WILT; Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door

New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc, 1973. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good/Good. vi, [2], 310 pages. Illustrations. DJ has wear, soiling, edge tears and chips. DJ price snipped. Some edge soiling. Derived from a Kirkus review: The publisher has high hopes for Wilt and we can understand why. Everything from the cool subtitle to Wilt's feisty honesty is just right. Like one of the big guy's lightning dunks, perfectly executed. Few would dispute that foot-for-foot he is the greatest basketball player of all time -- his records are so outsized that many will never be broken. We admire his forthrightness -- as on the court he is no candyass when it comes to defending his lifestyle, his position on the race question, his politics, or his acceptance of money during his collegiate playing days. And there are some very, very entertaining stories of Wilt's days with the Globetrotters. The full, sometimes painfully revealing story of not only the player Wilt but a proud and sensitive man. Wilton Norman Chamberlain (August 21, 1936 - October 12, 1999) was an American basketball player. He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA); he played for the University of Kansas and also for the Harlem Globetrotters before playing in the NBA. The 7 foot 1 inch Chamberlain weighed 250 pounds as a rookie before bulking up to 275 and eventually to over 300 pounds with the Lakers. He played the center position and is widely considered one of the greatest and most dominant players in NBA history. Chamberlain holds numerous NBA records in scoring, rebounding, and durability categories. He is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season. He also won seven scoring, eleven rebounding, nine field goal percentage titles and led the league in assists once. Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season, a feat he accomplished seven times. He is also the only player to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game over the entire course of his NBA career. Although he suffered a long string of professional losses, Chamberlain had a successful career, winning two NBA championships, earning four regular-season Most Valuable Player awards, the Rookie of the Year award, one NBA Finals MVP award, and being selected to 13 All-Star Games and ten All-NBA First and Second teams. Chamberlain was subsequently enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, elected into the NBA's 35th Anniversary Team of 1980, and chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History of 1996. Chamberlain was known by various nicknames during his basketball playing career. He hated the ones that called attention to his height such as "Goliath" and "Wilt the Stilt", which was coined during his high school days by a Philadelphia sportswriter. He preferred "The Big Dipper", which was inspired by his friends who saw him dip his head as he walked through doorways. Chamberlain was also a successful businessman, authored several books, and appeared in the movie Conan the Destroyer.