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Daniel Oliva Ms. Switzer English

Wilt Chamberlain

Wilton Chamberlain (nickname: Wilt the Stilt) was born on August 21, 1936 in Philadelphia, PA. Chamberlain was born as the son of Olivia and William Chamberlain. He was born into a big family where he was one of nine children. He had a middle-class family upbringing even though there was a lot of hostility going on between african-americans and caucasion people. He went to Overbrook High School. It was a school that constitsted of many jewish students. Because of that he was always blamed of all crimes commtited in school and bigotry. Wilt’s high school days veried a lot. He played many sports like field and track. He set high school records in those sports. But as timed progressed he had and itersesting feel for playing basketball. When playing high school ball his height was a big advantage. He was already 6’11. He establigshed himself as one of the most dominant high school player of all time. He broke Tom Gola’s high school scoring record by scoring 2,252 points and had three individual games in which he scored 90, 74 and 71 points. And when Chamberlain left Overbrook in 1955, he had led them to a 56-3 record and two city championships, while averaging 37.4 points. Over 200 universities wanted to recruit the basketball prodigy, but Chamberlain then proclaimed he was going to play college basketball at the University of Kansas. As well as he did in high school, Wilt Chamberlain was twice as good in college. In 1955, Chamberlain became a player for the Kansas Jayhawks freshman team under future Hall-of-Fame coach Phog Allen. On December 3, 1956, Chamberlain made his varsity debut. That year, he made the First Team of the All-America squad and led his Jayhawks into the NCAA finals against the North Carolina. In that game, Tar Heels coach Frank McGuire used some weird techniques to stop Chamberlain. At the tip-off, he sent his shortest player, Tommy Kearns, in order to rattle him, and the Tar Heels spent the rest of the night triple-teaming Chamberlain.The game went into three overtimes and North Carolina won 54-53. Even though they lost, Chamberlain was elected the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. After playing junior year at Kansas, Chamberlain started to get mad because his team did not make it to the NCAA Tournament. He felt like is talent was going to waste. He wanted to be paid for being double of trible teamed every game. And he finally decided that he was not going to finish college ball but go professional. A problem can up when he made the decision to drop out to go pro. Back then the NBA did not allow people to play until they finished their the last year of school. So he did not have anything to do for a year. He then decided that he was going to play with the Harlem Globetrotters in 1958. He was going to get $50,000. His biggest pay day ever. They toured everywhere and made history touring USSR in 1959. On March 9, 2000, Chamberlain’s number 13 was retired as he left the Harlem Globetrooters. “You must understand as a kid of color in those days, the Harlem Globetrooters were like being movie stars.” [2] Wilt Chamberlain In the 1959-1960 NBA season, Chamberlian mad his first apperance as a NBA player. He was selected by the Philadelphia Warriors. Because there was no team in Kasas where he played collge ball, he had to play with the team that was in the city where he grew up. Finally the NBA approved that he could play with the warriors. The first season as a rookie, Chamberlain brought his top game. He the future all-stars like Magic Johnson and Larry bird.During the 1968-69 season, Wilt took the title of rookie of the year and won the NBA all-star game mvp award. That season he brought his team to the Eastern Conference finals where the Warriors met the legendary Boston Celtics. Where legendary Bill Russel and coach Red Auerbach stayed. Chamberlian’s third season was strange. The team was relocating to a new city. The philadelphia warriors became the San Fransico Warriors. Before leaving the warriors, he set the record for scoring 100 points in one game againgst the New York Knicks. Shortly after that, Wilt Chamberlain was traded to the new named Philadelphia 76s. After setting many records with philly, like points per game and blocks he was traded to the Los Angeles. While playing with them he set more records like rebounds. He led the Lakers to many titles and a lot of pubilcity. Wilt Chamberlain came back to the NBA after a short vaction to play with the Los Angeles Lakers. He played with some of elite players of the time like Eligin Baylor and Jerry “Mr. Clutch” West. The team was coached by Bill can Brenda Kolff. With these people as well as Wilt, the lakers was a favorite to win the 1969 NBA finals. That was about to become true but the celtics stopped in game seven where the celtics to the finals back to Boston. When he was at the last part of his NBA career, he played with the San Deigo Conquistadors. Because of legal problems he was not able to play one game but he was allowed to coach them. Wilt got a lot of publicity when he retired with the lakers and San Diego. He wrote a book called Who's Running the Asylum? Inside the Insane World of Sports Today. It sold millons. Another thing that got him publcity was that he claimed to have sex with 20,000 women. He said “I was doing what was natural”[2].A View from Above, is book is where he said this statement and claim. Wilt Chamberlain’s life ender on October 12, 1999. It was because he had a history problems and that caused heart failure. Before he died, he lost 50 pounds and doctors were draining his legs of fluid acumllated because of the heart problem. Chamberlian will be rembered as one of the basketball player ever to step on the court. He set many of records that still has not have been beaten today. One of his final statements of his his life was “that he was the boss and that he will never die.”

Biliography

http://www.wikipedia.com http://www.hoophall.com http://www.nba.com