By: Pranav Parlapall

Wilt Chamberlain is one of the greatest basketball players of all time, towering over others with a height of 7’1 and weight of 285 pounds. He was one of the most unstoppable players in his era from 1958-1973, playing for the San Francisco Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers, where he would finish his NBA career. Wilt has won two NBA championships, four regular-season MVP awards, rookie of the year, one finals MVP, one All-Star game MVP, and was selected to thirteen All-Star games and ten All-NBA teams. He also scored an incredible 100 points against the New York Knicks and holds the award for most points in a single game. Wilt also averaged 30 points per game, 22 rebounds per game, and 4 assists per game throughout his 14 years of playing professional basketball. As seen, Wilt Chamberlain was an unbelievable basketball player and dominated his way through the game for 14 seasons, but what made him so good and why could nobody guard him?

Well, for starters, Wilt had an enormous height advantage—standing at 7 feet tall while everyone else was around the height of 6 ‘5 to 6’ 10. Being this tall allowed Wilt to easily post up against anyone and drive to the basket relentlessly. Wilt also had an incredible vertical jump at around 46-48 inches and was more athletic than any other player. In his early years in the NBA, Wilt stood at 7 ‘1 weighing 300 pounds, and averaged 39 points and 25 rebounds in his first seven seasons. Teams tried everything to stop him from scoring, even fouling him countless times to get him away from the basket. However, Wilt was just unstoppable and still averaged more than 30 points a game regardless of what the opposing team’s plans were for him. Wilt also had an unorthodox shooting form, shooting 50% from the free throw line in his career; however, on the night of his historic 100-point game, he was still able to make 28/32 free throws. Wilt is also the all-time leader in rebounds at nearly 24,000 rebounds; he was simply unguardable and no team was able to slow him down. The NBA even had to change a few rules because of Wilt Chamberlain. First, in 1956, the league banned offensive goaltending. The rule said that no player can touch the ball if any part of it is over the rim. Second, in 1964 the NBA widened the lane area from 12 feet to 16 to try and stop Wilt Chamberlain. Third, after seeing Wilt during a free throw, the NBA made a rule saying “Players cannot cross the plane of the free-throw line, even if your feet are not touching the ground until the ball hits the rim or passes through the basket.” 

Wilt’s impact is undeniable and still considered one of the greatest basketball players ever. He has surpassed numerous milestones and was the NBA’s superstar throughout his entire career. To this day, no player has ever come close to achieving feats like Wilt and I’m not sure if we’ll ever find a player like him again. All in all, Wilt Chamberlain was an unguardable player and a brutal force on the basketball court. Despite every team’s strategy to stop Wilt and the NBA changing rules just for him, nothing got in the way of Wilt Chamberlain and he dominated every season in his career.