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Full Version: NBR: Wilt Chamberlain - Kansas 1957 Video
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For all those who say he dominated simply because he was tall. The guy was extremely athletic. Good stuff!



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http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketba...-at-kansas
Beas Hamga is tall.

Wilt was a man among boys.
I'm not saying he wasn't a great player, or athlete, but come on... The very first play they show he gets a ball thrown into what is basically 4 guys surrounding him and it's as if they aren't even there. In almost all of these plays, he just got into the post, got a lob that nobody else could reach, and finished around the rim. If he played with guys his size, his numbers would have been much lower.
Wilt Chamberlain was an athletic freak. He was definitely tall, but we was long, quick, and fast. It was not merely his height but his effort. Wilt caused some rules changes that were designed to keep him out of the lane - 3 second rule and the widening of the lane. Even with that his effort is what made him special. Most players then and now simply don't play as hard or as aggressively. Most remember Wilt's NBA days when he pulled back on his offensive game as he gave way to players like Jerry West and Elgin Baylor and concentrated on defense and rebounding. When a player nowadays has that kind of length and the effort to go with it coaches salivate because it' so rare. His numbers would have been down in today's NBA but he would still be a dominate NBA center, especially given the centers of today, because he worked hard.
If you play the "if he played in today's NBA" game, you have to consider where Wilt would be athletically if he grew up in the world of AAU basketball and elite modern strength and training programs that create players that look like Dwight Howard and Lebron James. I fully believe that the best era of NBA basketball may have been the 80's and mid-90's, but the best pure athletes play today. Many NBA players are no longer simply tall and agile basketball players, they are athletes in the same sense as NFL players and EPL footballers, just taller.

Wilt would probably transform into a Dirk Nowitzki/Kevin Durant type player in the modern era, tall enough to play underneath but better suited as a 3/4.
Guess there weren't tall people in 1957.
(07-15-2013 05:17 PM)WesternBlazer Wrote: [ -> ]Wilt Chamberlain was an athletic freak. He was definitely tall, but we was long, quick, and fast. It was not merely his height but his effort.

He'd have to be to have bed all those women.
The most interesting thing to me from watching those clips is that the college game in the 50's was much more up-tempo than I would have thought. They really got up and down the court.
Wilt was a great scorer, on and off the court.
I heard Wilt once scored 100 and played a basketball game in the same day.
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