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By Gail Goodrich

Following basketball growing up and having a great passion for the game, I had heard about Wilt and I had seen some games on TV. I saw him play at Kansas on TV and then in the NBA. But then to walk out on the court for the first time and realize that I was on the same court as Wilt, I had to do a double-take. When I stood up next to him, I was in awe of his size.

That's the first thing you need to realize about Wilt. He was so much bigger than everyone else. Offensively, he could pretty much do what he wanted to do when he posted up down low. He has this little finger roll when he turned that was really unstoppable. One reason it was so unstoppable was because he has such good footwork and balance and he was so agile and graceful.

Because he was so agile and so graceful, you didn't realize how big he was until you were standing next to him. He probably weighed around 325 and he was so strong and such a dominating force offensively.

Defensively, you also come to realize that because of his size, he took up a lot of real estate in the middle. So that every time you penetrated to the basket, you really had to know where he was. You had to see him because he had such great length. He really camped in the three-second lane, and at that time, they didn't have the defensive three seconds rule like they do now. He was always around when you were going to the basket. He didn't block a lot of my shots, but he altered a lot of them.

The number of records he holds is really an indication of how dominant he was. He was a great athlete. On the '72 championship team, he was certainly the fastest player endline to endline. He was a track star, a decathlon-type guy and he really thought that he could pretty much do anything. He was very competitive and liked the challenge. He became a volleyball player late in life, which was a very difficult transition. This was a guy that never picked up a volleyball or knew anything about the game and he really became a decent player on the beach in Santa Monica. He loved life and he liked other things outside of basketball.

In my second year in Phoenix, we had the Lakers down 3-1 in the playoffs and then Wilt just took over the series and said "This has gone far enough." Of course, we had no answer for Wilt. He just completely dominated the next three games and they went on to the Conference Finals and then the Finals.

I liked Phoenix and I thought that we had a lot of young players that could grow. With the fact that we had the Lakers down in the playoffs, I really thought that we were a team of the future. Then I got traded back to the Lakers, which was a little surprising, but it turned out to be the best thing for me.

Wilt also set a pretty solid screen. Wen Roberts/NBAE/Getty Images

I was back playing with Jerry West at the guard position and now, playing with Wilt, it was the first time in my career where I played with a dominating center. Being a guard with my size, it really benefited me. Wilt helped my game tremendously, particularly on the defensive end because guards at that time were a little bigger and liked to back me down. Wilt was always there defensively, so he really covered up some defensive deficiencies that I had.

And he was a great passer at the center position. More than once, he led all centers in the league in assists and I think he was even in the top five overall a couple of years. Being a player that moved without the basketball, it was really beneficial. When the ball went into Wilt, a lot of teams would collapse and look to double him. I tried to move without the basketball and Wilt was an excellent passer and gave me a lot of assists.

One thing with Wilt is that you always knew where he stood on any issue. You may not agree with him, but he always had a viewpoint. I found that to be very refreshing and I think a lot of times Wilt was misunderstood. Everybody wanted to compare him with Bill Russell and I think those comparisons were a little bit unfair. But Wilt was an individual who had a great deal of pride. Like all players, he liked his achievements to be recognized. When he performed at a high level, he liked the praise.

When he came to the Lakers, he had a reputation of being difficult with coaches. I think that the press asked him about whether the coach could control him or not and Wilt spoke up and said, "No coach controls me." I think that he was really ahead of his time and what he was really saying is that there has to be communications between the coach and the players. The coach doesn't control the player, but he communicates with the player.

In '72, Bill Sharman went out of his way to communicate with Wilt and Wilt really respected that. It was a time where a lot of coaches tried to get him to look at things from their perspective, whereas Bill Sharman really looked at things from Wilt's perspectives. Up until that time, not a lot of coaches had done that.

Of all the players on that '72 team, Wilt really sacrificed his individual performance for the betterment of the team. He had averaged 50 points per game previously and offensively, he was the fourth option for us. And we didn't run a whole lot of plays for Wilt. He got his points by being around the basket, getting boards and being active.

He accepted that role. He focused on defense, passing the basketball and controlling the boards. He led the league in rebounds that year. His role was probably much different that it had been in previous years.

We got off to a very good start. We were 6-3 and then we were 39-3. He realized very early on that we could be an outstanding basketball team and maybe win the title by playing this way. A lot of times, he would get the rebound, get the ball out and he wouldn't need to cross halfcourt. By his presence though, we were able to get a lot of uncontested shots, because you had to look to double-team anytime he got the ball.

When he retired, I really realized once again how much space he took up and how much he controlled the paint. In that era, if you controlled the paint, you had a terrific advantage. That was his game.

Hall of Famer and NBA TV analyst Gail Goodrich played 14 seasons in the NBA including three in Los Angeles with Wilt Chamberlain. He was the leading scorer on the '71-72 Laker squad that broke the recorded the best regular season record at the time at 69-13. That team also holds the record for consecutive wins with 33 and defeated the New York Knicks in five games for the NBA Championship.