While Michael Jordan is widely considered the greatest player in NBA history, the first true superstar the league had was Wilt Chamberlain. Nowadays, kids look up to MJ, but back in the day, guys like Michael looked up to Wilt.
Even your heroes have heroes that they want to meet, and that’s how Jordan felt about Chamberlain. So when he got the opportunity to meet the legendary big man, it was something that Mike could not pass up.
Michael sheds light on meeting Wilt
Jordan spent much of his career rewriting the record books, but many of the records he wasn’t able to create are still owned by Chamberlain. At this stage of the game, it seems like ‘The Big Dipper’ has some records that will simply never be broken.
His lack of championship success may prevent him from being the greatest player of all time, but there’s no doubt an air of greatness surrounds ‘Wilt the Stilt.’ For that reason, MJ was thrilled to meet one of his favorite players, whom he had grown up watching.
“I got the chance to meet Wilt Chamberlain for the first time, which I thought was a privilege for me being that I finished second to him in a lot of individual stats and career stats and scoring stats,” Jordan said via MDBBall. “He was very nice to visit. He came up to me, congratulated me on my career. I’m a basketball enthusiast, I honor and respect the people that gave me the opportunity to excel at this game, to make a living at this game. To see a lot of those guys, it was a privilege for me.”
Who could blame him for feeling that way, though? Wilt is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game, and his career-high marks for points per game (50.4) and rebounds per game (27.2) in a single season will likely never be broken.
Mike accomplished quite a bit himself during his time in the league, winning six titles and countless individual accolades as well. And for most of his career, Wilt’s records were what he was chasing and oftentimes breaking.
It’s awesome to see two legends of the game giving each other the kudos they deserve rather than beefing with each other. Based on these comments, it’s clear that Jordan’s respect for Chamberlain was mutual.