Sometimes Goliath Wins: “Wilt” Book Review

Wilt: Larger than Life
Robert Allen Cherry; Buy New: $16.47

Before Ron Artest and Dennis Rodman, the NBA's most controversial player was also, arguably, it's most talented. From his MVP/Rookie of the Year season in 1959-60, through the 50 ppg, 25 rebounds averages of 1961-62, to his participation on the two winningest teams of all-time before Michael Jordan's Bulls,

Wilton Norman Chamberlain dominated professional basketball on and off the court. His lavish lifestyle, his political unorthodoxy, and his clashes with sports media kept his name in the news like no other 1960's athlete save Muhammad Ali and Joe Namath. Philadelphian Robert A. Cherry examines this life in his biography "Wilt: Larger Than Life." Cherry, a former reporter for The Arizona Republic, spent almost five years researching and interviewing for the work.

Readers might be surprised to learn that basketball's most confirmed bachelor came from a traditional two-parent household with eight normally-sized siblings. Dippy or Dip, as friends called him, was an obedient son with strict parents who scarcely followed sports — although his father William was a boxing fan.

Though the teenaged Wilt took to basketball wherever he could find it — church leagues, the YMCA, games played under an assumed name with college players — he strove to be recognized for prowess in other areas such as board games, track and field, and summer jobs. Cherry (who played basketball at Overbrook High School several years after his subject) paints a vivid picture of his literally all-American Philadelphia upbringing.

At the University of Kansas, we see a more assertive Wilt — a cocky, yet amiable giant who becomes disillusioned with the stall tactics opponents use to minimize his effectiveness (long before the NCAA instituted a shot clock for men's play). He also blamed himself for Kansas' triple-overtime NCAA title loss to North Carolina. Dipper's solution: ditch his senior year and sign with the touring, adult Harlem Globetrotters. Join the Trotters and see the world.

The author has done well in citing sources who knew "The Big Guy" every elongated step of the way- schoolmates, his sister Barbara, teammates; even his physician and accountant. Chamberlain always said his time with the Globetrotters gave him his fondest basketball memories.

Though he entered the NBA as an offensive and defensive force (contemporary account imply he blocked more shots than rival Bill Russell), his hometown Philly teams were annually eliminated by the legendary Boston Celtics. Cherry largely attributes the Celtic advantage to the presence of seven Hall of Famers in the 1959-67 Celtic lineups, and the psychological ploys of their Hall of Fame coach Red Auerbach.

Ironically, Auerbach first coached Chamberlain when the latter worked as a teen bellhop at a Catskills country club with a basketball team — and encouraged the wunderkind to attend a New England college so Boston could secure his rights under the old territorial draft in the NBA.

The book crisply details Chamberlain's first championship season, when everything came together under new Sixers coach Alex Hannum. Cherry notes that although Jerry West's teams lost six NBA finals to Boston, fans and sportswriters didn't affix a "loser" tag to West.

Away from the game, we see a softer side of the seven-footer who felt unfairly maligned, a sensitive brother, a behind-the-scenes donor to social causes, a superstar who talked hours on the phone to the ailing relatives of his friends. No matter where Wilt was in the world, he would pay his own way to the Catskills to play in a charity basketball game to raise medical expenses for paralyzed former NBA star Maurice Stokes, whom he never played with or against.

To lend perspective to his topic, at points the author gives the current values of Chamberlain's contracts, luxury cars, and assesses his hoops stats under a modern microscope. Chamberlain's relationships with women are discussed, but tastefully so.

This life is shared in an accessible manner, as if Cherry were telling you stories n a sports bar. "Wilt: Larger Than Life" is more than a worthwhile read, it should not only be on the "to do in 2005" notepad of every serious sports fan.

Wilt: Larger than Life
Robert Allen Cherry; Buy New: $16.47