Big Dipper
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That was very interesting stuff. I was blown away that he had never fouled out of game. That’s just crazy.
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“He once dunked a ball so hard that it went through the basket, hit an opposing player in the foot, and broke his toe.”
Priceless.
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@Crimsonorblue22 This is a topic that gets me juiced every single time !! My absolute favorite Jayhawk of all time plus my favorite athlete of all time. Not just because he is IMO the greatest player to ever lace em up, but also because I listened to his games on the old Hoffman with my Dad when I was a small boy. That’s what made it so special then & even more now that I’m in the Autumn of my life. I should re-watch " Wilt 100" again for details, but check this: Wilt played every minute of every single game one NBA season except for the one game he was ejected from, plus averaged 50 pts a game for the entire season. Am not embarrassed to tell you that when I witnessed his triumphant return to AFH in 1998 I actually wept. This is just my opinion OK, & I am certainly biased, but I believe he was the single greatest athlete of the 20th century. Historical facts & records fully support my views. Everyone else is certainly entitled to his/her own views as well. Respectfully, globaljayhawk.
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@globaljaybird global - I am with you a million percent. I don’t know why, but I’ve always had a special affinity for Wilt. No one will EVER convince me that there ever has been or ever will be a better basketball player. I’m sorry - Wilt would have mopped up LeBron, Michael Jordan or any other player you want to name. I heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger once switched gyms because Wilt worked out at the same gym and outlifted him daily. Arnold was embarrassed that he wasn’t as strong as a basketball player.
Did anyone notice the picture about halfway down in the above article, where Wilt is palming two basketballs at the same time? Take a closer look - he’s “palming” it with his thumb and middle finger only!
I’m likely to be branded a commie for this statement, but my favorite Jayhawk moment was not in 1988 or 2008, it was
My stupid eyes leak every time I watch it. (Sorry, I can’t figure out how to link it)
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What if Wilt played in 2014?
Would modern coaches and their sabermetrics mess him up like they do pitchers in baseball with their pitch counts? Probably.
Would he average 50 points a game? Probably not, although I’m not sure why.
Have other players caught up with Wilt in terms of skill and ability to dominate the game?
Would Wilt have ‘scored’ 20,000 times knowing what we know now about the hazards of such a lifestyle?
@globaljaybird I think that any athlete who transforms his sport deserves the best label. Babe Ruth outhomered entire teams during several seasons. Not a stretch to call him the best ever. Wayne Gretzky scored like no other players had done, but then Lemieux (sp?) showed he could do it too. Byron Nelson won 11 tournaments in a row, total dominance! I don’t know much about track, but Edwin Moses dominated hurdles for a decade I think. Heck, KU’s Al Oerter and the discus, 4 golds in a row I believe. So if you look across the sports others have done things. IMHO, Wilt belongs there with these others, but maybe not the best athlete of the century.
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@nuleafjhawk Great stuff leaf. This should be on the “required reading/video list” for all younger (post 1988) Jayhawk fans !!
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@wissoxfan83 speaking of track, KU sports has a great article about another amazing athlete, Billy Mills.
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@DoubleDD - thanks for the assist!
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What really impressed me most about Wilt… he was an innovator in the game. He made unique moves and played a different brand of basketball compared to what had been played at that time.
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Tried to reply to @drgnslayr but phone won’t coop. How about a quadruple double? Don’t think any one else has even come close. Verified by Kieth Jackson announcer. Played every minute for one entire season? Schizz no one else human ever came close to that either. Check out the wiki page-Wilt was phenomenal beyond belief & that’s a complete understatement !!!
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@globaljaybird
Unfortunately, Wilt played in a time before ESPN and Internet and the big hoopla associated with athletes. The first true big global athlete in all sports was Mohammed Ali and in basketball Michael Jordan, not that there were not others that were popular and big but they never quite got the publicity that Jordan did. Bird, Magic and Kareem came just before the explosion in media access. I can only imagine how players such as the Big “O”, Pete Maravich, Bill Russel, Dr. “J” or Jerry West would do in today’s media rich environment.
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Wilt faced a problem.
He was not as well liked as certain other players of his time, and media professionals being then as now, presstitutes first, and recorders of history in a minutes second, spent much of their time trying to cut down Wilt’s overwhelming prowess down to size to make room for other sports figures needing their place in the sun. Had these media professionals reported simply the facts, no other athlete in any sport would have gotten a lick of ink, not Ali, not Big Russ, not Jim Brown, no Mickey Mantle, or Willie Mays, not Gale Sayers, not OJ Simpson, not Y.A. Tittle, not Sandy Koufax, not Bob Beaman, not Bob Hayes, not Jim Ryan, none of them.
Wilt, had he been reported straight forwardly, based on the facts of measurable performance and measurable abilities was several orders of magnitude greater of an athlete than any figure of his time, or since.
If Bill Self is right to say that Lebron James is the biggest athletic freak on the planet right now, then Wilt Chamberlain was the biggest athletic freak in the solar system before, or since.
Period.
Let’s put it in plain English.
Wilt could dunk all day on Lebron James. No disrespect to Lebron.
Wilt could dunk all day on Michael Jordan. No disrespect to Michael.
Wilt could dunk all day on Magic. No disrespect to Magic.
Wilt could dunk all day on Big Russ. No disrespect to Big Russ, because I think he is the greatest team basketball player in the history of the game, even better than Wilt.
There have been a few really long centers that Wilt could NOT dunk on all day. Jabbar could slow him down. Nate Thurmond could slow him down. But even against those guys, if he wanted to dunk in their grilles, he would have just had to make an extra fake and then his will would have been done.
But Wilt was never reported that way by the media…EVER.
And so Wilt always to leave behind a bread crumb trail of feats that documented how different and extraordinary he was, not because he was an ego maniac, but because he was a renaissance man, an uber athlete and an intellectual. Wilt finally understood what he was–how different he was in the dimension of athleticism.
In Rome, or Athens, he would have been turned into legend as a demigod.
I am not exaggerating.
But Wilt’s problem was how to get the truth out beyond the puffed up hype about himself, beyond the false PR about others, and especially beyond the misinformation about himself aimed to make him seem not so extraordinary so heaping praise about the greatness of other basketball players did not seem so patently absurd.
Every great act he did in a team game could be spun against him. It could be said that scoring a 100 points in a game, or averaging 50ppg for a season, meant he was selfish, or playing on lousy teams. Being the only post man to lead the league in assists could be spun to mean he was ONLY assisting and not scoring as much as he should. Averaging 25 rpg could be sluffed off as him being tall, not a great leaper. And so on.
But Wilt did come up with one benchmark of his athletic prowess that has largely been ignored by media persons of his time. He did come up with one standard of his ability that could not be related to team dynamics, or to changes in the game, or to better players later, or what have you.
Wilt Chamberlain noted that though it took some effort, HE COULD DUNK ON A 12 FOOT BASKET–from a sergeant jump.
Lebron, would you like to meet that challenge?
Michael?
Magic?
Big Russ?
Shaq?
Hakeem?
Kareem?
Andrew Wiggins?
Anyone think that Joel Embiid could sergeant jump and dunk on a 12 foot basket?
Its only 24 inches higher than a ten foot basket.
Well, actually, the ball is about 10 inches, isn’t it, so to dunk on a 12 foot rim from a sergeant, Wilt had to go at least up to 12’10".
I reckon the 24 inches between 10 and 12 feet, when viewed from a sergeant jump, may seem a bit like the last thousand feet up Mt. Everest, even to Wilt Chamberlain.
Yes, we see guys flying through the air on fast breaks that seem to get their hand prints waaaaaay high on the back board. And Wilt could of course go up and grab things off the top of the back board with a few step run and jump.
But Wilt was saying that it took some effort, but that in a SERGEANT jump he could dunk a ten inch diameter basketball on Doc Allen’s 12 foot basket!
Notice that none of the great athletic freaks of basketball history have come out and said, “Well, sure, I used to do that all time.”
Nor have any gone out, set up a 12 foot basket, called in the press, and said, “What Chamberlain did was not such a big deal. Watch me sergeant jump and dunk on this 12 foot basket, too.”
Its just twelve lousy feet.
I’m not saying its impossible. Statistically, there must be a few jumping jacks somewhere that could do it, especially now with scientific weight lifting.
But what about the alleged great athletic freaks of basketball history? Of football history? Of track and field history? Of baseball history? Of soccer history?
Stand with your feet set, bend your knees and go straight up with a basketball and dunk it through a rim 12 feet up, which means getting the ball at least 12’10" up, which means getting your fingertips somewhere near that height or higher.
Either you can do it, or you can’t.
The presstitutes cannot spin this.
If Lebron and Andrew can do this, then I wish they would to put Wilt in less exhalted perspective.
Tim Duncan, you wanna try?
Dwight Howard?
Demarcus Cousins?
Pao Gasol?
Noah?
Go back.
Bill Walton?
Nate Thurmond?
Anyone?
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@jaybate-1.0 PHOF !!!
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@JayHawkFanToo Wilt played half his career before color tv or 2 channel stereo.
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@jaybate-1.0 I’ve often wondered (today, at least) if he dunked on that 12’ rim before or after he got done bench-pressing ** 550 ** pounds. The guy should have worn a cape. Holy Cow.
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@jaybate-1.0 Loved what you wrote, I just have to add one small exception to your 12’ 10" comment. Not saying Wilt didn’t have his hands on top of the ball or OVER the ball which would make it even higher than 12’ 10", but some of us shorter guys used two hands at the side of the ball, so to clear 12", with hands on each side of the ball 1/2 way, a dunk can be made with finger tips at 12’ 6". So, the top of the ball is still 12’ 10", the highest point of the athlete at 12" 6".
Just a tidbit about Wilt and the high jump- in the 70’s his 6’ 6" jump was still good enough for the KU All Time list.
Modern weight lifting has changed a thing or two. The track team weight men in the 70’s could out jump some of us in the vertical using two legs. but running in with several steps and jumping off one foot the weight men were no where near the jumpers.
IMO, Jordan and Wigs can easily do it from a running start and one leg, and maybe even standing still off two legs.
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On the run, I suspect Wilt could have dunked it on a 14 foot basket, since he was reputedly able to pluck an erasure off the top of a glass backboard. I kind of doubt Jordan or Wigs could dunk on a 14 basket even on the run.
Regarding the high jump, I have always tried to imagine how high Wilt would have high jumped had the Fosbury Flop been taught in his time. If Dick Fosbury and many other guys could go 7-0 to 7-4, then I have always suspected that Wilt might have gone 7-6 to 7-10 without much sweat.
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Wiggins has a measured standing reach of 8’-11" by virtue of his height and freakish 7’ wingspan. and a 44" vertical leap and so you have 151"total reach or 12’-7" which might allow him, in theory, to dunk on a 12’ basket, since the regulation basketball is exactly 29.5" in diameter which makes it about 9.4" in diameter
Other players that might have been able to do are Michael Thompson, who is credited with the highest vertical leap, although he is had small hands that might not help, Dr. J , who had the height, leaping ability and big hands and maybe, just maybe Earl ‘the goat" Manigault, a legend of the New York playgrounds that is rumored to be able to pick up a dollar bill from the top of the backboard and leave change; although it sounds more like an urban legend (he was only 6’ +/-1" ) or maybe they had backboard that were not quite the 13’ regulation boards in use today.
Here is an interesting article that tries to determine if an NBA player ever actually touched the top pf the backboard, something that would certainly help dunk on a 12’ basket and the answer is no.
Wilt claimed to have a 9’-6" standing reach which means he would have needed to have a vertical leap of at the very least 36" to be able to dunk on a 12’ basket. He was an outstanding athlete but there is no definitive documentation on what his actual vertical leap was (various stories put at somewhere between 28" and 46" ), so it is difficult to prove or disprove the dunk claim. I would personally doubt that he would be able to dunk on a 12" basket from a standing position, although with a run up start it is possible,
BTW, results compiled for the Sargent standing jump test for elite world class athletes indicate that a 34"-36" would put you at the upper 10% of elite world class athletes; the record for NBA players is 38" by Dwayne Mitchell in 2012 and the record with run up approach is 45.5" by none other than Kenny Gregory. This are verified numbers measured at combines; there are many other claims, such as Jordan 48" leap, that have never been verified. Like many other statistics, vertical jumping is one that is widely and wildly exaggerated, .Again, to be able to dunk on 12’ basket you need a combination of height, huge wingspan and freakish jumping ability; very few individuals have all three. .
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Thanks for introducing some very interesting, even if as you indicate inconclusive data.
The key point is: film from Wilt’s early, lean and hyper bouncey years suggest Wilt DID have all three; that he was the rare hyper athletic footer with long legs, somewhat short neck, long trunk, long arms, and long hands that had exceptional hops.
Great height. Great rach. Great hops.
No one you mention had his combination of abilities in these regards.
The point about Wilt is that he would have been a great basketball player at 6-4, because he could run, jump and slide and anticipate so well.
And all this talk about Hakeem and Jeff and Joel being great rim protectors because of volleyball and soccer reminds that Wilt be came a successful professional volleyball player AFTER quitting the NBA AT 300 pounds and 15 years of pounding courts. And Wilt did play track and field and he and KU’s track coach reputedly said his best event would have been DECATHLON and that he probably could have won a gold medal in that event. The guy was a freakishly great athlete that happened to be a footer.
I suspect a search of surviving teammates could corroborate Wilt’s claim.
His reach
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Dunking on anything more than a 12 foot rim is basically impossible. Dunking on a 12 foot rim is difficult and likely also dangerous.
As observed above, to dunk on a 12 foot rim requires at least a 35 inch vertical, likely from a running start as few can drop step into a 35 inch vertical. Considering the height you have to achieve and that you would likely have to jump “full out” to achieve the necessary height, there is a huge chance that something could go wrong and a knee or ankle could fall victim to a poor landing.
I believe that Wilt could in fact touch up to or over 12 feet. However, I wonder if he could have dunked at that height.
Wilt was a rare talent as an athlete. He was the classic and athlete. He was quick and fast. He was tall and agile. He was strong and graceful. From everything I have heard about him, he was as strong as Shaq, as agile as Hakeem and as explosive as Dwight Howard, all while being able to run as fast as most any guard.
The closest we have to him now, honestly, is Lebron. A rare combination of speed, power, grace, explosiveness, agility and size. Obviously, Lebron isn’t Wilt’s size, but until he lost weight this summer, Lebron was playing at about 6-9, 270. Wilt played most of his career at 275-290 before adding weight towards the end of his career. He was taller, but about the same weight for most of his basketball days. That adds to Wilt’s agility, as he moved like a guard because, for the most part, he was a guard in his build. He just happened to be 7-1.
However, I also must observe that Wilt stood out as an athlete because the caliber of athlete in the NBA in the 1960’s was not what it is today. Wilt would still be a better athlete than most anyone today, but he would not be lapping the field as he was back in his day. PG’s were not dunking on PF’s in the 1960’s. Remember, this was an era where Oscar Robertson and Elgin Baylor dominated physically in large part because they were so much more athletic than their counterparts. Bill Russell has said as much, that the Robertson’s, Baylor’s and Chamberlain’s of the world changed the NBA because they made the game much more athletic than it had been up to that point, Robertson for the guards, Baylor for the forwards and Chamberlain and Russell for big men. The type of basketball we watch today is owed in large part to what those four players did in the 1960’s.
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As I indicated, to dunk on a 12’ basket, I would think a player should be able to touch the top of the backboard (13’ ). No NBA player that I know has ever touched the top of the backboard even with a running start. Sure, many claim to have done that but none has been able to actually do it with witnesses. Please note that the average player today, is considerably more athletic than a comparable player was 40 or 50 years ago, a result of the ever improving training technology that was not available back then. For these reasons, I really do not believe that Wilt, as good and freakish athlete as he was, dunked on 12’ basket from a standing position…maybe with a running start…but not from standing position. I believe that this particular story belongs to the category of the 20,000 different women with whom he claimed he slept.
As far as dunking on a 14’ basket, assuming his reach is indeed 9’-6", he would have to jump 54" just to touch the rim; this is more than 12" higher than anyone has even** claimed** to have done it, let alone actually done it. It is just pure fantasy and no human can do it; maybe one day bionics (or Flubber for you older posters) will allow someone to do it but not now, no way, no how… The only person that could dunk on a 14" rim is Michael Jordan in a Space Jam cartoon movie.
I am a huge Wilt fan but I am also an engineer that can look at numbers and can tell the difference between reality and fantasy.
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Here is a little bit of fudge factor on a vertical jump. To get the base height established, not every athlete will truly reach and stretch 100 percent while standing there. If you don’t lower your outside shoulder which rotates your other shoulder up a few inches, you can pick up a few inches in the differential of the actual jump. Most shorter Dunkers lower the outside shoulder not only for balance but it elevates the dunking shoulder a bit and therefore the hand is a bit higher as well.
By the way, jf2- Great read on that link. Thanks.
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I once had a summer of playing basketball with Xavier McDaniel, the forward from WSU who led the country in scoring and rebounding. He was only 6’7".
I watched him jump from a flat-footed position and grab an 11-foot support beam.
X didn’t have a freakish wingspan. I’m guessing on a standing reach that Wilt had about a foot of height clearance over the X-man.
I am a definite believer that Wilt did it. He wouldn’t have to be able to touch a 13’ height to dunk on a 12’ rim. I’d say he’d have to go a minimum of about 12’6" to get down a minimal dunk…
I’m less sure if he could do it from a flat-footed position… but with Wilt, who knows?
You would think there would be film or photos of him doing it if he did… though back then, people didn’t think of capturing things like they do now.
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“I believe that this particular story belongs to the category of the 20,000 different women with whom he claimed he slept.”
Here is something to think about…
If Wilt did sleep with that many women, even if he used a condom, he would definitely have some accidents and he’d have a minimum of 20 or so kids out there… probably a lot more.
Surely some of those women were tall, too.
Wouldn’t there be an increase of footers in college now playing ball?
And… wouldn’t those players be letting everyone know they were sons from Wilt? Even if they were illegitimate… the publicity would be monstrous and those kids would have the attention of every scout on the planet!
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As I indicated, there is no evidence of a single NBA player ever touching the top of the backboard which is 13’, even with a running start (see link). I find it hard to believe that Wild could do this from a standing position…with a running start? maybe…from a standing position? highly doubtful.
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I believe it is quit possible he could do it from a run… less likely from standing.
Why do you think a player needs to reach 13’ to dunk on a 12’ rim?
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As @JayhawkRock78 indicated you can reach a little higher if you elevate one shoulder over the other and reach with one hand; however, a one hand dunk would require a hand partially over the 9.4" ball and so you would have to really reach 13" with the tip of your fingers on one hand to be able to dunk on a 12’ basket. Using the two handed approach. you would have to reach just over 12.5’ feet with both hands to dunk the ball; since jumping with both hands up normally results in less reach, a 13" reach with one hand seems reasonable, wouldn’t you agree?
I would think that if a current player could dunk on 12" basket, he would do it in the All-Star dunk contest and run away with the title; nobody has ever done that. Dwight Howard, which is also a freakish athlete and only 2" shorter than Wilt tried it…
And the top of the sticker he placed on the board was generously measured (if you can call what they did reassuming) at 12’6" but the tip of his fingers were maybe 12’-3"…and that was done with a full head of steam and his dunking arm was much lower.
Apparently Howard asked the NBA to raise the basket to 12’ for the dunk contest but I believe that he would have to jump at least 6 inches higher to accomplish this.
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If you remember Travis Releford’s dunks, sometimes he would palm the ball from the side, get clearance of the ball over the rim and then throw it down. I’d say 99% of slam dunks are done with the hand above the ball, but if you have big hands you can dunk holding the ball halfway up as long as the bottom of the ball clears the rim. Looking at where his hand is in the still shot of that picture above and you can see what I mean.
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Sadly, my last dunk was in 1989. The 70’s and 80’s were good to me-I even had hair back then.
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@drgnslayr Loved Xavier and that whole WSU team…except for one game…66-65.
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I am sure you are referring to the “Battle of New Orleans” played March 1981…however, Xavier did not play in that game since his first season at WSU was the 81-82 season. You must be thinking of Antoine Carr…
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@drgnslayr "Here is something to think about…
If Wilt did sleep with that many women, even if he used a condom, he would definitely have some accidents and he’d have a minimum of 20 or so kids out there… probably a lot more.
Surely some of those women were tall, too.
Wouldn’t there be an increase of footers in college now playing ball?"
It runs in my mind that I heard a story many years ago–maybe from Max Falkenstein–that neither of Wilt’s parents was tall.
According to. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0150219/bio neither was taller than 5’9".
Probably my favorite player of all time. Always had the impression that he never wanted to be considered a special person and wasn’t enamored with all the hoopla about him. Wish I could have come to that game in 1998.
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I would have flown back to Kansas just to see the halftime.
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@JayHawkFanToo This a is the myth.
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This post is deleted!
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@JayHawkFanToo That’s Nawlins !!
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Gosh… I could dunk in my day with very little room for error and I never could jump to 11’. Wish I could!
I’m guessing my all-time best jump would get me to about 10’8". I wish I could have dunked like DHoward! But my dunks were about clearing the rim and having just enough control on the ball to slam it down at the back of the rim. The only time I dunked in a game was on a rebound putback where the ball stuck perfectly in my hand and I slammed it down hard! I never wanted to embarrass myself with a blooper rimmy… I would have never heard the end of it from teammates. My classic move was a finger roll over the front of the rim. I think I only ever missed that once, and the ball was wet with sweat so it departed from my hand early and bricked on the lower part of the front iron. Glad no one had that on tape so I didn’t have to live with a replay!
I always wished I had a few more inches of vertical but my game was x-axis.
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Interesting post about Wilt.
I think if I was a player in the right time period and didn’t know who my dad was I might just claim Wilt if for no other reason than the cred!
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Vertical jumping is one of those things that starts easy but it gets exponentially more difficult with every inch. Most NBA players can dunk on a 10’ regulation basket which means most can reach at least 11 feet. However, with every additional inch, it becomes increasingly more difficult and fewer player can reach the new height until it gets to a point where just a handful of superior leaper can do it. At this point it looks like the limit is around 12’6" with a running start and I would venture to guess that less than 5 players in the NBA can get there.
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Worth noting is the fact that Wilt was a freakish athlete, not just by the standards of his day, but by today’s standards. He was also a Big 8 high jump champ. You won’t find any other footer in the league doing that… or even coming close. Wilt had to be able to go super high if he was a high jump champ. His height didn’t give him the same advantage in high jump that it did in basketball. His entire body had to clear the bar, and Wilt came before the “Pilsbury Flop” (Fosbury Flop).
Few footers can jump. I’m willing to bet that few footers can vertical over 30". I don’t think anyone knows Wilt’s vertical, but I would guestimate it to be around 40"… about 10" above all the other footers playing in the league today.
If Wilt could go 40" then (roughly) we can add 3 1/2’ to his standing reach. His standing reach was probably around 9’10". Doing the math that comes out to 13’4".
It is too bad we didn’t have more focus on overall athleticism back in Wilt’s day because if he was at his prime now, we would know how high he could jump and what height his fingers could reach. He might just own the world record!
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@drgnslayr imagine if he worked w/Hudy?
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All I can say is “YIKES!”
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Wow… Here are some links, take them for what they are worth… but…
“Wilt was a world-class athlete, who came out of college a 440 Champion track star as well as a basketball Phenom.”
“Wilt’s leaping ability was incomparable. His “Sergeant” or vertical leap was higher than Michael Jordan’s at 48”.”
“However, as Chamberlain himself once said about all these claims, “I defy anyone to say they took change off the top of the backboard. I could. Someone would put a quarter up and I’d snatch it down. I’ve heard stories about Jackie Jackson doing it, but I’ve never seen anyone (but himself) come close.””
If that is true… add another 8" to my guestimate.
Why Wilt Chamberlain Was the Greatest NBA Player Ever
More on the great one:
“At Kansas, he shot-putted 56 feet, triple-jumped more than 50 feet, and won the Big Eight Conference high jump championship three straight years.”
Scoring 100 points was just one of Wilt Chamberlain’s amazing feats
“Wilt’s bench press was reportedly almost up to 500 pounds…”
Wilt Chamberlain - Athletic Freak
I’m sure there is even more out there. I found all of this in just a few minutes.
Lore or Legend? You decide… I cast my one vote for Legend!
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Although the quantity of sex was, I’m sure a hyperbole, SNL did a skit about this when the actual amount was divided into days with him having 5 partners a day. The skit had a different women come into the bedroom as the previous one was leaving. Kareem might have been the guest host.
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The record for NBA players for the “Sargent” test is 38" by Dwayne Mitchell in 2012 and the record with run up approach is 45.5" by none other than former KU player Kenny Gregory. The 48" attributed to Jordan is not a "Sargent"jump but one with a running start and it was never documented. A lot has been written about vertical jumping, particularly about and by NBA players, but most of it falls in the category of urban legends and very little has been documented. In recent years, the NBA combines have done a better job of measuring and documenting athletes numbers and this is how we know that some of the numbers attributed to some athletes are just fantasy.
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I believe there is some exaggeration going on. But the point is Wilt was a tremendous athlete.
I don’t believe these other websites either that claim these vertical records, having a football player out-leaping all basketball players by 8 inches (Gerald Sensabaugh). I doubt Wilt competed for those records and they only have on the books who they have on the books (documented) so I wouldn’t give those records anymore reliability than the folklore except that they accurately portray the very limited (documented) records that they possess.
Spud Webb could dunk in HS when he was only 5’3". I believe his reach to be around 6’8". He easily matched up with Kenny Gregory in a running vertical. The proof is in what he did with the ball, not going through a documented test.
Spud grew to a whopping 5’7" when he won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest.
When you think about it, what greater urban legend story is out there over leaping ability and crazy dunks? Rural legend is about fishing… not many bass in NYC!
I’m sure if Wilt said he removed quarters off the top of backboard he did it. If he didn’t do it we would definitely be hearing from his critics because Wilt had a zillion critics. He was a God in Lawrence and around Kansas, but he was a guy that attracted plenty of haters, mostly because of jealousy, sometimes over race.
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I for one think Wilt had a problem with his math when it came to women. I would believe 2,000, not 20,000.
As for his jumps, he had the advantage of a high center of gravity. There are high jumpers that are 6’ 8", and 6" 10, but on average the best seem to be 6" 2" to 6’ 5"
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Whatever the number, he had to battle disease, regardless how safe he played it.
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@JayhawkRock78 OK, I’m not a math guy, but if he “started” at let’s say 15 years old, and he passed away at 63, that’s 48 years of playing around. If he had one encounter per day, that would be 17,520 women. No time off for holidays.
Those are pretty staggering numbers, but if anybody could do it, it would be Wilt.
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