One for the Dipper

The Los Angeles Lakers had just won their first National Basketball Association championship, and the proud, patient giant stood sweating in the chaotic locker room--a Gulliver indulging a swarm of Lilliputian newsmen. "For a long time," he said, "fans of mine had to put up with people saying Wilt couldn't win the big ones. Now maybe they'll have a chance to walk in peace, like I do."

For Wilt Chamberlain, vindication was sweet. The most dominating personality and physical presence in professional basketball for the past 13 years, he had been stamped as one of sport's alltime great losers. As his detractors took delight in pointing out, in critical play-off games Chamberlain seemed unable to produce the same heroics he performed so matter of factly during the regular season. Although he held numerous individual records and honors, he had helped only one team to a national title (Philadelphia, in 1967). The Big Dipper, the knockers said, choked in the clutch.

This year Wilt's critics have been silent--and for good reason. After leading the Lakers to the best won-lost record (69-13) in N.B.A. history during the regular season, Chamberlain was nothing short of awesome in the playoffs. In the N.B.A.'s western division title series with Milwaukee, he decisively outplayed basketball's newest giant superstar, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, eleven years his junior. Then, after shuffling uncertainly in the first game of the championship series, Wilt recovered spectacularly to lead the Lakers to a 4 games to 1 victory over the New York Knicks.

Padded Hands. In the final game against the Knicks Chamberlain's performance was among the most memorable in play-off history. A doubtful starter because of a wrist fractured in the previous game, he appeared on court wearing football linemen's pads on both hands. Despite that handicap, Wilt never looked better. With uncanny timing he blocked shots (ten) and grabbed rebounds (29); he muscled in to the hoop to sink points (24), and his picks and passes set up score after score by teammates.

Game but outgunned, the Knicks had more than Wilt to put up with. Little Gail Goodrich (6 ft. 1 in.) was a consistently accurate shot and the highest scorer on either team. Jerry West never did shoot with his usual accuracy, but he was the most active playmaker in the series, with 44 assists. Harold ("Happy") Hairston outrebounded everybody but Wilt, and Jim McMillian came through with clutch baskets that devastated the Knicks in the fourth game's overtime period.

The Knicks, for their part, were unable to maintain their accurate shooting (55%) of the first game, and they were severely weakened by the hip injury that hampered their most aggressive player, Dave DeBusschere. But as DeBusschere himself admitted, the Lakers clearly showed that they were the better team, and the Big Dipper was beyond any doubt the best player.

Named the most valuable player in the series by Sport magazine, Chamberlain received as his reward a Dodge station wagon. He needed it about as much as he needs another basketball. Wilt has just enough space at his new $ 1,500,000 home in Bel Air to garage the Dodge next to his Bentley, his Maserati and his Cadillac. When he will get a chance to drive the new car is another question. As usual, Bachelor Chamberlain plans to spend much of the off season traveling, adding the names of new countries to the list of 68 he has already visited, before coming back to earn another $250,000 next season in basketball. At 35, Wilt has no thought of retiring. Says Jerry West, no slouch himself at 33: "He could play this way until he's 40."

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