Is it accurate to say that Wilt existed before YouTube?
Wilt Chamberlain’s block of Gus Johnson’s slam is the stuff of legends, even though there is no visual proof.
Although the moment isn’t captured on camera or in a picture, it undoubtedly exists.
The day after the dramatic blow, Nov. 26, 1966, in Baltimore, when Chamberlain’s Philadelphia 76ers defeated Johnson’s Baltimore Bullets 129-115, the Baltimore Sun reported on it. The publication said that Johnson’s shoulder was “wrenched” as a result of Chamberlain’s massive hit.
Wilt Chamberlain “dislocated the shoulder of the powerful Gus Johnson when he blocked one of Gus’ dunks,” according to the Los Angeles Times on February 26, 1981.
The Philadelphia Inquirer on Oct. 26, 1986, got the scoop from Billy Cunningham, who witnessed the event: “It was Gus against Wilt,” Cunningham said. “Gus went in to dunk, and Wilt caught the ball, threw Gus to the floor, and they had to take Gus off the floor with a dislocated shoulder.” Imagine if this kind of debilitating block was registered in the YouTube age. It’d be plastered into our digital minds and never forgotten. Instead it occurred in an era when players were supposedly plodding, slow, uncoordinated or some combination of the three. And if you possessed some measure of athleticism you were unfairly taking advantage of the physically unfortunate. Rare is the footage to combat these prevailing myths.
