Wilt+Chamberlain

Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain
==Overview== Considered as the best NBA center and maybe the best player to play the game of baskeball, Wilt Chamberlain stood high at a 7 feet 1 inch stature and weighing 250 lbs, as a rookie in 1959. Wilt was born in the city of Philadelphia on August 21 st, 1936 into a family of nine. Wilt was a sick child in his early years, nearly dying of pneumonia. Chamberlain was not interested in the game of basketball when he was young, he thought the game was for sissies and preferred track and field where he excel led in the High Jump and Shot Put. Wilt later came to like the game of basketball ad averaged 31 points per game in his first High School year playing basketball. After his senior year in 1955 over 200 Universities wanted to recruit Chamberlain, but Wilt would attend the college of Kansas where he would play under renowned coach "Phog" Allen.

Central Issue
On December 3rd 1956, making his first college appearance, Wilt scored 52 points and grabbed 31 rebounds on his way to breaking both college records. Chamberlain would forgoe his senior year at Kansas but could not join the NBA, because the NBA did not accept players who had not completed their studies. So instead Wilt joined the Harlem Globetrotters in 1958, but in 1959 he got his break as he was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors. In Chamberlains first NBA game he recorded 43 points an totaled up 28 rebounds in a win over the New York Knicks. Chamberlains biggest accomplishment and what he is now known for came in a game against the New York Knicks. Within the first couple minutes of the game Chamberlain had already 13 points, and by halftime he had put up 41 points. By the end of the third quarter Wilt had amassed 69 points, which was still nine shy of his own personal scoring record of 78 points. With 7:51 left in the game Wilt had scored his 79th point surpassing his earlier scoring record, and soon his teammates were passing up easy layups to get the ball to Chamberlain. The Knicks had become frantic as Wilt had put up his 88th and 89th point of the game and did not want to become part of history on the bad side. Soon the Knicks would intentioanlly start fouling all players except for Wilt. With 46 seconds left in the game Chamberlain got free from five Knicks for an alley oop and dunked it for the century mark. Some confusion remains to whether the last 46 seonds of the game was acctually played, but Chamberlains biographer Rick Cherry said that the last seconds were played. ​

Conclusion
The 7-foot-1, two-time NBA champion Chamberlain is regarded as one of the most extraordinary and dominant basketball players ever. In 1973 Wilt Chamberlain retired from the NBA. After 14 NBA season Chamberlain had grabbed 23,924 rebounds, scored 31,419 points, and amassed 4,643 assists in his NBA career. He is still the only player in history to achieve 100 points in one NBA game. He was also responsible for several rule changes, including widening the lane, as well as changes to rules regarding inbounding the ball and shooting free throws. Chamberlain was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame, named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, ranked #2 in //SLAM Magazine// ' s Top 75 NBA Players of all time and #13 in the ESPN list "Top North American athletes of the century" and voted second best center of all time by ESPN behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on March 6, 2007. Chamberlain revolutionized the game, and on October 12, 1999 the "Chairman of the Boards" passed away.


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