The Globetrotter Who Changed the Game: 5 Must-Know Facts About Wilt Chamberlain

The crux of Wilt Chamberlain's greatness is that the 7-foot-1 megastar was not perfect on the hardwood. Truly groundbreaking athletes rarely achieve perfection because they're going against the grain in a league that's made for other types of players. Chamberlain tried a lot of shots that didn't go in, but the shots he swished were enough to build one of the most iconic legacies in National Basketball Association lore.

Chamberlain was a phenomenally gifted, nimble big man in an NBA era of small finesse players and clumsy bruisers. Wilt the Stilt's all-time dominance at center didn't come about via immediate pro stardom after college. Chamberlain was ineligible to be drafted until the graduation of his classmates at Kansas, which he had left under circumstances that made pro coaches doubt his commitment. It took Wilt a couple of years in minor-league hoops for the NBA's Philadelphia Warriors, not the 76ers, to hand Chamberlain a record-breaking rookie contract once word of his semipro prowess had spread.

By the time Chamberlain made Philadelphia's starting five in 1959, he was already taking the league by storm. Here are five must-know facts about the NBA's most iconic center.

Chamberlain was anything but a typical rookie when he signed with the Warriors. Wilt played semipro ball before he attended Kansas University, where he briefly starred before moving on to play for the Harlem Globetrotters rather than in the NBA.

Wilt's decision to play in a circus rather than in a serious league was a complex one. The Stilt was unhappy with the circumstances and pressure of his KU career, leaving the campus as a junior while unable to enter the NBA Draft. The Globetrotters gave Wilt the opportunity to loosen up and have some fun. The brand's $50,000 contract paid to Chamberlain was worth every cent when he formed a funny duo with Meadowlark Lemon, increasing the Globetrotters' national popularity while giving the circus team a legitimate baller.

Chamberlain is acknowledged to have had the greatest rookie season of any NBA baller in history. Wilt broke eight league scoring and rebounding records, establishing himself as the best rebounder in the sport before entering his second year as a professional. Games in which Wilt netted 50-plus points while grabbing 40-plus rebounds for the Warriors became more commonplace than the media ever could've dreamed. 

Chamberlain goes down as the NBA's best territorial draft pick of all time. In fact, if Wilt had been a first-overall draft pick, he'd be ranked in the top of that class too. Less well-known than the big man's single-season records is Chamberlain's dismissal of the Hall of Fame forward Bill Russell in head-to-head matchups in 1959-60. The revolutionary rookie, who turned "the post" into a household term in hoops neighborhoods, outperformed Russell starkly enough that historians are shy to talk about it. 

The handy "Wilt Chamberlain versus Bill Russell" resource by StatHead shows how Chamberlain roughly doubled Russell's field goals in over 100 matchups spanning the 1960s and much of the 1970s. Wilt scored 30.0 points per game in the pair's 94 regular-season meetings, while Russell posted 14.2. Chamberlain is heralded less than Russell as a defensive player, but he was bigger on the glass. 

Philly fans could see their new superstar's flaw as plain as the paint. Chamberlain was a dud at the free-throw line, hitting only 51.1% of his lifetime total of 11,862 regular-season charity shots. As a result, opposing teams swarmed to foul Chamberlain, often violently, trying to send him to the line as shakily as possible and hoping to grab the rebound without Wilt's presence around the rim.

As was later the case with the WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark, opponents reacted to a revolutionary basketball talent's threat to dominate their league by trying to knock the rookie off their game with hard fouls. The vicious fouling of Chamberlain in 1959-60 led to injuries and frustration for Wilt the Stilt, who considered quitting the NBA in the 1960 offseason. But thankfully, the big man chose to stay in the league, earning respect from opponents who largely stopped hacking and pummeling Chamberlain later in his career.

Chamberlain signed with the American Basketball Association in 1973-74, hired to serve as the San Diego Conquistadors player-coach, who could eventually take over the team as a traditional head coach. The LA Lakers, for whom the California native had played since 1968, successfully sued Chamberlain to prevent him from playing for the Conquistadors, leaving Wilt the Stilt to tackle coaching duties full-time alongside Stan Albeck. 

Like Magic Johnson in his brief stint with the Lakers after retiring as a player, Chamberlain proved to be too impatient to stick with the coaching business for long. After the Conquistadors' live crowds dwindled late in his only season in San Diego, Chamberlain officially retired from pro basketball as a player and a coach.

It's crazy that the Lakers had so much animus for Chamberlain, since the big center nearly carried Los Angeles to an NBA championship in his final year with the team. Wilt's supporting cast of spring 1972 that had led LA to its second title with Chamberlain lost key contributors and focus by 1973. But the icon broke his own league record via a field-goal mark of 72.3% to get the Lakers into the postseason, then came within two wins of producing a third championship as LA lost to the New York Knicks in six games. 

Chamberlain scored on a dunk with one second left in the final elimination defeat, a play that grew more poetic the next year as the NBA's unstoppable force stepped aside.

Chamberlain was a phenomenally gifted, nimble big man in an NBA era of small finesse players and clumsy bruisers. Wilt the Stilt's all-time dominance at center didn't come about via a first-round draft pick; in fact, NBA teams seemed skeptical of his skills at first. It only took Wilt a couple of years in pro hoops for the NBA's Philadelphia Warriors, not the 76ers, to offer Chamberlain a record-breaking rookie contract. 

By the time Chamberlain made Philadelphia's starting five in 1959, he was already taking the league by storm. Here are five must-know facts about the NBA's most iconic center.