Some of my Dad's old stories about playing against Wilt Chamberlain, Sam Jones, Oscar Robertson, and other guys in the 1950's and 60's.

(Cross-posting from Vintage NBA)

https://i.imgur.com/dYqcGSb.jpg

My Dad died a couple years ago. He was born in 1933, (he didn't have me until he was 49-years-old), and was a star basketball player in college. I know he scored 48 points in a single game as a 6'2" guard (he's wearing #35 in the picture). But he went to medical school after college because basketball paid nothing and became a doctor (the gym at our local high school is named after him). He did play in tournaments and other rec and summer leagues through the 1950's and 60's and went against a bunch of pros of that era. He told me all his stories about various guys dozens of times each so I know them by heart, I'll recount a couple of them now if anyone wants to read.

SAM JONES: My Dad's arch-enemy in college. The main thing I remember him saying was that Sam Jones was a lot more loved by the newspapers (Dad talked a lot of s**t and once went out alone in front of the crowd and shot free throws when another schools pre-game performance lasted too long) and went to a bigger school. He would always tell me about how the first-time he played against him, he drove to the basket and balled up looking to take a hit and Jones got out of the way instead and he stumbled and missed. I always thought this was funny, but then I was watching the NBA at 50 documentary in college, and I'll be damned if Sam Jones didn't walk out of the way of somebody in one of the clips.

WILT CHAMBERLAIN: Dad was playing in a league in either New York or Philadelphia, and they were beating the other team senseless, but the other team kept telling them that they were missing a guy and "Wait till Dippy gets here." Dad said they all laughed at them, "Who the hell is Dippy?" Then later a car pulled up and Dippy got out "and kept getting out, and kept getting out." Dippy was a 7-foot freak who could jump to the top of the backboard named Wilt. Dad said that that was the first time anyone had ever blocked his shot. He also said that Wilt had something like 50 points in the game.

OSCAR ROBERTSON: He played with Oscar at least once. All he said was that he was very smart and "took what the defense gave him."

EARL MONROE: He said Earl was really impressed by him, and also that when they played against each other, Earl Monroe did a spin move and got to the basket, so the next time down he did the same move and the referees called a travel on him.

JOHNNY SAMPLE: A lot of people won't know who this guy is, I didn't either except for hearing Dad mention his name. Sample was a bruiser who guarded him during a game. Before the game, Sample said to him "I heard you can really jump." Dad said "You heard right." (Dad talked a lot of s**t according to himself), and Sample said "That's fine, but when you come back down you're mine." And Sample walloped him the first time he went for a shot. Dad had multiple stories about fighting during games, in one of the stories a guy undercut him and Dad shoved him into the bleachers the next time down the court and the guy got injured, and in the other story Dad got away from the guy because his team needed him and everyone applauded his sportsmanship, but he grabbed a chair and went to the other team's locker room after the game. I don't remember which one was what happened here, but I found out later that Johnny Sample apparently became a pretty famous athlete in the NFL. And I just saw when looking this up that he wrote a book called "Confessions of a Dirty Ball Player." So apparently a lot of Dad's stories turned out to be pretty true.

There's tons more of course, but they involve guys who aren't as well-known today, but did play on the Harlem Globetrotters etc.