Video highlights of 17 year old “Wilton Chamberlain”
It’s amazing how tall Wilt was compared to everyone yet he looked so skinny that you were afraid he’d fall through the seems of the hardwood. Almost Manute Bol status. The second most impressive thing about Wilt in this video is the size of his hands. You can see him demonstrating how easily he can grip the ball without using all 5 fingers.
But I think that also limited him. In the video you can see how he almost pushes or throws the ball on his jumper instead of gently casting the ball off. I’ve seen other video clips of Wilt playing in the NBA and he has the same shooting for, almost as if he’s launching the ball from his palm and not his finger tips. Makes me wonder how much better The Stilt would have been had he developed a Hakeem-esque jumper. How many more scoring records would he hold today?
Ultimately, his jumper wasn’t what made Wilt unstoppable, so it’s a moot point. What made Wilt was his size combined with his agility. The was his legs would fluidly travel up and down the court and around defenders. It was his long arms combined with his supreme jumping ability that would allow him to fly over the opposition and snatch up a rebound that seemed already secured by the other team. Wilt’s greatest attribute was that his physical make-up and his ability to maneuver that body were both out of this world, ahead of his time and always under his control.
via @YungBolo
