My favorite thing about YouTube is how it enables younger generations to so easily discover things that they'd have never seen otherwise.
Today's example is a throwback, 20-minute compilation video of one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Wilt the Stilt. Chamberlain played -- and, really, was the first superstar -- at Kansas. The video (uploaded to YouTube last week) is basically what you'd think it to be: The Big Dipper dominating fools in the 1950s (check the 10:10 mark), when he was a freak athlete in size and ability.
I watched the entire video before posting this. My primary takeaway was not necessarily that Chamberlain was so overpowering and a man among children; it was more how unique his play was. How he looked when moving about the court, blocking shots, tip-passing rebounds to open teammates. It's peculiar compared to contemporary players. (Also, that free-throw form was quirky.)
The compilation above is the final five games of Kansas' 1957 campaign, when the Jayhawks made it to the final but fell 54-53 -- in three overtimes -- to North Carolina. Chamberlain, who was finishing up his first season of varsity play (freshman weren't eligible back in these days), put up better than 30 points and 15 snares per game, a foreshadowing to the statistically dominant and unprecedented career that he'd have at both Kansas and in the pros.
(H/T on the video unearthing to Jeff Eisenberg of The Dagger)
