This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 12/10/2001.
Wilt Chamberlain's influence on roundball and his impact on the sporting culture was profound. Like Babe Ruth, Jim Brown, and Muhammad Ali in their sports, Chamberlain elevated his game to a new level of possibility as a 7-foot-1-inch, 275-pound mastodon who could break opposing players in half with his strength yet took pride in performing with the finesse of a little man. When he joined the Philadelphia Warriors for his rookie season on 1959-60, he nailed 43 points and 23 rebounds in his debut game against the Knicks and for the season averaged 37.6 points and 27 rebounds in winning Rookie of the Year and MVP honors. He also took the Warriors from last to second and into a playoff match with Bill Russell's Celtics that would augur the next decade of fierce competition between the game's most storied legends. Still, Wilt's legend seems only to grow with the years and while his 31,419 career points have been topped, his 23,924 rebounds may never be, nor likely will his 4,000 points in a season and 100 points and 55 rebounds in a game. We are thrilled to offer Chamberlain's jersey and shorts from the season that began the legend of The Dipper and which came right from Wilt's bedroom closet.The home white Warriors jersey has on the inside back tail a white felt patch with "40 4 59" chain stitched in blue denoting the size, the extra inches, and the year. Also, on the inside of the shirt are two labels. One is the "Pearson" label, this being the company that did the lettering. The other tag is "Coane" and the size "40", this being the manufacturer of the shirt. Across the front is "Phila" in red tackle twill on a blue backing. The famous player number "13" is on both the front and back and is also made of red tackle twill on a blue backing. There is blue/red/blue trim around the armholes and around the neck. The shorts contain a white patch on the interior reading "13-36L-58." They were manufactured in 1958 and worn in 1959. Next to this is the "Pearson" label. The white shorts have blue, red and yellow trim along the sides and at the waistband and bottom. Both the jersey and the shorts show excellent game-use including some stain marks on the latter, and they appear to have no alterations of any kind. This historic uniform of a true giant in every sense just may make you want to touch it the way one would the Shroud of Turin. You may even want to call these magical duds the "Shroud of Two Points."