'GOLIATH' OF NBA IS GONE\
CHAMBERLAIN IS DEAD AT 63
''The
world is made up of Davids, and I am Goliath.'' - Wilt Chamberlain.
He
was Goliath. Maybe in more ways than he ever realized.
Wilton
Norman Chamberlain, who died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack
at
age
63, towered over his sport the way he towered over the average
person
on
the
street. The way he towered over an entire generation.
Wilt
was the strongest man in basketball history. The most unstoppable
force
the sport has ever seen. And probably one of the half-dozen
or
so
greatest
athletes of the 20th century.
''In
my opinion,'' said John Wooden, ''he was the most dominant physical
player
who ever played the game.''
Chamberlain
was an American original, the first true 7-footer who
wasn't
considered
a goon. He could run a quarter-mile in 50 seconds, high
jump
and
long
jump well enough to win most track meets, play volleyball at
a
world-class
level and he once considered getting into the ring with
Muhammad
Ali.
''Wilt
The Stilt,'' they called him, and he catapulted the game to
a
dizzying
new level. From the time he first emerged, as a precocious
6-foot-11
ninth-grader
at Overbrook High in Philadelphia to his explosive but
frustrating
college career at Kansas until that extraordinary evening
when
he
poured
in 100 points in a single NBA game, Chamberlain managed to
revolutionize
his sport.
A
sculpted, mountain of a man, he made it look too easy, too simple.
They
even
changed the rules because of him. But they couldn't stop him.
Nothing
could.
He
averaged 50.4 points per game in 1961-62. His rebound average a
year
earlier
was more than 27 a night. He scored 50 or more points 118
times
and
led
the league in just about every category imaginable, including
assists,
at
one
time or another in his remarkable career.
''As
a basketball player, no one has come close to doing the things
that
he
has
done,'' said Bill Russell, his great adversary who will forever
be
coupled
with
Chamberlain.
Together,
Chamberlain and Russell gave us perhaps the finest, sustained
one-on-one
rivalry we've seen in any sport.
The
greatest player of his time against the greatest winner of all
time.
They
were a basketball junkie's delight.
But
then, everything about Chamberlain was captivating, or at least
controversial.
From his ferocious dunks to his supposed voracious
appetite
for
women.
From his well-advertised clashes with head coaches to his sometimes
startlingly
sudden reversals into a team player.
He
was probably at his best on that marvelous Philadelphia team in
1967,
the
one with Lucious Jackson and Billy Cunningham, the one that went
68-13
and
finally
captured Chamberlain's first elusive NBA title.
Strangely,
it wasn't until Chamberlain was traded to Los Angeles,
until
he
and
the late Jack Kent Cooke got together in 1968, that the full measure
of
Chamberlain's
personality seemed to burst forth, like one of his
backboard-rattling
slam dunks.
The
two first got together at Cooke's Bel-Air mansion and found they
had
much
in common besides their ample egos, beginning with the fact each
owned
a
1962
Bentley Continental.
''We
talked about antique furniture, art, even the English language,
''
Cooke
would relate later.
They
also talked money. Lots of money. Wilt received a five-year deal
paying
him $250,000 per season, which made him the highest-paid athlete
in
America
at the time.
But
Cooke knew what he was doing. With Chamberlain to go along with
his
two
incumbent
All-Pros, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, the Lakers, playing
in
Cooke's
plush new showplace, the Forum, became the glamour team of
the
NBA.
Boston
might have won all the championships, but the Lakers grabbed
all
the
headlines.
And
Chamberlain was always in the middle of it. Getting into loud
shouting
matches
with his first LA coach, Butch van Breda Kolff, who would
privately
refer
to his stubborn center as ''The Load.'' Complaining off the
record
to
reporters
that West and Baylor received preferential treatment. Failing
once
again
to beat Russell and the dreaded Celtics one year, then falling
to
a
limping
Willis Reed, a future presidential candidate named Bill Bradley
and
the
Knicks in an unforgettable seventh game at Madison Square Garden
another
year.
Later,
after Russell and Baylor had retired, Chamberlain reconfigured
his
game
once again, concentrating on defense, rebounding and passing,
to
help the
Lakers
win 33 consecutive games and their first NBA championship in
LA
in
1972.
Wilt,
the headband-wearing non-scorer? Believe it or not, he somehow
made
it
work.
As
riveting as he was on the court, Chamberlain could be even more
charismatic
off it. He spoke several languages, dined in only the
finest
restaurants
and generally enjoyed being in the spotlight.
''I
remember being invited to his open house,'' Wooden said. ''And
Nellie
(Wooden's
late wife) didn't care for him because of his stories about
being
with
so many women. But then he came over and he was the most gracious, nicest
person
you could ever hope to meet. Nellie was very impressed.''
Wooden
was, too. In fact, a Chamberlain statement once made UCLA's
legendary
Hall of Fame coach change a passage in a book he was writing.
''I
was at a function when someone asked Wilt if his new coach would
be
able
to handle him,'' Wooden said. ''Wilt replied: 'You handle things.
You
deal
with players.' I went back and changed the wording in my book
to
deal,
instead
of handle, players.''
The
comment was pure Chamberlain. Insightful, thought-provoking and, most
of
all, honest.
''My
man,'' he would say, with that rich baritone of a voice, ''you
heard
me
right.''
And
you usually did. Maybe you didn't always agree with everything
he
said,
but
he made you listen.
Wherever
he was, whatever he was doing, Wilt Chamberlain demanded
your
attention.
Alex
Hannum, his old 76ers coach, once said:
''Nobody
loves Goliath.''
All
these years, and all those staggering achievements later, you
realize
Hannum
was wrong.
Goliath
will be missed.
Memo:
We've lost a giant of a man in every sense of the word. The
shadow
of
accomplishment
he cast over our game is unlikely ever to be matched.'
'
- David
Stern,
NBA Commissioner\
We
were talking about Wilt, how he was going to score 100 points in
a
game
real
soon. When we got off the airplane, somebody said, 'Hey, did
you
hear
about
Wilt Chamberlain? He scored 100 points in a game.' That's one
record
that
will never be broken, I can assure you. - Jerry West, Chamberlain'
s
teammate
with the Lakers
Copyright
The Arizona Republic (1999)
By Steve Bisheff, Orange County Register, 'GOLIATH' OF NBA IS GONE\
CHAMBERLAIN IS DEAD AT 63. , The Arizona Republic, 10-13-1999, pp C1.
Copyright © 1999 Infonautics
Corporation. All rights reserved.