Quote:
Originally Posted by Vampyre
I've recently started reading a Novel in my English Classes called 'Stone Cold' about homeless people living on the streets of London. One of the main characters, Link, met another young man about his age, called Ginger, about six chapters from where I am at the moment, and he told Link that smoking eases the pain from hunger, so for all we know, Wilt MAY have taken a drag at least once to see if that actually worked, who knows. I doubt he'd have been a heavy smoker though, I HIGHLY doubt that, other wise he wouldn't have been able to play basketball as well as he did with Larry in 'Good Wilt Hunting'
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Yeah, that's pretty common knowledge; you'd be surprised at how many people start smoking to lose weight or keep it off, since people usually eat a lot less if they smoke. Smoking is HIGHLY addictive, though, moreso than heroin or cocaine, so if Wilt ever had done that, it would have been really difficult for him to stop. With Wilt being an asthmatic especially, even moderate smoking would have resulting in some pretty bad damage to his lungs, and smoking damage does not ever heal or go away, even if you quit, so as you said, he would not have that stamina that he still does now and would have run out of breath quickly in his game against Larry.
Since it's now been established, via the DVD commentary, that Wilt is not subject to some sort of "magical" healing processes and has to be treated by a physician for serious injuries just as we do, we can be positive that his cruched arm was amputated by a surgeon and he would have had to spend some time recovering in a hospital. It's quite likely that he was given narcotic pain medication, unless he flat-out refused any, and developed some degree of dependency on those that he had to overcome.
pitbulllady