Wilt Chamberlain is popularly known as one of the greatest to ever play basketball. Still, as with most players, he had his faults as well. More specifically, he was a poor free-throw shooter throughout the entirety of his career. In fact, Wilt once revealed that he even went to a psychiatrist to try to fix the issue. Unfortunately for him, the conclusion to this was tragically hilarious.
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In 1997, Chamberlain and Bill Russell sat down with Ahmad Rashad to talk about their careers. During this time, the former Laker revealed that someone else paid for him to go to a psychiatrist. He said,
“I went to a psychiatrist for about a month about my free-throw situation. For about a month, somebody else paid for the sessions, $50 a session… After I came out after the whole month, the psychiatrist was a better free-throw shooter than me!”
Wilt Chamberlain on his free throws: “I went to a psychiatrist on my free throw situation. After a month… the psychiatrist was a better free throw shooter than I was”
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Of course, Wilt was joking. However, the psychiatrist’s sessions indeed did no good for his free-throw shooting woes.
In his first season playing professional basketball, Chamberlain averaged 58.2% from the line. Considering that he was a big man, this was an admirable number. Better yet, there were two other seasons where he shot 59.3% and 61.3% from the line. Unfortunately, the San Francisco legend couldn’t maintain this efficiency.
Despite the aforementioned high numbers, Wilt’s career average stands at 51.1% from the line. The reason? His efficiency from the free-throw line was sporadic at best. Chamberlain even shot as low as 38% from the charity stripe during the 1967-68 season [all stats per Statmuse].
That said, his woes from the line were understandable. He played during a time when centers weren’t required to have a jump shot. Further, his athleticism allowed for then-unforeseen dominance in the paint. In fact, even by today’s standards, his abilities may embarrass many.
Per Overtime, Wilt Chamberlain claimed he could dunk from the free-throw line. And legendary head coach, Tex Winter saw him do it too. In fact, he was the reason that the NCAA specifically outlawed it.
Today, there may be more than a few players capable of this. But, at the time, these gifts made him the most dominant player around.
