Video: Wilt Chamberlain dominates the high school court

There's a simplicity to watching high school highlight reels that you can't get from an NBA YouTube mixtape. Whereas NBA highlights almost always show a man overcoming some kind of impressive opposition, the best prep players look like they're playing a completely different sport. Their defenders are often people who will go on to work in offices, not face off against the best basketball players in the world.

Yet, if everday NBA players looked so great in high school, what would the most dominant player in the history of the sport look like? During his heyday, Wilt Chamberlain was widely identified as basketball's equivalent of an extinction level event, the sort of physical specimen who would change the game forever. Bill Russell may have bested Wilt on many occasions, but there's no question which player represented the greater evolutionary leap forward.

Luckily, we can watch the 17-year-old Chamberlain face off against hilariously overmatched talent while at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia. This newsreel clip may not have the production values of the modern media, but it's fascinating nonetheless.

(via Got 'Em Coach)

Dave Bing Larry Bird Wilt Chamberlain Bob Cousy Dave Cowens