WILT CHAMBERLAIN HIGH SCHOOL JERSEY NEW SEWN 5XL

WILT CHAMBERLAIN

Wilt Chamberlain was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  At 6 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.  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 life-long nicknames "Wilt the Stilt", "Goliath", and his favorite, "The Big Dipper", were allegedly born because he always had to dip his head before entering a room.

As a player for the Overbrook Panthers, Chamberlain set many scoring records, once logging 74, 78 and 90 points in three consecutive games. After three years, Chamberlain had won Overbrook two city championships, logged a 56–3 record and had broken Tom Gola's high school scoring record by scoring 2,252 points, averaging 37.4 per game.

During summer vacations, Chamberlain worked as a bellhop in an affluent Jewish hotel named "Kutsher's." Red Auerbach, the Jewish coach of the Boston Celtics, spotted the talented teenager there and had him play 1-on-1 against Kansas University standout and national champion, B. H. Born, elected the MVP of the 1953 NCAA Finals. Chamberlain won 25–10; Born was so dejected that he gave up a promising NBA career and became a tractor engineer ("If there were high school kids that good, I figured I wasn't going to make it to the pros"),

The 7-foot-1, two-time NBA champion Chamberlain is universally regarded as one of the most extraordinary and dominant basketball players ever.  The 1972 NBA Finals MVP is holder of numerous official NBA all-time records, establishing himself as a scoring champion, all-time top rebounder and setting yardsticks in field goal accuracy. He was also responsible for several rule changes, including widening the lane as well as changes to rules regarding inbounding the ball and shooting free throws. For his feats, Chamberlain was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame, named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, ranked #2 in SLAM Magazine's Top 75 NBA Players of all time and #13 in the ESPN list "Top North American athletes of the century" and voted second best center of all time by ESPN behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.  His on-court rivalry against Bill Russell is acknowledged as the greatest NBA rivalry of all time.