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I got to knowWilt Chamberlain through my association with Muhammad Ali. Wilt Chamberlain (1936–1999) As JerryWest recently observed, “Wilt Chamberlain was one of those fabulous players who defined sports.” Chamberlain entered the NBA in 1959, and changed the way the game was played with his unique combination of size, agility, and strength. He was the league’s dominant player for fourteen years; first with the PhiladelphiaWarriors (who later moved to San Francisco); then with the Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers.Along the way, he rewrote the record book like no athlete in any sport ever has. When Chamberlain entered the NBA in 1959, the league record for points in a single season was 2,105.As a rookie,Wilt scored 2,707. In his third season, he raised the standard to 4,029 and averaged 50.4 points per game. He led the NBA in scoring in each of his first seven campaigns, during which he averaged 39.6 points per contest.To put that number in perspective, no one else in NBA history has averaged more than 37.1 points per game over the course of a season. When Chamberlain entered the league, the best single-season fieldgoal percentage ever was .490.Wilt’s rookie mark was .509. In 1972–73, he shot a staggering .727 from the floor. He led the league in field-goal percentage nine times and once made 35 consecutive field goals in NBA play.His Achilles heel,of course,was free-throw shooting.Over the course of his career, Chamberlain registered a mediocre .511 from the charity line.Yet ironically, he also holds the record for the most free throws ever in an NBA game.That occurred in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on the night of March 2, 1962, when he converted on 28 of 32 foul shots en route to scoring 100 points against the New York Knicks; the most points ever scored in an NBA contest. When Chamberlain entered the league, Bill Russell held the single34 THOMAS HAUSER season NBA record for rebounds with 1,612. As a rookie,Wilt pulled down 1,941. One year later, he raised the standard to 2,149.The top seven rebounding seasons in NBA history belong toWilt Chamberlain. He led the NBA in rebounding eleven times. He also leads the league in career rebounding with 23,924. He once had 55 rebounds in a single game and averaged 22.9 rebounds per game throughout his career.Again, to put that number in perspective, over the course of his career, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar averaged 11.4 rebounds per game. In 1967–68, Chamberlain was the only center ever to lead the league in assists. He once averaged 48.5 minutes per game for an entire season. That’s four full quarters plus a bit of overtime per game. Chamberlain averaged 45.8 minutes per game throughout his career. He once played 47 consecutive complete games. And oh yes; he never fouled out of an NBA contest. In fourteen seasons, Chamberlain’s teams made the playoffs thirteen times.They played for the NBA championship on six occasions, winning twice.Two of those championship losses were to the Boston Celtics, who also defeated Chamberlain-led teams in the conference finals five times. His rivalry with Bill Russell stands as history’s greatest personal rivalry within a team sport. Moreover,Chamberlain’s athletic prowess wasn’t limited to basketball. He was a magnificent track-and-field competitor. He was perhaps the finest volleyball player ever.And beyond that, for a brief period in 1971, he was at the vortex of professional boxing. In fact, in early 1971,Wilt and Muhammad Ali actually signed a contract to fight one another. But then Ali lost to Joe Frazier and the contract had to be renegotiated. “I took it seriously,” Chamberlain later recalled. “I spent some time training with Cus D’Amato. I believed I was capable of going out there and representing myself in a way that would not be embarrassing. I thought I could acquit myself reasonably well. I didn’t have to learn how to become a complete boxer.I was going to learn for eight or ten months how to apply my strengths and skills against one person. One of the first things Cus said to me was, ‘You’re going to learn how to fight one man; that’s all.We’re going to have all the tapes of Ali.We’re going to know...

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