Wilt Chamberlain coming out of retirement at mid-40s/50?

[Legends66NBA7]

http://static.espn.go.com/nba/news/1999/1012/110842.html


Of all his memories of Wilt Chamberlain, the one that stood out for Larry Brown happened long after Chamberlain's professional career was over.


On a summer day in the early 1980s at the Men's Gym on the UCLA campus, Chamberlain showed up to take part in one of the high-octane pickup games that the arena constantly attracted. Brown was the coach of the Bruins back then, and Chamberlain often drove to UCLA from his home in Bel Air, Calif.


"Magic Johnson used to run the games," Brown recalled Tuesday after hearing that Chamberlain, his friend, had died at the age of 63, "and he called a couple of chintzy fouls and a goaltending on Wilt.


"So Wilt said: 'There will be no more layups in this gym,' and he blocked every shot after that. That's the truth, I saw it. He didn't let one (of Johnson's) shots get to the rim."


Chamberlain would have been in his mid-40s at the time, a decade removed from one of the greatest careers any basketball player ever produced. But the advancing years meant little to Chamberlain in terms of physical conditioning.


Into his 50s and his 60s, Chamberlain remained an incredible specimen -- a mountain of a man who was as coordinated and talented athletically as he was imposing physically.


The Cleveland Cavaliers called him in the early '80s and asked him if he'd still be interested in playing. Five or six years later, when Chamberlain was 50, the New Jersey Nets had the same idea.


Neither of those potential comebacks ever came to pass, but the very idea of signing a player so old shows just how well Chamberlain kept himself in shape -- and how shocked people were when they heard he had died

Larry Brown on Wilt coming out of retirement:


"He came to me in '80-'81 and said Cleveland wanted to sign him and he asked me if I thought he could still play," Brown recalled. "I said 'Yeah,' but I don't know how happy you'd be playing on a limited basis."

[jlauber]

We KNOW that a 36-37 year-old Wilt, in his LAST season in the NBA, easily LED the NBA in rebounding. He was also voted FIRST-TEAM all-defense (the second year in a row BTW...and would have been DPOY the year before), in a league with Cowens, Lanier, Hayes, Thurmond, and Kareem. And he set a FG% mark of .727 that will probably never be broken. There are educated estimates that had Wilt at between 6-7 blocks per game in his LAST season (and 7-8 bpg in the year before)...which is amazing considering the very next year the NBA started officially tracking that stat, and Kareem was at 3.5 bpg. THEN, in his 17 post-season games, he trashed Boerwinkle, Thurmond, and Reed on the glass, averaging 22.5 rpg, and in an amazing 47.1 mpg. Even more incredible, was that that would be the last time any NBA player would ever average 20+ rpg in the post-season. In fact, the next highest mark since, was Kareem's 17.7 rpg in the '77 post-season.

BTW, take a look at this interview, taken very late in Wilt's life...and look at his arms...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=173M7ApCNKw

I think it is pretty obvious that he was in GREAT shape even in his 50's.

[Kblaze8855]

In one of his books that I have he mentioned that the Lakers were talking to him in the mid 80s and they got to a point where he would only have to play home games and he was thinking about it. He said he didnt know if Kareem would have been happy about it though as he figured there would be a number of people wanting his minutes to rise and eat too much into Kareems.

[Collie]

As a limited minutes defense/rebounding guy (15-20 mpg) he would have worked. Kinda like how Dikembe Mutombo was still effective during the end of his career as a starter when Yao was injured.

[jlauber]

Wilt at age 50...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1065131/index.htm


And how strong was he exactly? How fast? How high could he jump? How long? Who knows? By now, the myths of what Chamberlain did at his leisure (or might have done, if he hadn't been concentrating on basketball) compete in memory all too much with whatever did happen. Wilt is not averse to embellishing his own legend here and there, either. At the moment, Lynda Huey, an old friend, a travel agent by trade, a track nut by passion, is trying to get Wilt to enter the World Veterans Championships in track and field (50-year-old division) next year in Melbourne. "Wilt will rewrite all the record books," Huey says blithely.

And what event would you enter, Wilt? The discus, the 200, the high jump? "Almost anything," he shrugs. These days, for typical daily amusement he competes (against others or himself) in the following activities: basketball, racquetball, volleyball, tennis, polo (yes, the kind with horses), rowing single sculls, swimming, running races, lifting weights, hurling objects, performing the martial arts, aerobics and walking long distances. He still holds his own in scrimmages with current NBA players. The Nets' offer, while obviously of considerable publicity value to a team somewhere out in the suburbs that nobody knows exists, was perfectly legitimate. Wilt finally turned it down only because he was afraid he would disappoint people, afraid that even though he was sure he would acquit himself proudly, playing in the NBA in his 50th year, nothing he could do would be enough to satisfy expectations. He would lose again.

[Legends66NBA7]

Thanks for the insight jlauber and kblaze.

Didn't know about the Lakers situation with Kareem, which would have been quiet the scenario with those two having the history with each other.

[ThaRegul8r]

Several teams were actually interested in Wilt after his stopped playing:

[quote][I]The focus of the Lakers who failed to make the playoffs last season and the Knicks, who just managed to extend their regular season, will be high up on the center spot.

The Lakers outbid the Knicks for Milwaukee

[jlauber]

In Wilt's LAST season, in 72-73, he battled a PRIME 25-26 year old Kareem in SIX regular season games. He held THAT Kareem to .450 shooting in those six games (while shooting a mind-boggling .737 against Kareem.) In fact, in one game, he even outscored Kareem, 24-21, while outshooting Abdul-Jabbar, 10-14 to 10-27. In fact, in their last TEN H2H meetings, going back to the last four games of the '72 WCF's, (in which Wilt held Kareem to .414 shooting), Kareem could only shoot .434 against Chamberlain.

And, the year before, 71-72, he had TWO of his 103 30-30 games, including a 31-32 game against 6-11 HOFer Bob Lanier. BTW, Wilt faced Lanier in FIVE H2H games that season, and averaged 28.8 ppg against him.

Of course, Wilt won the FMVP in that 71-72 season, and in his last season, he took his Lakers to the Finals with a 60-22 record. For those that like to claim that Wilt was a "loser", in his last FIVE years, he took FOUR teams to the Finals, including that magical 71-72 season, when he led his 69-13 Lakers to a dominating world title, including reducing Kareem to a .457 shooter in the WCF's (and by ALL accounts, outplaying him in that series), and winning that FMVP, including the clinching game five performance of 24 points, on 10-14 shooting, with 29 rebounds, and 9 blocks (and with one wrist badly sprained, and the other FRACTURED.)

[Legends66NBA7]

Though some were covered in the original link thanks for the quotes, ThaRegul8r.

It's amazing that teams were interested in Wilt's services while his athletic prime was far behind him. I wonder what his workout routine was like to keep up the shape he was in, while at the age from 40-50 years old...

[jlauber]

Several teams were actually interested in Wilt after his stopped playing:

Pretty much ends this thread.

[ThaRegul8r]

Though some were covered in the original link thanks for the quotes, ThaRegul8r.

The original link didn't mention the Knicks, Bulls or 76ers. Phoenix Suns were also interested too. Since I actually remember it, I thought I'd chime in.

[Legends66NBA7]

The original link didn't mention the Knicks, Bulls or 76ers. Phoenix Suns were also interested too. Since I actually remember it, I thought I'd chime in.

Oh my mistake, I didn't mean it like that. I should have given you more credit.

Some of the quotes did mention the Lakers and Cavs, which were covered in the link though.

You're work to show us those quotes are very much appreciated.