When it comes to individual dominance, no player in history can compare to Wilt Chamberlain. The big man owns an incredible amount of records, ones that will likely never be broken by anyone again. Wilt was a one-man wrecking crew, scoring points at an absurd rate and destroying his opponents with ease. And he was such a marvelous athlete, he dominated games even after he retired.
Pick-up games at UCLA have seen some of the NBA’s greatest players turn up and go at it against one another. Many legendary Lakers have regularly played there, and the tradition is an old one. When Magic Johnson joined the Lakers and Showtime was just beginning, he and his teammates played a pick-up game against the college players and Wilt Chamberlain. This led to an epic story that the legendary Head Coach Larry Brown once told.
Wilt Chamberlain Took On Magic Johnson As A 43-Year-Old And Destroyed Him
From 1959 to 1965, Wilt Chamberlain averaged an unreal 40.6 points per game while also grabbing nearly 25 rebounds. Those numbers boggle the mind, and his ability didn’t just go away after he retired. When he was 43, in 1980, he took on Magic Johnson in a pick-up game, and Larry Brown told the story of what unfolded when the two behemoths of the game went at one another.
“It was game point; Magic soars a sky hook and Wilt blocks it, Magic calls game [implying Wilt’s block was a goaltend]. And Wilt says, ‘That wasn’t goaltending, that was a clean block.’ And Magic took the ball and said, ‘Game over, next.’
“And Wilt said, ’Hey coach, was it goaltend?’ I said, ‘No, that was a clean block.’ Magic says, ‘What do you think he’s gonna say? They’re his kids.’ And Wilt says, ‘Alright, look we’re gonna play a game ‘till 12. We’ll do it again. Winners stay and there would be no more shots made at this basket.’
“He blocked every shot. 43-years old. He was blocking everything. It was unbelievable.”
The confidence to tell one of the game’s most dynamic players that he wouldn’t score again and then backing it up goes a long way in explaining how unbelievable Chamberlain was. He was a behemoth in more than stature, and he knew it well after he had retired from playing in the pros. Few have ever humbled Magic Johnson, but even he could do nothing against the raw ability and athleticism of Wilt Chamberlain.
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