He stood there, just to the right of the basket, a placid. 7-ft. 1 1/16-in, giant watching impassively as his teammates maneuvered the ball in backcourt. The New York Knickerbockers tried to box him in; they clutched at his jersey, leaned against his chest, stepped on his toes. Then Wilt Chamberlain came alive. With the aplomb of a cop palming an apple, he reached out one massive hand and plucked the basketball out of the air. Spinning violently, he ripped clear of the elbowing surge, took a step toward the basket and jumped. For an instant, he seemed suspended in midair, his head on a level with the 10-ft.-high basket. Slowly, gently, the ball dribbled off his fingertips, through the net, and the San Francisco Warriors went on to a 142-134 victory. New York Coach Ed Donovan sadly shook his head. "He's phenomenal." he sighed. "How does anyone stop Wilt Chamberlain?"
"A Sort of Anticipation." Nobody does. At 26, Chamberlain is the best basketball player who ever lived. Alone, Chamberlain cannot make his team a consistent winner—last week the Warriors trailed the firstplace Los Angeles Lakers by 17 games—but he gives San Francisco fans plenty to crow about. In 1960, his first season as a pro, he was named the National Basketball Association's Rookie of the Year and its Most Valuable Player as well. Nobody ever did that before. Nobody ever averaged 42 points a game throughout a pro career either, or scored 100 in a single night. And nobody comes near matching Wilt's all-time season records for minutes played (3,882), points scored (4,029) and rebounds (2,149)—records that Chamberlain himself breaks almost every year. The N.B.A. record book lists 86 players who have scored more than 50 points in one game, and 57 of them are named Wilt Chamberlain. "Wilt has that something that separates the great from the near great," says the Boston Celtics' Bill Russell, Chamberlain's good friend and bitterest rival. "It's a sort of anticipation. You never know what he's going to do, but you know it's going to be out of the ordinary. The important thing about him is his originality. Nobody ever played basketball the way Wilt Chamberlain does."
Most basketball stars have one great talent: Russell's is defense, Elgin Baylor's is shooting, Bob Cousy's is setting up plays and passing. Chamberlain does almost everything, better than anyone else. He is the pros' fiercest rebounder, and his shooting repertory includes such inimitable specialties as the "Dipper Dunk" (in which he simply stretches up and lays the ball in the basket), the "Stuff Shot" (in which he jumps up and rams the ball through the net from above), and the "Fadeaway Jump"—a delicate, marvelously coordinated push shot from 15 ft. away that defensive men literally cannot block without fouling. At the free-throw line, where he is most uncomfortable—and most criticized—Chamberlain does a journeyman's job. He holds the all-time league record for foul shots in one season (835), once sank 28 out of 32 in a regulation-length game. The only man who ever beat that is Boston's Cousy—and he needed four overtime periods to hit 30. "Wilt has backcourt set shots too," says Warrior Coach Bob Feerick. "But he just shoots them now and then to show he can."