Wilt Chamberlain's plays big @ San Francisco (NCAA semifinal) 1957

[frusionnn]

if ANYBODY knows the name of the song that starts at 1:04 PLEASE let me know, I'd HIGHLY appreciate it!

[kileer7]

1:07 is absolutely amazing to me. Michael, Rose, LeBron are all REALLY fast but Wilt is over 7 feet tall and moving that fast ...

[WiltisGod]

thanks for the msg! this vid is awesome. nd i read ur comments nd u gotta good point. in his prime in todays nba he still would dominate. 50ppg is 50ppg. nobodies gonna come close to tht record. not even his second highest-44 ppg. wilts untouchable!

[Jahjaga]

From what I can tell from this video, Wilt's passing skills were among the best of all big men, and his coordination and athleticism are second to none, to be sure.

I'm curious at how you might get past the constant criticism that Wilt was guarded by players much smaller than him, though. In this video, at least, his defenders, however proficient they were, lacked the length to contest him. Even Bill Russell lacked the length that many current 'defensive specialists' may have.

Any thoughts?

[dantheman9758]

@Jahjaga There is no singular explanation for a perception of Wilt facing smaller opponents. He did face smaller opponents. The error is when people assume that today's opponents have all caught up, and now everyone is Wilt-sized - and this is not true. There's a few things to consider. What is most overlooked is how as the NBA and it's draft methods became more influential, players rather abruptly stopped being measured/listed in bare feet, and started being measured in (continued)

[dantheman9758]

@Jahjaga (continued) the larger shoes that became popular at about the same time. Look at the size of Hakeem's shoes in the 80's or Dwight's today vs Bill Russell's in the 60's. Then consider Bill is listed barefoot, vs Dwight and Hakeem listed in shoes AND their heights were further rounded up for publicity. Dwight measured 6'9 barefoot, and 6'10.25" in shoes, yet he's listed at 6'11. So it's just not accurate to compare inflated post-media NBA and NCAA players of Wilt or his (continued)

[dantheman9758]

@Jahjaga (continued) contemporaries. Thankfully draft express has some barefoot measurements of many modern players and from that we can accurately make comparisons with Wilt's competition. There is virtually no difference at all in length/height then vs now. Wilt at "7'1 1/16th" would likely be listed 7'3 today and with his 7'8 wingspan and 9'6 reach he's longer even than Yao Ming. Regardless if he was drafted today, absolutely no one has ever seemed to match both his combined length/agility.

[dantheman9758]

@Jahjaga If you want some surprising numbers, Omeka Okafur is 6'8.75, Amare Stoudemire is 6'8.5, Dwight Howard is 6'9, Ben Wallace is 6'7, Chris Bosh is 6'10.25, Greg Oden is 6'11, David Robinson actually was one of few that are legit 7'0 (still, not as big as Wilt). Wilt's era in today's draft would be as tall as modern players. After Mikan dominated, there hasn't been any lack of length. On paper it jumped ab 1-1.5" since the 80's but shoes and their inclusion in measuring explain it entirely

[ShunyamNiketana]

@dantheman9758: It's true that players tend to be listed for their height in sneakers, not bare feet. But the average player is surely taller now than he was fifty years ago, just as the height of the average person has increased in that time. The NBA currently has many players well over seven feet tall. Wilt was one of only a few, and the others weren't very athletic or strong. Nonetheless, as I watch this video, I'm blown away by how fast Chamberlain is running the court.

[dantheman9758]

@ShunyamNiketana No - the average height in the 1960's is not shorter than the present NBA league. I've done the math for the entire active NBA roster of 1961-62 season, and compared it with draft-express data (a 1,499 player database). In that year (the average height of) point guards was 3/4" taller, SG's 1/2" taller, SF's 1/4" shorter, PF's 3/16" shorter, and Centers 1/2" taller than the modern NBA of 1989-2012. Collectively - that was a tall year. The 60's is the golden age of big centers.

[dantheman9758]

@Jahjaga And check out my extended highlight of an old past-prime Wilt facing an Andrew Bynum sized center, Kevin Durant sized PF, and slightly bigger than Dominique Wilkins sized SF front court in the playoffs - that front court he's facing is not just of the same height/length but they're also the same weight to those that I just referenced. And similar athleticism too (Chet the Jet easily was a 60's 'Nique)! Wilt looks massive compared to them. Plus, wow @ Wilt's passing! /watch?v=zaXHYlPECcc

[ShunyamNiketana]

@dantheman9758 : The big centers in Wilt's prime weren't very mobile--Tom Boerwinkle, Neal Walk, Walt Bellamy (more mobile than the previous two), to name a few. Besides Russell, who was 6'9" and slender by today's standards (but also very vast and a great jumper), Thurmond was probably the best center by today's standards. Chet Walker was a PF with a good shot; Dominique Wilkens was a gazelle. 30 seconds of U-Tube shows how inferior most of yesterday's players were.

[dantheman9758]

@ShunyamNiketana --- Bellamy was extremely mobile.... like, he would make today's center's look like Frankenstein I have footage of Bells flying through the air in '62 on a defensive play like Dennis Rodman used to do. Thurmond is more athletic than any NBA center in the league today not named Dwight Howard (and Thurmond is a better player than Dwight) and Bill Russell is 1/2" taller than Dwight.... and by 1967 he was only 5lbs liess than David Robinson in Robinson's first few seasons in the NBA

[lbj6mj23]

@Jahjaga

avarge for a center was 6 10 the same as now its a myth

[amino720]

OK , I have never seen anything like this man before !

AMAZING ..

thanx

[dantheman9758]

@amino720 Thanks, check out my other Wilt Vid's on my page sometime!

[CraZzy3n3rGy]

dam the flash at 1:05

[dantheman9758]

@CraZzy3n3rGy Not a bad set of wheels right? lol. /watch?v=0EpVZS26BUs Check out his vert if you haven't seen the vid yet.

[ciscostudent561]

simpy unreal. I've never witnessed this level of Athleticism, maybe Lebron that's about it.

[dantheman9758]

@ciscostudent561 He transitions from defense to offense faster than the other team can have time to react sometimes, and he never appeared to slow down or get tired - he only sat the last 3 minutes after his team built up a massive lead.

[yusufu9]

fabulous video dan the man! thanks for posting it. wilt's athleticism is simply off the charts! from this video one can easily see why he averaged 50 pts a game early in his career--silky smooth and could jump out of the gym. even the free throws are graceful. i think that when he put on so much muscle and weight as he matured, this naturally cut back some of his quickness and agility. this man was, truly, the greatest basketball player of all time!

[professorlip]

AWESOME video. The more I learn about the players of WIlt's generation the more I realize how ignorant I (and most of the people of my generation) was/ are. Because we never saw these players live, we came up with myths about their skills and accomplishments. Now I know better. Wilt was extremely skilled and offensively versatile. Russell was not an offensive liability. He actually led the Celtics in scoring in a couple of Finals. Baylor and West were great. The list goes on.

[ShunyamNiketana]

@professorlip : But the average player is more athletic now, obviously. Wilt was ahead of his time.

[dantheman9758]

@ShunyamNiketana Wilt is ahead of THIS time. There has never been another Wilt Chamberlain yet. He isn't ahead of his time... he's literally just a GOAT athlete, not basketball player, athlete. He has mind boggling measurements (wingspan wider than Yao Ming, reach higher than Yao Ming - hands bigger than Tim Duncans - etc) and on top of that, mind boggling agility that rivals elite 6'1 guards.

[kileer7]

If Wilt played in today's league he would be just as good as he was in his era. I'm sure he wouldn't score in excess of 40 points per game, however, that would probably be due to the pace rather than the level of competition.

[ShunyamNiketana]

@kileer7 : I beg to disagree. Wilt in his prime would be very good now, and we have to assume that he would play like a contemporary player. But defenses are more sophisticated now, and more athletic. Here comes LeBron and Jason Kidd from the weak side to help Howard, now that he's isolated in the low post on Wilt. There was NO ONE with LeBron's physical attributes in the 60's. You have to wait for someone like George McGinnis, and he never lived up to expectations.

[kileer7]

@ShunyamNiketana The weak side help would increase the degree of difficulty of Wilt's shots.

[ShunyamNiketana]

@kileer7 : Agreed.

[kileer7]

3:13 he touched the top of the backboard again ... wtf

[kileer7]

2:50 did he just fucking touch the top of the backboard? unbelievable athleticism

[kileer7]

.... what an athlete.

[thug8200]

did he really block that at 3:14

[dantheman9758]

@thug8200 Ref's called it a goal tend, but he really got up there and caught it

[thug8200]

wooooooooooooooooowww

[kileer7]

@thug8200 he's a monster, right?

[InFamous5823]

This is incredible

[kobeandjordan2324]

Wilt Chamberlain couldn't have been a real human being.

[stere0brain]

That volleyball bump at 1:40 freaking dazzle

[dantheman9758]

@stere0brain His skills are shamefully underrated today, almost completely forgotten. Most people don't even have Wilt in their top 5

[stere0brain]

@dantheman9758 All-time greatest seasons #1 Wilt 1961-62 #2 Wilt 1966-67 #3 Wilt 1962-63 #4 Wilt 1971-72 #5 Wilt 1960-61 #6 MJ 1986-87 #7 Wilt 1959-60 Then the rest of the NBA can argue with Wilt for 1963-64, 1964-65, and 1965-66 (Jordan & Kareem come closest here)

[kobeandjordan2324]

@dantheman9758 Which is a shame considering Wilt was easily the greatest individual basketball player of all time.

[stere0brain]

Incredible vertical at 3:12... I saw Wilt many times but he was well into his NBA career, his focus had long since moved to being the greatest all-round player (which he still is to this day).

This is much closer to his 1960-64 scoring era and shows what the NBA -and the world - was confronted with.

WHAT AN ATHLETE!!!

[dantheman9758]

His advanced stats would be off the charts in this game. The defending champ SF team starts getting blown out and they're unable to get any easy shots with Wilt's defense and shot blocking both inside AND outside. In the last half they freeze plays out of desperation to slow the game and control their own blowout. Despite this Wilt amasses 32 points 15 rebounds 9 blocks 3 assists and 3 steals. You could double those stats for a normal game pace. It sounds impossible but with him it really isn't.

[musikaNeues]

AWESOME FOOTAGE

[garioldwin]

thanks for the vid, the block at 3:14 is unreal !

[dantheman9758]

@garioldwin That entire brief clip is at 50 percent playback speed. Watch it again very closely - It's literally impossible to see how quickly his legs gathered up that energy to spring him off the floor that high. That block was called by the refs as a goal tend so I didn't extend the clip but I also couldn't leave it out of the highlights! That jump really is incredible. He jumps with BOTH legs from a planted position, at this age imagine his best effort on a running leap off one foot! Yikes!

[ZipperZappleZ]

@dantheman9758 you should extend the clip.

There's huge hatred/denial of WC out there... posts all over the internet flatly deny he could get that high. They say without video footage, it never happened. Eye witnesses like Tex Winter ain't good enough.

Just be ready for hatred/denial because they'll come on here saying the camera angle is deceiving, the film is edited, you used photoshop....

I don't know why they celebrate the NBA but despise Wilt. Some kinda pathology imo

Here it is

[dantheman9758]

I will post a video clip but I don't think the myth busters could change the mind of a Wilt troll lol

[ZipperZappleZ]

@dantheman9758 It's the exact same thing that holocaust deniers do. In spite of hard fact, they will deny it

Meanwhile, thanks for the terrific clips!!

[dantheman9758]

Thanks! You ever notice how all his 70's footage is in slow motion? lol, I used to get so annoyed by that but after editing this game I realized Wilt moves so damn quick all of his plays NEED a slow motion playback to even see what happened lol. It def think it's important to see it in real time for comparison though. I think I have enough games to put together a fairly complete Jayhawk reel of Wilt, he loved that team and school far more than people realize and he played hard. It's coming soon.

[jongib369]

LOVED this video, once again a great upload