“Wilt Chamberlain wouldn’t block your shot, he’d catch your shot!”: 17 year old ‘Wilt the Stilt’ reached the back of the backboard to deny opponents

At merely 17 years old, Wilt Chamberlain would reach nearly the top of the backboard to catch opponent’s shot attempts. 

Wilt Chamberlain was the single greatest statistical anomaly in the history of the NBA. The fact that he averaged the numbers that he did is a testament to his dominance both physically and through the use of his superior skill. It’s easy to say that he was gifted physically and that’s the only reason contributing to said dominance. 

This however, would be incredibly incorrect as Chamberlain was more than just brute force, imposing his will over smaller guys. The 7-footer was a track-and-field star in high school and also had close to a 50-inch vertical at a point during his career. And of course, the fact that he could bench press 500lbs is an added bonus.

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To go along with his absurd physical abilities, Wilt Chamberlain was also a pioneer of the fadeaway. He would use his height to his advantage and hit a fall-away shot from about 8-12 feet away with an incredibly high set point, on the regular. 

Wilt Chamberlain would catch opponent shot attempts mid-air. 

At just 17 years of age, Wilt Chamberlain had the ability to showcase skills that players in the NBA did not possess at the time. His athleticism was beyond impressive and in the video shown below, the eventual 2x champ casually jumped to a height close to the top of the backboard off vert to catch an opposing player’s shot attempt.

Also read: “Knicks would do dumb things to stop me from scoring 100 points”: Wilt Chamberlain was flabbergasted at New York not focusing on winning the game

This if course, is something that is impressive even to this day as players in the league today would have a difficult time trying to do what Chamberlain did. To make this even more jaw-dropping would be the fact that Chamberlain was still at Overbrook high school and in his mid-teens in the footage above. 

Wilt Chamberlain would go on to become an NBA player and soon, an NBA legend with multiple championships and records that have yet to be broken over half a century later.