YouTube Gold: How Strong Was Wilt Chamberlain?
Good thing he was a kind and peaceful man.
JJ Redick sort of started this trend of can so-and-so play today?
Well okay, he didn’t start it, but his plumbers comments about Bob Cousy and his contemporaries were an accelerant.
It might have been a fair comment about Cousy, who was relatively small and probably not quick enough to play today - which takes nothing away from his ball handling, which was good by the standards of that day and his passing, which, if you watch video, is still unbelievable.
Some guy it’s a ridiculous subject. For Larry Bird, the focus on the three point shot today would have left the court open for him and he’d slice teams to death.
The dumbest argument along these lines though was Wilt Chamberlain. He was 7-1, weighed close to 300 lbs, had a 45-50” vertical and sprinter speed and was, without question, the strongest player to ever take the court - and one the strongest people in history.
If you doubt that, watch this video and listen to what people who knew him said. He had Olympian strength. Listen to Arnold Schwarzenegger talk about lifting weights with Chamberlain. Check out Bob Lanier’s story of being picked up and moved (Lanier was 6-11 and 270 lbs).
It goes on and on and seems unbelievable but these are eyewitness accounts except for one which we’ll close with. Check out Billy Cunningham’s story about Chamberlain and Gus Johnson. In that case, there’s video of the stretcher.
The last story is the most incredible one but only Chamberlain was there. Could it be true? Could he possibly have done that?
Listen and make up your own mind, but it’s at the end and you’ll hear several other stunning tales along the way. By the time you get to it, you kind of think....well, if anyone could do that, survive that...it’d be Wilt.
Good Lord.