Standing 7 ft 1 in 2. Often regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time, Chamberlain was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in and elected to the NBA's 35th , 50th , and 75th anniversary teams. Following his professional basketball career, Chamberlain played volleyball in the short-lived International Volleyball Association IVA. He is best remembered as the only player to score points in a single game. He also once gathered 55 rebounds, and never fouled out.
Chamberlain is the only player to average 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season, a feat he accomplished seven times. He once averaged 50 points per game, as well as 48 minutes per game, in a season. He won seven scoring, eleven rebounding, nine durability, and nine field goal percentage titles; he is the only center to lead the league in total assists.
While in college, Chamberlain played for the Kansas Jayhawks , and lost the national championship game to the North Carolina Tar Heels in triple overtime his sophomore year. Chamberlain had an on-court rivalry with Boston Celtics ' center Bill Russell , suffering a long string of losses before breaking through and winning the NBA Finals as a member of the 76ers. Chamberlain won his second championship as a member of the Lakers , a team which set a record with a game winning streak.
Sportswriters knew Chamberlain by several nicknames during his playing career, calling attention to his height since his high school days. He disliked the ones that negatively portrayed his height, such as "Wilt the Stilt " and " Goliath ", preferring " the Big Dipper ", inspired by his friends who saw him dip his head as he walked through doorways. The name was retained in one of Chamberlain's signature moves, the "dipper dunk ". He was one of the first players to make prominent use of shots like the fade away jump shot , and the finger roll.
His success near the basket led to the widening of the lane , offensive goaltending rules, and the banning of inbound passes over the backboard. Chamberlain, always a poor free throw shooter, had the ability to dunk from the foul line, which led to the ruling that a free-throw shooter must keep his feet behind the line. Chamberlain's first competitive sport was track. As a fourth grader, he ran the yard shuttle in the Penn Relays among older teammates.
