfranchised by the whole process he is reported to have more or less phoned it in that year as coach, and after the season retired from all professional basketball. He would go on to have unsatisfying attempts at athletics, volley-ball and even acting (see above with Arnie, that picture cannot be viewed too many times). He died of a heart condition in 1999 at the age of 63. His long-time friend and attorney Sy Goldberg had this to say during his statement announcing Wilt’s death:
“He was more inquisitive than anybody I ever knew. He was writing a screenplay about his life. He was interested in world affairs, sometimes he'd call me up late at night and discuss philosophy. I think he'll be remembered as a great man. He happened to make a living playing basketball, but he was more than that. He could talk on any subject. He was a Goliath.”
His number 13 jersey was retired by every team he played for from college onwards, the Kansas Jayhawks, Harlem Globetrotters, Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers, and Los Angeles Lakers. He was a first ballot inductee to the hall-of-fame and has appeared in every anniversary list of greatest players. The only blight on his record, and the reason he is left out by most when discussing the GOAT, is his lack of championships. He won 2 titles in his 15 years, by no means a failure, but compared to the stacked trophy cabinets of other legends of the game his looks lacklustre. His biggest critics go after his play-off record, where he appeared to lack that clutch edge many other champions bring. I would argue he was unlucky to spend most of his golden age in the same era as Bill Russell and the Celtics, where Russell was one of the few players who could go somewhat head-to-had with Chamberlain, which meant the other stellar members of the Celtics could get the job done over Chamberlain’s team-mates. Had the two swapped places in terms of team dynamic, I think Wilt would be the one with a record number of titles. But perhaps more importantly, Chamberlain was renowned for his character. His friends and team-mates talked of him as a gentle giant, that despite his enormous size and strength he rarely got angry. Many of his peers viewed it as a blessing that he was so nice, in that if he had played meaner he could have dominated the game more. One of his contemporaries (Jack McMahon) is quoted saying:
“The best thing that happened to the NBA is that God made Wilt a nice person ... he could have killed us all with his left hand”
And others from the era made similar statements. A Celtics team-mate of Russell, Bob Cousy, who played Chamberlain many times pondered that:
“if Chamberlain had been less fixated on being popular, he would have been meaner and able to win more titles”
He was lauded for his relationship with his fans, and his commitment to the organisations he played for, never missing practice or being late for a flight. Though many of his black peers didn’t like his politics, some even called him a race traitor for spruiking Nixon’s republican campaign and publicly dating white women.
But enough of personality, will his records be broken?
Well, as with many of the players we look at during these pieces, he has several, and there’s a good chance a few could be broken. But he has arguably the longest list of unbreakable records. Usually his 100 point game is pointed to as one of the great unmatchable feats in sports, but we saw multiple players exceed 70 in the 2022-2023 season despite no-one doing that since Kobe Bryant in 2006 (though Booker had exactly 70 in 2017). 100 points in a game is not off the table in the coming years, just very, very unlikely. I do think that his other scoring and rebounding records are unbreakable. His total rebounds, rebounds in a season, and rebounds per game are stratospheric against anything modern players are putting up. His number of games scoring 40+, 50+, and 60+ are so far above the next best of all time, they are untouchable. And most of all, his points and points-per-game in a single season, that incredible year of 1961-1962, that will remain forever. The league has changed a lot since his remarkable purple patch, much of which due to him. The fact that the very best scorers the game has produced in the intervening 50 years haven’t come within shouting distance, not remotely close, means without drastic changes to the rules no-one will again compare to Chamberlain’s scoring and rebounding feats. I think his contemporaries had it right:
"The NBA Guide reads like Wilt's personal diary" - former team-mate Billy Cunningham
"Wilt was one of the greatest ever, and we will never see another one like him" - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (first player to break Chamberlain’s total career points record)
“Wilt Chamberlain had a great deal to do with the success of the NBA. His dominance, power, demeanor and the rivalry with Bill Russell says it all. He will be sorely missed by myself and everyone in the basketball community” - Red Auerbach, coach of the Celtics team that dominated during Chamberlain’s career
“As I grew up, Wilt the Stilt was the player. Just the things he was able to do. One year they told him he couldn't make as much money as he wanted because he couldn't pass the ball, so he went out and led the league in assists. Watching Wilt, you always kind of got the idea he was just playing with people. That he was on cruise control and still 10 times better than anybody else that was playing at that time” - Dan Issel, Basketball hall of fame
And then a few fantastic and illustrative comments by his famous rival Bill Russell:
“Because I knew Wilt as I did, I was always seeking to take advantage of his good nature. I did whatever I could to make sure I would never get him angry or fired up as I knew he would destroy me if I did.”
“Wilt thought rightfully so that he was the greatest basketball player who's ever lived''
“If [the referee] is calling [the game] loose then everyone gets away with more. So, you have to handle your own man accordingly, unless it's Wilt Chamberlain. Him, you just don't handle. He's too strong. The best you can do is make him work hard”
"Nobody seems to appreciate what an incredible player Wilt was. He was the best player of all time because he dominated the floor like nobody else ever could. To be that big and that athletic was special.”
It sure was Bill Russell, it sure was. I know I have over-indulged in hyperbole and adjectives in this piece. But that’s only because I wanted to somehow convey just how incredible Chamberlain was. I wish he was better known. I did a quick poll of a few friends with passing interest (at best) in basketball, they had all heard of Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Shaq, Kobe Bryant, most had heard of Scottie Pippen, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, a few recognised the name Abdul-Jabbar, but none of them had head of Chamberlain, or Russell for that matter. I know they played a long, long time ago, but they were special. Alright, enough sentimental drivel, let’s see some highlights. Number 13 is the one to watch in the video, and keep in mind that the guy we see a lot under the basket wearing number 6, often trying in vain to stop 13, is none other than Bill Russell.
For those who have read this far, congratulations, you have stamina! Just a quick note regarding this series going forward. I have immensely enjoyed putting together these first 4 pieces, and while I will be continuing with them I am going to transition to fortnightly instead of weekly installments. This is so I can use my spare time to not only work on the Record Records, but get other content I’m excited about off the ground. We’ll be changing sports again next time, but don’t worry, I have other NBA and NFL records to get to once we’ve done a lap around my favourite sports. Also, yes I know it would have made more sense to put this update at the start of the article. But hey, the only people who will really care about a change of frequency are the ones who finished this ones. That’s you! Thank you.