The Man They Called...

Most basketball fans only know the name Wilt Chamberlain because he scored 100 points in a game. They often qualify Wilt's herculean accomplishments by saying he's overrated because he was bigger and taller than anyone else in his era. Oh, what little those fans choose to know. The fact is, there's a hell of a lot more about how spectacular an athlete he was than people know about.

Statistics and video footage of Wilt Chamberlain very strongly suggest that his combination of size (7'1", 275 lbs - he weighed in at 258 as a rookie), strength, athleticism, a vertical leap between 39 and 50 inches (depending on his age and who you talk to), unmatched durability and excellent fundamentals on both ends of the floor would still make him a better and more intimidating player than any big man in today's slower-paced NBA game.

Your Honor, the evidence:

Wilt Chamberlain's dominance started getting nationwide attention when he was a teenager at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia. At Kansas University Chamberlain not only played basketball, he was also a star member of the Track and Field team. He ran the 100-yard dash in 10.9 seconds; the 440 in 48.9 seconds; shot-putted 56 feet; posted a 22' 8' inch broad jump and won the high jump in the Big Eight track and field championships three straight years. By the time he was 21 he had already been featured in Life, Look, Newsweek and Time magazines before he even turned pro.

Wilt left college early and spent a year playing for the Harlem Globetrotters before joining the NBA in 1959 and once he got to the Philadelphia Warriors as a territorial draft choice the records began falling like dominoes. In his very first game, played against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, Wilt set rookie debut records for points (43) and rebounds (28) that still stand. It was a powerful omen.

You know a player is dominant when the powers that be change the rules because of that player. That's what the NCAA and NBA did to Chamberlain. In college, Kansas devised an inbound play from under the basket where the inbounding player would throw the ball over the backboard to a leaping Chamberlain who would jam it home. The NCAA banned that move, as well as some others before he even played one game. The NBA not only did the same, they also widened the free throw lane. In addition, goaltending, which was legal then, was outlawed due to Wilt's uncanny ability to block shots within 10 feet of the basket no matter where the shot originated. Curiously, Wilt was a very poor foul shooter. He had a good shot away from the basket (he had a deadly baseline jumper) but at the line he was one of the worst. He tried every method: two-handed, one handed, even underhanded, to no avail. About the only thing he didn't try was bouncing it in. It's widely speculated that he was working on a way to leap from the foul line and release the ball less than a few feet from the rim before touching the ground. The league, well aware of Wilt's track  and field background, nixed that idea, too.

With Chamberlain overwhelming opponents game after game he immediately became a sensation and the NBA's biggest drawing card since the legendary George Mikan. He went on to shatter virtually every scoring and rebounding record (as a rookie, remember) and wrapped up his first year in the NBA with averages of 37.6 points and 27 rebounds a game. Fans and media alike were dumbfounded. Nobody had ever seen this kind of dominance before. Some people feared he would wreck the game. He was criticized and called selfish and a loser, leading him to bitterly lament,  "Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath."

During the 1961-62 season Wilt's scoring average climbed to a surreal 50.4 points a game, highlighted by his unbeatable 100-point effort as well as a 3-overtime game where he poured in 78 points and grabbed 43 rebounds and another game of 73 points and 36 rebounds. [Read the story and the box score of his 100-point game here.]

Here's Chamberlain's game log from that iconic season. Any one of these games would be a career achievement for any player. Wilt Chamberlain was achieving it virtually every game. 

In the current era where nobody plays all 48 minutes of a game, Chamberlain averaged a seemingly impossible 48.5 minutes a game in 1961-62. He played every minute of a game (including overtime  minutes) 79 times that season, including 47 in a row.

In his 7th season Wilt scored his 20,000th point in his 499th career game, which by far remains (and likely will always remain) the record for the fastest to achieve that milestone.

Wilt never fouled out of a game, which spanned 1,205 games including 160 playoff contests.

He's the only player to record a 40/40 (at least 40 points and 40 rebounds in one game) and he did it five times.

Six players have scored 70 or more points in a game. Wilt did it six times.

Michael Jordan scored 50 or more points 31 times in his career. Wilt Chamberlain did it 45 times in one season and 118 times in his career.

The second best scoring average by a player not named Chamberlain was Elgin Baylor's 38.3 in 1961-62, the same year as Wilt's 50.4. That makes Wilt's number 31.6 percent higher than Baylor. Now let's put that into perspective:
• The highest batting average for a season in Major League Baseball over the past 70 years is Tony Gwynn's .394 in 1994. To exceed Gwynn by 31.6 percent, a batter would have to hit .518.
• The all-time single season rushing record in the NFL is 2,105 yards by Eric Dickerson in 1984. To exceed Dickerson by 31.6 percent a runner would have to gain 2,770 yards.

• The NHL single-season record for goals is 92 by Wayne Gretzky in 1981-82. To exceed Gretzky by Chamberlain's pace, a player would have to score 121 goals.

There are those who claim that all Chamberlain could do was score. However, much to their ignorance, Wilt had 78 career triple-doubles, more than Larry Bird (59), Michael Jordan (31) and Kobe Bryant (21). Wilt had 31 of them in one season.

In 1960 Wilt grabbed an astonishing 55 rebounds in one game, against Bill Russell, no less. He's said to have been more proud of this record than his 100-point game because it was harder to do.

Wilt Chamberlain doesn't just block this shot, he catches it and turns it into a rebound.

In 1966-67 Wilt won his first championship (dethroning the 8-time defending champion Boston Celtics in the playoffs along the way) when he averaged 24.1 points, 24.2 rebounds and 7.8 assists a game and led the Philadelphia 76ers to a 68-13 record and the NBA title. Here's Wilt's game log from that historic season.

Chamberlain followed up that season in 1967-68 by becoming the only center to lead the league in total assists in a season with 702. His numbers were 24.3/23.8/8.6. The peak of that season ocurred on February 2, 1968 when he became the first player in NBA history to get a double triple-double (at least 20 points, 20 rebounds and 20 assists in one game). It took 51 years before Russel Westbrook became the second one. Here's the box score of Wilt's game.

Occasionally, somebody would count hifferent stats during a given game. In 1968 Chamberlain produced an unofficial quintuple-double with 53 points, 32 rebounds, 14 assists, 24 blocks and 11 steals.

  

Wilt had 40 or more rebounds in a game 14 times. Bill Russell did it 11 times. The only others members of the 40-rebound club are NBA Hall Of Famers Nate Thurmond and Jerry Lucas who each did it once.

When Wilt Chamberlain left the NBA in 1973 he held 126 NBA records. Up to this date he still holds 73 records, 67 by himself.

Off the court, Wilt could palm a bowling ball, bench press 465 lbs, clean-and-jerk 375 lbs, deadlift 625 lbs among other feats of strength, and life after basketball saw him become a Hall Of Fame volleyball player.

Some quotes about Wilt Chamberlain:

NBA great Johnny Kerr -- "Once Wilt got upset with me and dunked the ball so hard it went through the rim with such force that it broke my toe as it hit the floor."

Hall Of Fame coach Alex Hannum -- "When I coached the San Francisco Warriors, I thought Al Attles was the fastest guy on our team--by far. We used to gamble a lot--which player could jump the highest and run the fastest.  So I set up a series of races, baseline to baseline. In the finals, it was Wilt and Al Attles and Wilt just blew past him. I'm convinced that Wilt Chamberlain is one of the greatest all-around athletes the world has ever seen." 

Al Attles -- "I'd see what the other players were doing to Wilt and what the officials were allowing, and I'd get more upset than if it were happening to me. It wasn't that Wilt couldn't defend himself...If he ever got really hot, he'd kill people, so he let things pass."

New York Knick Darrell Imhoff, the starting opposing center the night Wilt scored 100 points -- "I can't have a nightmare tonight. I've just lived through one."

Former teammate Tom Meschery -- "A lot of people are walking around today only because Wilt never lost his temper."

Hall Of Fame Boston Celtic K.C. Jones -- "He stopped me dead in my tracks with his arm, hugged me and lifted me off the floor with my feet dangling.  It scared the hell out of me. When I went to the free-throw line, my legs were still shaking. Wilt was the strongest guy and best athlete ever to play the game."

Rugged power forward Paul Silas -- "One time, when I was with Boston and he was with the Lakers, Happy Hairston and I were about to get in a scrape. All of a sudden, I felt an enormous vise around me. I was 6-7, 235 and Wilt had picked me up and turned me around. He said, 'We're not going to have that stuff.' I said,'Yes sir.'"

Hall Of Fame center Bob Lanier who was 6'11", 260 lb. -- "When he picked me up here and put me down there, I thought he was the baddest."

Hall Of Fame power forward/center Elvin Hayes -- "He was such an awesome physical specimen. To go up under Wilt Chamberlain, to be down there and look up at him when he's towering up over you waiting to dunk, was a terrifying picture. Everyone was scared when he got that "Don't try to stop this" look.

Hall Of Famer Walt "Clyde" Frazier -- "His legacy is comical. When you read about his records, it makes you laugh. He has records that are just remarkable. I don't care if he was 10 feet tall, the things that he did."

Chamberlain showed some interest in football which attracted the attention of legendary coach Hank Stram, who invited Wilt to a workout. Here's what happened:

Wilt's career numbers 

A list of some of his records and achievements:

And some video highlights.

It's a credit to Wilt Chamberlain's awesome athletic ability that he kept getting comeback offers for 18 years after his retirement. "Bulls, Cavaliers, Nets, Knicks twice, Sixers twice, Mavericks, Suns, Clippers - those are all the teams that tried to get me in the last decade," Chamberlain said in 1991. "It's great for the ego to think at age 50, 52, 53 that guys think I could still go out and play. And personally, I think I could do it. But I have no desire. The time I had was enough."

Racism Is Not a One-Way Street

In light of some Boston Red Sox fans taunting Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones with racial slurs, it's time for a reality slap in the face. First and foremost, there's no excuse for that kind of behavior. None. But there's a side of this type of hate that's going largely ignored.

Racism has been an underlying fixture in societies worldwide since time immemorial but nobody can deny that racism has become so "trendy" in America in recent years mostly due to Barack Obama's not-so-veiled support of Al Sharpton and Black Lives Matter, who's violent actions classify them as a domestic terrorist group. Their entire agenda is based on their own racial hatred and using the very word "racist" as a crutch to be violent, irresponsible and unaccountable (although that method is hardly new).

The media (left and right wing) slants the coverage by using the terms "white police officer" and "unarmed black man" as often as possible while very rarely pointing out the race of cop killers. The ensuing riots get major news coverage while the "protesters" aren't stopped. This is not unprecedented. During the early 1990s New York City mayor David Dinkins fell under the influence of Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan and had the city on the brink of race wars.

Racial abuse is not a one-way street. Bigots aren't born, they're taught and there's action and reaction from both sides. The backlash towards the faction of blacks who follow the lead of Sharpton and think they have the right to violent crime and Welfare due to racism leaves many good, respectable black individuals like Adam Jones caught in the vicious crossfire of racial ignorance. However, the key item that the news outlets almost never mention is that it's the same thing in reverse. And there's the rub. The latter exists just as prominently while the former gets all the publicity - even if the facts don't dictate it.

As evidenced by the standing ovation Jones received the following day at Fenway, the majority of people aren't like that but bigotry still gets the majority of the attention for two reasons: 1. Bad news sells better than good news because anger is the stronger emotion and 2. It's by design.

Red Sox fans cheering Adam Jones

Media-fueled racism is just a slice of the overall problem. As long as everyone's arguing and fighting each other over race, politics, gender, religion, caste, sports, illegal immigration, abortion rights, gun control, gay rights, legalized marijuana, terrorism, the death penalty etc. and the government-controlled media continues to fan the flames of controversy and hatred the American people can never unite and become a respected force against a government packed with criminals who will continue to rip us off under orders from the "owners" (a/k/a the multi-billion dollar corporate interests and the infamous "1%" - of which Donald Trump happens to be a member).

Postscript: Is this article smacking of hypocrisy because of its negative opinion of the media for their negative tone? No, because...
1. News providers like Reuters make beaucoup bucks with their improvised and exaggerated stories and newspapers like the New York Post and the Daily News with their over-the-top sensationalism and obnoxious headlines influence and inflame the passions of the masses.
2. This article is an overview based on this writer's eye-witness observations over the years.

A typical New York Post hostility-inspiring sports headline

A typical Daily News anger-inspiring headline

Dominance Personified

                  Philadelphia 169, New York 147, Wilt Chamberlain 100

On March 2, 1962 the NBA's Philadelphia Warriors were scheduled to play the New York Knicks in a neutral court game at Hershey, Pennsylvania. 25-year old Wilt Chamberlain, the Warriors' 3rd-year, 7'1" 255 lb. center, had led the league in scoring his first two seasons with record-shattering averages of 37.6 and 38.4 points a game. Coming into this game his average was an other-worldly 49.4, so a 50-point game would have been a casual night for him. In fact, just five days earlier Chamberlain torched the Knicks for 67. But never in all of professional team sports history has one player so completely dominated a game the way The Big Dipper would this evening.  

Philadelphia tore out to a 19-3 lead. Chamberlain, who was a poor free throw shooter, nevertheless shot 9-9 from the line and scored 23 points as the Warriors led 42-26 after one. In the second period the Knicks started chipping away and trailed by 11 at the half. But they had absolutely no answer for Chamberlain, who scored 18 in the second quarter for total of 41 points. The 4,124 fans in attendance were buzzing about Chamberlain's first half performance, hoping to see a new scoring record. They would get a hell of a lot more than they bargained for.

During the third quarter the crowd cheered Wilt's every move. New York double and triple-teamed him but Chamberlain was unstoppable. Philadelphia led 125-106 after three and Wilt had amassed 69 points. However, the best was still yet to come.

In the final quarter, Chamberlain unleashed his full offensive power. Scoring practically at will, he broke his own NBA record of 73 points in a regulation-game and with 7:51 remaining, he hit a fade-a-way from the foul line for his 79th point, surpassing the mark he set in a triple-overtime game two months earlier. Fans started ringing the court, chanting, "Give it to Wilt! Give it to Wilt!" With the game's outcome no longer in doubt, the Knicks started fouling everyone but Chamberlain in an attempt to keep him from adding to their humiliation. The Warriors retaliated by fouling immediately, getting the ball back and feeding it to Chamberlain as fast as possible.

When he passed 90, fans were shouting for Wilt to score and booed anyone else who took a shot. With 46 seconds remaining, he had 98 points and Philadelphia had the ball. There was nothing the Knicks could do as Chamberlain got the ball underneath the basket and slammed it home for his 99th and 100th points of the game. When the final buzzer sounded the fans mobbed Chamberlain as police wedged a path for him to the locker room while basketball fans everywhere anxiously awaited to see the details of the amazing 169-147 final score.

Afterwards he said, "I wasn't even thinking of hitting 100, but after putting in nine straight free throws, I was thinking about a foul-shooting record. It was my greatest game." He also gave credit to his teammates. "It would have been impossible to score this many if they hadn't kept feeding me."

Chamberlain set just about every scoring record imaginable in this game. Among them (a few since surpassed) were: most field goals (36), shots (63), free throws (28), free throw attempts (32), most points in one quarter (31), one half (59), and, of course, 100 points in a game. One hundred points. Nobody, not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (55), Shaquille O'Neal (61), Michael Jordan (69) or Kobe Bryant (81) came close. 

It looks even more surreal in the newspaper box score.

Comeback or Choke?

Yogi Berra’s (alleged*) line about it not being over til it’s over has been beaten into the ground but it never rang truer on January 3, 1993 at Rich Stadium in Orchard Park, New York when the Buffalo Bills staged the most improbable comeback ever witnessed.

The 11-5 Bills and the 10-6 Houston Oilers were getting ready to square off in the AFC Wild Card playoff game. The previous week in the regular season finale in Houston the Oilers whipped the Bills 27-3 so they entered this game with their confidence sky-high. It paid immediate dividends as Houston quarterback Warren Moon fired four touchdown passes leading the Oilers to a commanding 28-3 halftime lead. In the locker room Buffalo head coach Marv Levy read the riot act to his club, but with two of his star players, quarterback Jim Kelly and linebacker Cornelius Bennett, out with injuries it was clear that would take one hell of an out-and-out miracle for the two-time defending AFC champion Bills to pull this one out.

Bills QB Frank Reich, who started for Kelly, said later, “Gale Gilbert [Buffalo’s third-string quarterback] came over to me at halftime and said, ‘You were part of something like this in college. There’s no reason you can’t be part of it in the pros.’” He was referring to Reich’s performance for Maryland in 1984 when he led the Terrapins back from a 31-0 deficit to a stunning 42-40 win over the University of Miami.

In the second half, however, the Bills came out like a thundering herd of turtles and when Oilers safety Bubba McDowell intercepted a Reich pass for a 58-yard touchdown return giving Houston a seemingly insurmountable 35-3 lead the 71,141 fans in attendance began abandoning ship. Minutes later Kenny Davis scored a TD for the Bills and a successful onside kick recovery led to another score and suddenly it was 35-17. Buffalo’s defense got into the act, forcing Houston to punt for the first time and it resulted in an Andre Reed 26-yard touchdown catch. Now the score was 35-24 and the Bills - as well as the fans - were back in the game with time on their side. 

  On the Oilers next possession Buffalo cornerback Henry Jones picked off a pass and Reich found Reed again for an 18-yard score to pull the Bills to within four heading into the final quarter. With 3:08 left Reed snared yet another touchdown pass that put the Bills ahead 38-35, but with 12 seconds remaining Houston’s Al Del Greco kicked a 26-yard field goal to send this unbelievable game into sudden-death overtime. How could it end any other way?

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  Just over two minutes into the extra period Nate Odomes intercepted a Moon pass at the Oiler 37 and his two-yard return coupled with a 15-yard face-mask penalty against Houston landed Buffalo on the Oilers' 20-yard line. The Bills ran two plays then sent Steve Christie in to attempt a 32-yard, game-winning field goal. You could cut the tension with a chainsaw as the players lined up for the snap and when the ball sailed through the uprights sheer bedlam erupted in Rich Stadium as the Bills won 41-38 and th entire city of Buffalo launched a celebration of the greatest comeback in NFL history that would last far into the night. The momentum of this victory would carry the Bills all the way to their 3rd consecutive Super Bowl.

Defensive Coordinator Walt Corey’s adjustment in the second half is credited with the Bills defense being much more aggressive. Corey also gave credit to Marv Levy’s halftime speech. “After ‘Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address’ at halftime I think they got the message.”  Levy tried to put his side of it into perspective when he told reporters, “Well, there was a lot of time left and there was a glimmer of hope, but it’s about the same chance you have of winning the New York Lottery.” Houston Oilers cornerback Cris Dishman had a different perspective: “It was a big choke by us,” he fumed. “Collapse is too nice a word. You guys can call it what you want, but it was a choke job.”


Comeback? Choke? Luck? Divine intervention? Depends on one's point of view, doesn't it?

*- Yogi Berra never said, "It ain't over til it's over." What he actually said was, "You're never out of it until your out of it."

108 Years of Cubs Baseball

It's incomprehensible. An eerie combination of The Twilight Zone and Bill Murray's "Groundhog Day." How in the world can a team fail to win a championship for  one hundred and eight years? The Chicago Cubs haven't even been to the World Series in 71 years. One wonders how it must feel for Cub fans to root for a team that has no living witnesses to their last World Series win...or at least nobody likely to have a lucid thought. When the Yankees go a couple of years without a title, their fans get the bends, but for whatever reason, Cub fans have endured. Whether it's a jinx, a curse, bad luck, ineptitude or a crude combination of them all, the Cubs' championship drought is not only a part of Americana, but it's become one of the great mysteries of mankind.
  So, in that wondrous vein, here's some of the many things that have happened since 1908, the last time the Cubs were on top of the world. For example, in 1908, Babe Ruth was 13 years old. Since then...

Radio was invented.

TV was invented.

Color TV was created.

We went from records to CDs to downloads.

Aviation went from the Wright Brothers to world-wide jet travel and supersonic stealth machines.

Computers were invented and evolved from million-dollar, one-of-a-kind, room-sized behemoths to millions of wafer-thin notebooks and smartphones for a couple of bills.

The Internet was created.

We went from the plug-in rotary telephone to world-wide wireless communication.

George Burns celebrated his 10th, 20th, 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th, 70th, 80th, 90th and 100th birthdays.

So did Bob Hope.

Haley's comet passed Earth...twice.

Major League Baseball added 14 teams.

The NFL, NHL and NBA were formed and the Bears, Blackhawks and Bulls have all won multiple championships

Man landed on the moon six times.

Harry Caray was born and died.

18 US presidents have been elected.

There were 12 amendments added to the Constitution.

Popular Music went through Ragtime, Big Band, Rock, Motown, Disco, Punk, Rap, Heavy Metal, Hip Hop; Al Jolson, Glenn Miller, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Madonna. Eminem...

The Titanic was built, set sail, sank, was discovered and became the subject of major motion pictures.

Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Oklahoma and New Mexico were added to the Union.

[Isn't this amazing?]

In 1914 Wrigley Field opened as Weeghman Park and has become the oldest ballpark in the National League (And in spite of it's age and the Cubs' failures, it’s still one of the best places to see a baseball game).

Weeghman Park outfield in 1914

Flag poles were erected on the Wrigley Field roof to hold all of the team's future World Series pennants. They eventually rusted and were taken down.

When Mr. Cub - Ernie Banks - was born the drought was 23-years old.

The Curse at work?

On August 14 1969 the Cubs were 9 1/2 games ahead of the New York Mets, who up to that season were the embodiment of futility. But by the time the Cubs arrived in New York a few weeks later for a two-game head-to-head with the onrushing Mets the lead was down to 2 1/2 games. During one game a black cat suddenly appeared near the Chicago dugout, walked by the Cubs' Ron Santo in the on-deck circle, then ran back under the stands. Many considered that an omen. The Cubs lost both games and the Mets went on to win the World Series in their eighth year of existence while the Cubs' drought reached 61 years.

1980: The Philadelphia Phillies win their first world championship of any kind dating all the way back to 1883 when they were first known as the Philadelphia Quakers. With that drought snapped at 97 years, the Cubs now had the longest in sports at 72.
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1984: The Cubs make it to the postseason for the first time since 1945 and win the first two games of what was then a best-of-five playoff, but proceed to lose the last three games to the San Diego Padres, a team in their 16th year of existence. The drought was now 76 years.

1997: The Florida Marlins win the World Series in their fifth year of existence. The Cubs' drought was now 89 years.

2001: The Arizona Diamondbacks win their first championship in only their fourth year. The Cubs' drought reaches 93.

2003:  Bartman. 'nuf said.

2004: The Red Sox finally break the fabled "Curse of the Bambino" after 86 years. The team the Bosox beat way back in that 1918 World Series? The Chicago Cubs. The spell was now 96-years old.

2005: Probably the most frustrating dagger to Cubs fans was when the cross-town White Sox ended their drought at 88 years. The Cubs' was at 97 and counting.

2008: Disney couldn't have written a potentially happier script. The 100th anniversary, Lou Piniella at the helm, an outstanding team that had the best record in the league all year, the odds-on favorite to finally take the throne again after a full century of misadventures. Everything was in place. The team was confident, hopes were high…until the Cubs were dropped in three straight by the Dodgers in the first round. The Cub fans' pain was temporarily postponed as it swam upstream against the bourbon.

2009: The New York Yankees win the World Series for the 27th time, the first of which came in 1923 when the Cubs' drought was already 15-years old.

2015: The Cubs go 97-65 only to be swept in four straight by the long-hated Mets who go on to their 5th National League championship since 1969.

2016: The Cubs win 103 games, lead virtually wire-to-wire.....

                                 ...To be continued.