Wilt Chamberlain Quotes

Wilt Chamberlain

Wilton Norman Chamberlain (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player who played at the center position. Standing at 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) 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 of all time. He holds numerous NBA regular season records in scoring, rebounding, and durability categories; and blocks were not counted during his career. He was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, and elected to the NBA's 35th, 50th, and 75th anniversary teams. After his professional basketball career ended, Chamberlain played volleyball in the short-lived International Volleyball Association (IVA). He was also once league president, and is enshrined in the IVA Hall of Fame for his contributions. Renowned for his strength, he appeared as the antagonist in the 1984 Arnold Schwarzenegger film 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. Chamberlain holds 72 NBA records, so many that it led former teammate Billy Cunningham to remark “The NBA Guide reads like Wilt's personal diary." He is best remembered as the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game. He is also the only one to average 50 points in a season, or to gather 55 rebounds in a game. He also never fouled out of a game; and is 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. Chamberlain ultimately won two NBA championships, four regular-season Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, the Rookie of the Year award, one Finals MVP award, and one All-Star Game MVP award, and he was selected to thirteen 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 once led the league in assists. Chamberlain played in college for the Kansas Jayhawks, and led Kansas to the national championship game, but lost to the North Carolina Tar Heels in triple overtime. He also played for the Harlem Globetrotters before joining the NBA, where he played for the Philadelphia / San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Chamberlain had an on-court rivalry with Boston Celtics' center Bill Russell, suffering a long string of losses. Chamberlain, always a poor free throw shooter, battled the "loser" label, before finally breaking through and winning the 1967 NBA Finals as a member of the 76ers. Chamberlain won his second championship as a member of the 1972 Lakers, a team which set a record with a 33-game winning streak. Chamberlain was known to sportswriters by several nicknames during his playing career, calling attention to his great height since his high school days. He disliked the ones that portrayed his height negatively, such as "Wilt the Stilt" and "Goliath". He personally preferred "The Big Dipper", which was inspired by his friends who saw him dip his head as he walked through doorways. The name was retained in one of Chamberlain's signature moves, the "dipper dunk". He was also one of the first players to make prominent use of shots like the fade away jump shot and the finger roll. His success near the basket led to the widening of the lane, offensive goaltending rules, and it being illegal to inbound over the backboard. His ability to leap from the foul line led to the rule that a free throw shooter must keep his feet behind the line.

Source: Wikipedia

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