Wilt Chamberlain's height

[hype_2004]

Dwight is clearly much taller than Bron here

They seem to be arranged in order height for everyone except Bosh and Howard. Unless, Boshs hair just makes him look taller. Actually if you look at the top of their foreheads, Howard does look just a smidge taller. And Bosh at pre-draft is 6'11.5 in shoes, so it looks like Howard did grow a bit.

Edit: This picture also proves how exaggerated Lebrons weight is. He sure doesn't look 274 next to 266 Boozer.......

265 or 266 was Boozer's rookie weight, he plays closer to 280 lbs these days. Lebron is not 275 lbs, Cavs fans always stated he's closer to 255 lbs game weight, they have a trainer and insider posting on their forums.

[marcroboy]

Here is some good game footage of Wilt (though past his prime): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbcdliLtkEs.

damn do they call goal tending back then? I swear every one of wilt's block was like that lol.

[UCFJayBird]

Here is some good game footage of Wilt (though past his prime): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbcdliLtkEs.

damn do they call goal tending back then? I swear every one of wilt's block was like that lol.

I think defensive goal tending was always in the NBA, but offensive goal tending was supposedly implimented in 1958 in an effort to stop Wilt from just jumping up and grabbing his teammates shot and throwing them down, whether they were going in or not. Not 100% certain on that though, cause Wilt didn't join the NBA till 1959, but I think they started calling it knowing he was coming in a few years.

edit: and just to throw this out there, i think the best part about people claiming Wilt would suck today is the fact they don't realize how great of a passer he was. The man led the league in assists one year...one of his best feats IMO, yet one he rarely gets acknowledged for.

[DEEP3CL]

^^^
Keep in mind that in this picture Wilt is 60 years old and he is wearing normal shoes, not basketball like Kareem A-J. I think that in his prime he was 7'2.

Wilt wasn't 60 years old in that pic,he was 48 years old and Kareem was 36 years old. Here's a better image of that same pic (April 5,1984).



In Wilt's autobiography he mentions something about being measured laying down, saying his true height was over 7 '2 ". He felt gravity pushed up down if you were standing up.

Kareem's shoes were Adidas, which didn't have much rubber on them. But he was taller than Wilt.

[Silver Bullet]

Can somebody find me a single story or anecdote about Wilt that wasn't exaggerated ? Probably not.

I find it hard to believe that everything about the guy was exaggerated, but his height was not. Highly improbable.

btw, that picture doesn't prove anything. Wilt is clearly shorter than Kareem.

[Silver Bullet]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbcdliLtkEs

significantly shorter than Kareem

[CodyB]

not a great pic, but still the best available i think

Try this.

No wonder that guy pulled so much poon. That guy had the body of a god in his 60s [no homo]

[writerman]

I personally think Wilt was about 7'2".

And for those of you wanting to entice me here, anything I could say about Wilt has been said better by Jerry West, who is not only the Logo, one of the smartest and most fearless men to ever play the game, but someone who played both with and against Wilt.

In short, he said if you put a prime Wilt in the league today, he'd lead the league in scoring, rebounding, and blocked shots every year. He forgot assists, but Wilt did that in his own era, when assists weren't awarded nearly as freely as they are today.

Put a prime Wilt on any of the other legitimate contending teams in the Jordan era, Jordan doesn't get any six rings. He may well not have gotten any at all. All other things being equal, the team with the best big of all time beats the team with the best little of all time at least 80% of the time.

[RudyGay22]

Too bad people could hack-a-Wilt and let him fail at the free throw line, writerman. Just because he played when you were young doesn't mean he'd step into a league of GROWN men, and take over. In fact, he'd be Tyson Chandler. The guys who are 18 and say Wilt was an athletic freak first, didn't ever see him, and second, want to seem more knowledgeable. I refuse to believe a guy who was so selfish (to the point he'd get benched today's league), who goaltended, used moves that would be swatted into the stands (that finger roll), didn't care about winning for most of his career, choked when it mattered, would dominate today.

[ilikecb4]

he looks 7 ' 1 1/2 to me

without shoes

7'2 and a bit with shoes

[Nonstop]

I don't think the team USA pic is in order of tallest to smallest, it looks like it's position. C-PG

[Doctor MJ]

Height wasn't shoe-inflated back then. If the official record states 7'1 you can go for a 7'2 if you want to compare him to nowadays players.

Something else to consider though: It's not like things didn't get exaggerated in the past. The Harlem Globetrotters weren't even from New York for goodness sake. Given all the other crazy claims about Wilt, it seems pretty bizarre to me that people wouldn't have been trying to exaggerate "the giant's" height. Not that I think he was actually shorter than 7'1, but I think people ought to tread cautiously on assuming he was taller than listed.

[Doctor MJ]

not a great pic, but still the best available i think

Try this.

No wonder that guy pulled so much poon. That guy had the body of a god in his 60s [no homo]

Uh, not that it isn't incredibly impressive, but isn't Wilt in his 40s there?

[AJ Valliant]

Dwight grew at least an inch since pre-draft.
I think Wilt was approaching 7'3" in his prime.

He must have. I remember seeing him play against LA and thinking "He's not that much shorter than Bynum". I imagine somewhere around a barefoot 6'10ish at this point.

[HeyIt'sMe]

Howard is about as tall, or even maybe ever so slightly taller than Bosh in that picture (Bosh's hair makes him look taller than he is), and Bosh was measured at 6'10.5 barefoot at the combine in 2003. I've told people all along that Howard is probably 6'10+ barefoot now and 6'11 in shoes.

[Jersey Generals]

I don't think the team USA pic is in order of tallest to smallest, it looks like it's position. C-PG

Negative. Dwyane Wade is before Kidd, who is a pg. Tayshaun Prince, a sf, is ahead of Boozer, who is a pf.

[RudyGay22]

I liked the little Jabbar slap in the face, he did it when the player was down lol. In that youtube clip.

[tsherkin]

Kareem is taller than Wilt by an inch or so, but Kareem was probably a legit 7'3 in basketball shoes, he's absurdly tall for having that kind of coordination. Shaq's 7'1 without shoes according to the DX measurement history and I could believe Wilt was somewhere in the 7'0.5" to 7'1" range without shoes, which would make him around 7'2.

[ponder276]

Here is some good game footage of Wilt (though past his prime): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbcdliLtkEs.

Cool video, 4 great players right there (Wilt/West vs. Kareem/Robertson). Was interesting to me that Wilt, while dominating as a help defender, was actually playing really poor fundamental defense on Kareem - instead of bodying him up and trying to force him into bad shots, he just let Kareem do what he wanted, and went for the block. Nowadays one of the first things you learn is to NOT play defense like that, I guess theories on how you should d up were different back then?