Rich Hofmann | The Chamberlain rules NBA changed game to combat Wilt, but why? NEARLY FOUR DECADES ago, the people who ran the NBA got together and passed a series of rules to try to slow down a phenomenon named Wilton Norman Chamberlain. To this day, the mind boggles. What were they thinking? Who was pulling what strings? If there is a newspaper story that explains what was happening, it isn't very easy to find. If there is some kind of contemporary account of who suggested what to whom, who insisted, who wheedled, who cajoled, who demanded that roadblocks be put in Wilt's way, it is well-hidden. But a fundamental question remains, one that seems truly ridiculous in an age where the superstar player/phenomenon is the most sought-after commodity for a sports league - where everybody knows that NBA stars get more favorable whistles, and where all manner of stuff is overlooked by baseball in the pursuit of spectacular home runs, and where quarterbacks in the NFL are as hermetically sealed off from defenders as possible so that they can excel. A fundamental question: Who wanted to dim the NBA's biggest star? And why? The very fact they had to go to the rule book in an attempt to slow down Chamberlain tells you all you need to know about the man's place in history. It gets confusing when you do this Wilt vs. Shaq thing, because Shaquille O'Neal is an outrageous force. Given his athletic ability and the fact he probably weighs 75 pounds more than Wilt did, it's quite possible that Shaq would get the better of him. But that somehow misses the point - because Chamberlain was, in fact, a phenomenon when he played. In his era, he stood out more than O'Neal does today. Anybody who doubts it has to explain away the fact the NBA changed four rules in an attempt to slow him down. Four! Two of them were kind of gimmicky things that were a product of his size and athletic ability. For instance, with a running start, he could take off behind the foul line on a free throw and dunk the ball before landing - so they changed that and forced you to be stationary when you shot fouls. The other change involved inbounds passes from beneath the basket. Back in the day, there was no rule against throwing it in over the backboard, where Wilt would make the easy catch and drop it through the hoop. Because of him, they changed that rule, too. The other two changes were much more fundamental. The first came in the 1964-65 season. In the early 1950s, they widened the lane from 6 feet to 12 feet because of the NBA's earliest giant, George Mikan. But that wasn't enough for Wilt. They widened the lane from 12 feet to 16 feet for him and nobody else but him - and 16 feet is where it is today. Then, the next year, came the other big change. Offensive goal-tending was perfectly legal back then. (It's pretty much legal today, too, even if it isn't.) But back then, because Chamberlain was such a force above the rim, the rule was put in that disallowed contact with the ball when it was within the cylinder. You can debate back and forth about cause and effect. The 1965-66 season was the last time Chamberlain averaged more than 30 points per game. Maybe the decline after that was just age, or changing teams, or the idiosyncrasies of his personality. Or maybe it was the accumulation of the rules put in to neutralize him. We'll never know. Again, though, you wonder: Why would they change the rules in the first place? It's not as if Chamberlain's teams were dominating the league. Remember: This was in the very midst of the Boston Celtics' dynasty. The competitive balance of the NBA was not in question. It was just about Wilt. It was as if superstardom was deemed a bad thing. It was as if superWiltdom was deemed a bad thing. The very fact that it all happened tells you everything you need to know about the Wilt/Shaq debate. Wilt was bigger - if not literally, then figuratively. And don't even waste your breath arguing that the zone-defense rules were put in this year as a way of giving teams a weapon to stop Shaq. First, it didn't work. And, second, he gets away with so much stuff - from the pushing and shoving to the liberal interpretation of the free throw rules - that you can't seriously believe the league is against him. But it wasn't that way with Wilt Chamberlain. It remains, like the man, something of a mystery.
Most of those rule changes make sense - at least all of them except for widening the lane even further. A 12 foot wide lane would be fine and reduce a lot of clutter we see there today, but 16 is how it is. I'd say Wilt's decline has a lot more to do with his age (leaving the obvious sex jokes aside) than any of those rule changes. And that said, I don't think there's anything the NBA could do to "stop" Shaq short of height or weight restrictions, and then that's just plain discrimination. Unless, of course, you want to lose the ability to dunk.
I think those rule changes are pretty fair. I mean just because a guy is taller than everyone else shoudln't mean that they can shoot their free throws right next to the basket.
