|
Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain (August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American basketball player. He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA); he played for the University of Kansas and also for the Harlem Globetrotters before playing in the NBA. The 7 foot 1 inch Chamberlain weighed 250 pounds as a rookie before bulking up to 275 and eventually to over 300 pounds with the Lakers. He played the center position and is widely considered one of the greatest and most dominant players in NBA history. Chamberlain holds numerous NBA records in scoring, rebounding and durability categories. He is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season. He also won seven scoring, nine field goal percentage, and eleven rebounding titles, and led the league in assists once.〔 Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season, a feat he accomplished seven times. He is also the only player to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game over the entire course of his NBA career. Although he suffered a long string of professional losses, Chamberlain had a successful career, winning two NBA championships, earning four regular-season Most Valuable Player awards, the Rookie of the Year award, one NBA Finals MVP award, and being selected to 13 All-Star Games and ten All-NBA First and Second teams.〔 Chamberlain was subsequently enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, elected into the NBA's 35th Anniversary Team of 1980, and chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History of 1996.〔 Chamberlain was known by various nicknames during his basketball playing career. He hated the ones that called attention to his height such as "Goliath" and "Wilt the Stilt", which was coined during his high school days by a Philadelphia sportswriter. He preferred "The Big Dipper", which was inspired by his friends who saw him dip his head as he walked through doorways.〔(Wilt Chamberlain (biography) – NBA Encyclopedia, Playoff Edition. )〕 After his basketball career ended, Chamberlain played volleyball in the short-lived International Volleyball Association, was president of this organization, and is enshrined in the IVA Hall of Fame for his contributions.〔 Chamberlain was also a successful businessman, authored several books, and appeared in the movie ''Conan the Destroyer''. He was a lifelong bachelor, and became notorious for his claim to have had sexual intercourse with over 20,000 women. ==Early years== Wilton Norman Chamberlain was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, into a family of nine children, the son of Olivia Ruth Johnson, a domestic worker and homemaker, and William Chamberlain, a welder, custodian, and handyman.〔(Chamberlain, Wilt(on) Norman – Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Thematic Series: Sports Figures|HighBeam Research )〕 He was a frail child, nearly dying of pneumonia in his early years and missing a whole year of school as a result.〔''Wilt: Larger Than Life'', Robert Cherry, Triumph Books (Chicago, 2004), 3.〕 In his early years Chamberlain was not interested in basketball, because he thought it was "a game for sissies".〔Cherry, 8.〕 Instead, he was an avid track and field athlete: as a youth, he high jumped 6 feet, 6 inches, ran the 440 yards in 49.0 seconds and the 880 yards in 1:58.3, put the shot 53 feet, 4 inches, and broad jumped 22 feet. But according to Chamberlain, "basketball was king in Philadelphia", so he eventually turned to the sport.〔Cherry, 19.〕 Because Chamberlain was a very tall child, already measuring six feet at age 10〔Cherry, 9.〕 and six feet 11 inches when he entered Philadelphia's Overbrook High School,〔 he had a natural advantage against his peers; he soon was renowned for his scoring talent, his physical strength and his shot blocking abilities.〔Cherry, 20–21.〕 According to ESPN journalist Hal Bock, Chamberlain was "scary, flat-out frightening... before he came along, most basketball players were mortal-sized men. Chamberlain changed that." It was also in this period of his life when his three lifelong nicknames "Wilt the Stilt", "Goliath", and his favorite, "The Big Dipper", were allegedly born.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wilt Chamberlain」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|