Wilt Chamberlain

Wilt Chamberlain World Telegram staff photographer / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia

What I look for in a hero is that they must be outstanding through some aspect of their career, they must overcome obstacles, they must be forgiving, they must help others in their community, and most of all they must have overcome prominent obstacles to get to where they are now. The person that I found that fits these characteristics and many more, is basketball legend, Wilton Norman Chamberlain, more commonly known as Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain.

Wilt was born into a family as one of nine children, fighting for attention against his eight other siblings, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 21, 1936. Wilt grew up into a racially mixed neighborhood and went to junior high at Shoemaker Junior High School where he first began to play basketball. He also began to play in local playgrounds around his neighborhood, “I still think that you could pick up a team from the street corners of Philly that would give most colleges a hard time,” said Wilt one time about his fellow playground players. Wilt then moved on to Overbrook High School. In his high school career, he was voted all America in his senior year of 1955, scored 90 points in a single game against Roxborough high school, won the city championships twice in 1954-’55, scored 800 points in his first 16 games of his senior year, and scored 2,252 points during the entirety of his high school playing days.

Wilt Chamberlain, 1967 Unknown author / (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr

After graduating, Chamberlain decided to get away from the big cities and play basketball somewhere in the Midwest. He was recruited by Dayton, Michigan, Indiana, and Kansas. He then decided to go with the Kansas Jayhawks because of the recruiting by his coach Phog Allen. During his two year college career at Kansas, Wilt was voted first team All-America in 1957 and 1958, He was the NCAA tournament MVP in 1957, his junior year, and was on the All-Big Seven team in 1957 and 1958. During his senior year, he found out that he was ineligible for the NBA draft since he had only played two seasons in college. So he outsmarted the system and went off to play with the Harlem Globetrotters playing around the world for one year. He says that that one year was the one season of basketball he enjoyed the most.

Elmore Smith and Wilt Chamberlain Unknown author / [Public domain] via Wikimedia

Wilt was then drafted to the Philadelphia Warriors where he spent three years from 1959-1962 until the moved to San Francisco where he stuck with them until 1964. With the Warriors, he was voted Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, NBA All-First Team, and NBA All-Star Game MVP as a rookie. With the Philadelphia 76ers from 1964-1968 he was voted MVP three times, ALL-NBA First Team again, and won the NBA championship. With the Los Angeles Lakers, his final team, from 1968-1973, he was NBA MVP again, won the NBA championships, NBA All-Defensive First Team, All-NBA first team, and NBA Finals MVP. Wilt also holds records for the most points as a rookie in one game (53 pts.), and he scored 50 or more points 45 times during the 1961-62 season. Wilt is arguably the best player to grace the courts of the NBA. Wilt Chamberlain passed away on October 12, 1999 from cardiac arrest.

Finding a hero, for me, was very hard, I had switched multiple times, but I knew that I wanted to have someone who was/is a professional sports player. I believe that these people reach out to their community more than anyone else. I ended up choosing Wilt because of the obstacles he overcame; he was overlooked being one of nine children, and he did not let the fact that he was ineligible to play after his senior year get to him. He also did not give up on basketball, he pursued it and played for the Harlem Globetrotters for one year, which got him in shape and he became eligible. I guess I picked Mr. Chamberlain because of one factor, determination.