Never will Kareem Abdul-Jabbar forget playing pick-up basketball with Wilt Chamberlain when he…
The late great Wilt Chamberlain is regarded by many accounts from a variety of sources as possibly the finest athlete in NBA history. Wilt’s stature, speed, strength, and general high basketball IQ combined to make him an unbeatable force on the court who still holds a number of records that will never be surpassed.
As a youth, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar really admired Wilt; one summer, he got the chance to meet and get to know Wilt better. Kareem wanted to learn as much as he could from Wilt because he was starting to gain attention from the media as the next major young basketball star. In one pick-up game, he got to see Wilt’s incredible strength up close.
In the 1960s, following an exhausting NBA season, players such as Wilt Chamberlain would continue to compete in summer leagues in order to maintain their physical fitness. Wilt had a basketball team named after the nightclub he owned, and Kareem claimed to have never seen someone get as much of a hammering in a game as Wilt did that particular one. He describes the hardships Wilt faced while maintaining his composure and composure in his book “Becoming Kareem.”
Kareem had the opportunity to watch Wilt compete fiercely that one day when he made the decision to change the tide for his side. Kareem recalls how the crowd went crazy when one of the greatest athletes in the world dominated the competition and dunked the ball every single time.
“I could see the resolve throughout his entire body, not just in his face. Wilt was not going to lose. Regardless of how many other players were vying for the same rebound, he went for each one and grabbed it. He dunked the ball that his friends fed him under the hoop. Wilt dunked the ball if he managed to get his hands on it. Furthermore, they were powerless to stop him. The audience erupted in glee at the performance he was putting on as he dunked ten times in a row.”
