A Look into the Life of Wilt the Stilt (part 2)
Wilton Chamberlain joined the University of Kansas in 1955. Once there, he faced a totally different environment than he was used to. Due to the segregation, he was not treated like a star. He joined the Kansas University freshman team, named the Jayhawks
and was coached by Phog Allen. Allen had a brilliant history in basketball as well as playing under Naismith (the inventor of Basketball). He was probably the only reason Wilton Chamberlain attended University of Kansas.
Chamberlain’s debut match was against the Jayhawks Varsity team, who were favored to win. Wilt impressed the crowds as well as the coaches by scoring 42 points thus achieving victory. Soon after this match, Coach Allen was forced to retire from the university
due to their age regulations. Phog Allen was replaced by his assistant, d**k Harp. Chamberlain had a very bad relationship with the new coach due to Harps resentment and disappointment towards him.
Wilton started playing for the varsity team in 1956, and wowed the crowds by scoring 52 points and making 31 rebounds, breaking both of the all time records. He led his team to a 87-69 victory against the Northwestern team. Monte Johnson, a team mate and
witness to Wilton’s skills, said that “Wilt had unbelievable endurance and speed… and was never tired. When he dunked, he was so fast that a lot of players got their fingers jammed”. It was during his years at university, that Wilt developed the “finger roll”,
and the “fade away jump shot”, both deadly techniques that were used against the other teams.
In 1957, during the NCAA Men’s Division 1 basketball championship, the Jayhawks were pitted against the all-white team from the Methodist University. The crowd was so hostile that they were throwing trash, and spitting onto the courts, yelling horrible racial
slogans at the same time. Despite this, the Jayhawks won the match. This angered the spectators so much that the police had to escort the team back to stop the crowd from hijacking the team’s bus. Winning their way to the finals, the Jayhawks had to play against
the team from North Carolina called the Tar Heels. Chamberlain was such a big threat to them that they had to resort to methods such as “ball freezing” and “triple teaming”, which were frowned upon. This was the first loss that the Big Dipper had ever faced
and it hurt him a lot emotionally.
Frustrated by the “freeze ball” tactics that the other teams used against him, Chamberlain left the university because college level basketball was no longer fun anymore. In order to earn some money, he sold his story “Why I am Leaving College” to a magazine.
This was followed by some major achievements in the player’s social life. By the time he was only 21 years old, he was already in a number of major magazines such as Time, Life, and Newsweek.
Since Wilt had left Kansas before completing his last year of university, he was not able to join the NBA straight away, due to their requirements. Thus Chamberlain decided to play for the Harlem Globetrotters, in 1958. Chamberlain made history by playing
with his team in Moscow during 1959. He left the team in the same year but kept coming back frequently during off seasons. Chamberlain liked the time he had spent with the Globetrotters because there was no one making fun of him, or expecting him to keep breaking
a record of some sorts. He was part of a fun loving team who played the game to enjoy it rather than making money.
Wilton Chamberlain was given his shot at the NBA in 1959, when he was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors. This draft pick was very strange in the sense that the NBA called it a “territorial” pick, even though Chamberlain had studied in Kansas (which was
not included in Philadelphia). The owner of the team argued that there were no teams in Kansas, and that Chamberlain had originally grown up in Philadelphia.
The NBA agreed to the owners argument and Wilton Chamberlain became the only draft in the history of NBA to be selected in a territorial draft, based on where he grew up rather than which institute he had studied in. Once on the team, Chamberlain soon became
the highest paid player in the NBA.
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