NCAA Basketball: 25 most mesmerizing players of all time

So there is a funny story behind the fascination with Wilt Chamberlain. The gist of it is, an entire generation didn’t know he was a basketball player. Their first encounter with “The Stilt” was through his acting. Children of the ’80s grew up watching him star next to Arnold Schwarzenegger as the antagonist in the “Conan the Destroyer” film.

Anyways, through movies, a generation was introduced to a 7’1 Philly native who played his college basketball at Kansas, was a globetrotter, and scored 100 points in an NBA game. Incredible.

Chamberlain’s play at Kansas came a mere four years after LeVannes Squires broke the color barrier at the program. A seven-foot-tall black kid, in a predominantly white state, at one of the most historic basketball schools in college basketball, that had to have been an incredibly trying time.

If it was, Wilt didn’t let it show. When he finally made his Kansas debut after a year on the freshman team, he scored 52 points to go along with 31 rips. That stat line would set the tone for the rest of his basketball career.

During his two seasons playing varsity in Lawrence, he averaged 29.9 points and 18.3 rebounds per game, along with a staggering 14.4 free throw attempts per game. He would leave college after his junior year, and due to the rules at the time, played a season with Harlem Globetrotters before heading to the NBA.

Chamberlain was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors in the 1959 NBA Draft as a territorial selection. Territorial selections were a gimmick the BAA/NBA used to promote their teams to local fan bases by having them draft familiar players to the area. The practice ended in 1966.

Chamberlain went on to be a 13x All-Star, 4x MVP, 7x scoring champion and 2x NBA champion. He was a friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as well a Nixon supporter. He appeared in movies and lifted weights with Arnold. Chamberlain led the life of ten men. Truly one of the most fascinating players and people to ever lace ’em up.