You Tube Gold: The Incredible Strength Of Wilt Chamberlain

When you talk about legendary athletes, myth inevitably enters the conversation. We’ve talked a bit about Wilt Chamberlain, largely because a lot of people now question whether he could play today.

We point out that he was 7-1 and had sprinter’s speed and a 50” vertical and in our book, that means you can play in any era.

He had one other phenomenal quality too though and that was his strength.

In these two videos you see a number of stories, but most of them are by people who were involved.

So you see Red Kerr saying Wilt dunked so hard that he broke Kerr’s toe - with the ball.

As in when the ball hit the floor.

Multiple contemporaries testify that he did things like pick up two players at the same time. In a fit of anger, he threw 6-9 Zelmo Beatty across the floor so effortlessly that a referee rushed over and told him not to move if he valued his life. Other guys talked about hanging on his arms as he went up to dunk - Chamberlain just took them along for the ride.

These are first-hand stories in many cases. There are too many to list but look in particular for one by KC Jones and another by Paul Silas. There are also some great stories about Arnold Schwarzenneger and Chamberlain. The guy was just an otherworldly talent.

• Part 1
• Part 2