Wilt Chamberlain biography
Wilt Chamberlain, in full Wilton Norman Chamberlain, bynames Wilt the Stilt and the Big Dipper, (born August 21, 1936, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died October 12, 1999, Los Angeles, California), skilled basketball participant, thought-about to be one of many biggest offensive gamers within the historical past of the sport. More than 7 toes (2.1 metres) tall, Chamberlain was an excellent centre. During his 1961–62 season he turned the primary participant to attain greater than 4,000 factors in a National Basketball Association (NBA) season, with 4,029, averaging 50.4 factors per sport.
As an adolescent, Chamberlain was wanted by greater than 100 faculties and universities after his play at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia. He performed two years (1956–58) on the University of Kansas, after which he joined the Harlem Globetrotters for a yr (1958–59). He went to the NBA in 1959, enjoying with the Philadelphia Warriors (1959–65; the staff moved and have become the San Francisco Warriors in 1962), going again to Philadelphia to play for the 76ers (1965–68), and ending his profession with the Los Angeles Lakers (1968–73). Chamberlain had a long-standing (however good-natured) rivalry with Boston Celtic Bill Russell, and plenty of credit score the rise within the recognition {of professional} basketball to the joy generated round video games that includes these two gamers.
With 31,419 factors scored over the span of his skilled profession, Chamberlain held the NBA document for factors scored till 1984, when his document was surpassed by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Other highlights of Chamberlain’s NBA profession embody a profession common of 30.1 factors per sport, an NBA document till it was damaged by Michael Jordan, and a profession common of twenty-two.9 rebounds per sport. Chamberlain owns the highest 4 single-season scoring averages in league historical past, together with his NBA-record 50.4 factors per sport mark in 1961–62 (the opposite three coming, in descending order, through the 1962–63 [44.8 points per game], 1960–61 [38.3], and 1959–60 [37.6] seasons). His 100 factors towards the New York Knicks in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on March 2, 1962, nonetheless stands as skilled basketball’s prime single-game feat. He additionally scored 56 or extra factors 61 instances in regular-season video games, tallied 36 discipline objectives in a sport (March 2, 1962), and captured 55 rebounds in a sport (Nov. 24, 1960). Chamberlain’s proudest feat was by no means having fouled out of an NBA sport. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978.
His autobiography, written with David Shaw, Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door, was printed in 1973. Chamberlain additionally printed a extra revealing guide about his private life entitled A View from Above in 1991.