 In the 1971 – 72 NBA season , the Lakers hired former Celtics star guard Bill Sharman as head coach . Sharman introduced morning shoot @-@ arounds , in which the perennial latecomer Chamberlain regularly participated ( in contrast to earlier years with Dolph Schayes ) and transformed him into a defensive @-@ minded , low @-@ scoring post defender in the mold of his old rival Bill Russell . Furthermore , he told Chamberlain to use his rebounding and passing skills to quickly initiate <unk> to his teammates . 
