Wilt Chamberlain

1936-1999

American basketball player

In a 14-year professional career studded with superla-tives, Wilt Chamberlain established the centrality of court dominance in basketball, and thus changed the game forever. At seven feet, one inch tall, he was a towering figure, nicknamed "Wilt the Stilt"—a moniker he is said to have despised. Chamberlain was not simply a Goliath, however; he was also extraordinarily coordinated, and seemed to score and rebound almost without effort. Along the way, he racked up countless records, including the highest number of points for a single player in a single game (100), the most rebounds (55), and the greatest number of consecutive field goals (18).

Chamberlain was no stranger to controversy, as when he claimed in 1991 that he had bedded more than 20,000 women. Yet the controversy would hardly have mattered if his performance as a player had not been so extraordinary. At the time of his retirement, Chamberlain had scored more points in his career—31,419—than anyone in NBA history. The only player to exceed that record, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, said at Chamberlain's funeral, "Wilt was one of the greatest ever, and we will never see another like him." Even more poignant were the words of the Boston Celtics' Bill Russell , with whom Chamberlain engaged in a celebrated on-court rivalry (and off-court friendship) during the 1960s and 1970s: "He and I will be friends through eternity."

A Giant at an Early Age

Named Wilton after the street on which his parents lived in west Philadelphia, Chamberlain was one of eight children born to William and Olivia Chamberlain. William worked as a porter at a publishing company, and Olivia sometimes cleaned houses to supplement the family's income. Given Chamberlain's size, one might guess that his parents or siblings were tall, but such was not the case. Indeed, none of the other nine Chamberlains exceeded a modest 5'9" in height.

At the age of 10, Wilt was already tall, and he became positively gargantuan after he reached adolescence. In a single summer, he gained four inches, and by the time he began playing for Overbrook High School, he stood 6'11". With his height, he was a natural for basketball, but from the beginning, he was not simply big: he was also graceful, resourceful, and creative as a player.

Recruited by Kansas

Beginning with his 1952-53 varsity year, Chamberlain led the Overbrook team to a series of victories, with season records of 19-2, 19-0, and 18-1. His reputation as a

rebounder began at this early stage: the Overbrook high coach actually taught his players to miss free throws so that Chamberlain could rebound them and score more valuable field goals. In those days, goaltending, or hovering over the basket, was still legal, and Chamberlain was known to tip a ball thrown by a teammate into the hoop even when it would have gone in anyway—a practice that irritated his fellow Overbrook players.

At Overbrook, Chamberlain did not confine himself to a single sport, gaining notoriety on the cross country and track and field teams, and even winning a conference title—not surprisingly—in the long jump. It is also not surprising that college recruiters had their eye on Chamberlain, and that the University of Kansas gave him a scholarship. In terms of talent, he qualified for the varsity team, but NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) rules at the time prohibited freshmen from playing varsity basketball, so Chamberlain took his place on the Jayhawks' freshman squad. In a significant showing of his skills, Chamberlain led the freshmen to victory in their first game—which happened to be against their varsity counterparts. Thanks to some 40 points, 30 rebounds, and 15 blocks courtesy of their extraordinary new player, the freshmen trounced the varsity Jayhawks 81-71.

On December 3, 1956, Chamberlain, now a sophomore, played his first game for the Jayhawks' varsity team. In that game, against Northwestern, he set a school record by scoring 52 points, helping to ensure an 87-69 victory. In 1957, Kansas went to the NCAA championships against the University of North Carolina, and though the Jayhawks lost by a single point in triple overtime, Chamberlain himself earned the title of MVP (most valuable player) for the tournament.

From the Jayhawks to the Globetrotters to the Warriors

During his college years, Chamberlain played for all-conference and all-America teams, and again showed his prowess off the court at the Big Eight track and field championships, in which his 6'6" high jump won. He was eager to get on with his career, however, and for very practical reasons: he wanted to start earning money. Therefore, he finished out his junior year at Kansas and went on to the pros.

An NBA (National Basketball Association) rule at the time forbade professional teams from hiring college players whose class had not yet graduated. Therefore, Chamberlain spent the year 1958-59 on a team quite literally in a league of its own, a spot that earned him a salary of $50,000. Though hardly impressive in the world of pro basketball today, at the time this was an almost inconceivably large salary for a basketball player.

Chamberlain, who would later tour with the Globetrotters during a few summers in the 1960s, joined his first NBA team in 1959. Thanks to the "territorial" draft rule established by the NBA in 1955, a team could choose a local college player in exchange for its first-round draft pick. Even though Chamberlain had actually played for a school far away, Philadelphia Warriors owner Eddie Gottlieb claimed the Philadelphia native, and since Kansas had no NBA teams, there was no competition for the 7'1" juggernaut. Once again, Chamberlain earned a distinction, in this case as the only player in NBA history to become a territorial pick based on his roots prior to college.

Beginnings of Rivalry with Bill Russell

During that 1959-60 season, Chamberlain averaged 37.6 points and 27 rebounds per game, and earned the title of NBA rookie of the year, all-star game MVP, and NBA MVP. He was also selected for the All-NBA First Team. Once again, Chamberlain was virtually without equal: other than Wes Unseld nine years later, no other player would win rookie and MVP recognition in a single year.

Chronology

Awards and Accomplishments

The Warriors, which Chamberlain propelled from last place to second place, went up against the Celtics in the 1960 NBA playoffs, thus beginning the legendary Chamberlain-Russell rivalry. This was the first of eight years in which a team on which Chamberlain played would meet the Celtics in the playoffs, but only once would Chamberlain's team gain victory over the Celtics.

After the 4-2 loss to Boston in the series, Chamberlain stunned fans by announcing that he was thinking of retiring after just one season. Precisely because of his size, he was taking too much of a pounding from opposing teams, who worked to level the playing field, on the way committing numereous hard fouls against him. Chamberlain himself never fouled out once in 1,045 regular-season and 160 playoff games, a hallmark of his even temper on the court. Of course, one could argue that he did not have to get angry, given his physical dominance. In any case, all the abuse on the court was taking its toll on his body, and to combat the effects, Chamberlain, who was already strong, made himself even stronger. He worked out with weights, and by the time he reached the peak of his career, he tip the scale at 300 lean, fast, muscular pounds.

Victory over Boston—Finally

Chamberlain's second year with the Warriors was every bit as good as his first, and his third (1961-62) was significantly better, with an average of 50.4 points in a game. That was also the year when he became the only player in NBA history to score more than 4,000 points in a single season, and on March 2, 1962, he did something perhaps even more extraordinary. He had been out partying the previous night, and yet in a game against the New York Knicks in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Chamberlain scored 100 of the Warriors' 169 points against the Knicks' 147. As the minutes ticked by and his teammates became aware that they were witnessing history being made, they began applying the old Overbrook strategy of doing everything in their power to get the ball into Chamberlain's hands, even fouling the Knicks so that the legendary rebounder could take control.

Chamberlain stayed with the Warriors when they moved to San Francisco in 1962, and during the two seasons that followed, he was the leading scorer in the league. Then, just two days after the 1965 NBA All-Star Game, the Warriors traded him to the new Philadelphia 76ers for three players and $150,000.

Twice the Sixers went up against Chamberlain's old nemesis, Boston, only to lose—even in 1966, when they had earned the best record in the league at 55 wins and 25 losses. Then, in the 1966-67 season, Philadelphia earned a 68-13 record, the best in league history up to that time. In the division finals, Philadelphia trounced Boston in five games, ending an eight-year streak of Celtics NBA titles. The championship found him up against his old team, the Warriors. The 76ers came away victorious after six games, giving Chamberlain the first of only two championship wins in his career.

A Team Player

The 1966-67 season would prove to be not only the halfway point of Chamberlain's career, but also the high point. As Oscar Robertson once said, when a Philadelphia Daily News reporter asked him if Chamberlain was the best player of all time, "The numbers don't lie"—and this was equally true when assessing the relative decline that marked Chamberlain's latter years. Granted, his 20.7 point-per-game average for the period 1967-74 was one for which most NBA players would kill, but it was only a little more than half as good as his 1959-67 record of 39.4 points per game, a showing that only Michael Jordan has managed to equal.

Career Statistics

A variety of reasons have been offered for Chamberlain's relative decline. Age and the effects of lifestyle (including all those amorous encounters of which he boasted) were obvious possibilities, as was the development of better defenses by opposing teams. Chamberlain, on the other hand, maintained that his coaches—in a reversal of patterns that went back all the way his high-school years—did not want him shooting as much. The fact was that while Chamberlain did well, teams on which he played did not tend to fare as well in the finals. During that winning 1966-67 season, on the other hand, Coach Alex Hannum instructed him to pass more and shoot less, a strategy that obviously worked.

Chamberlain took on his new, more team-oriented role with alacrity, leading the NBA in assists during the 1967-68 season. Traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1968, he went on to take his team to the finals four times, and in 1972 won his second and last championship in five games against the Knicks. In his final years in the NBA, Chamberlain distinguished himself as a team player alongside the likes of guard Jerry West and others, and in 1971-72 the Lakers went one better than the record set by Chamberlain and the 76ers in 1966-67, with a season record of 69-13.

A Very Busy Retiree

After he retired in 1973, Chamberlain pursued a number of careers. He coached the San Diego Conquistadors of the shortlived American Basketball Association for a season; played tennis, volleyball, and racquetball; and ran the Honolulu marathon. He coached a women's volleyball team, and even challenged Muhammad Ali to a fight that never occurred. Despite hints that he might return to basketball, Chamberlain never did.

Even before his retirement, Chamberlain had appeared in Rowan & Martin's Laugh In, as well as a memorable Volkswagen commercial that played on the length of his legs in relation to the size of the car. He later did spots for Brut aftershave and Miller Lite, and appeared alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Grace Jones in Conan the Destroyer. He also served as executive producer for the documentary Go For It in 1976.

In 1973, Chamberlain published the first of two autobiographies, Wilt: Just Like Any Other Seven-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door, later published simply as Wilt. Nearly two decades later, a second autobiography, this one called A View from Above (1991), caused a much bigger stir with his claim of 20,000 conquests. Nearly coinciding as it did with Magic Johnson 's announcement that he was HIV-positive, the boast seemed ill-timed, and many observers criticized Chamberlain for being irresponsible.

During his later years, Chamberlain suffered from heart trouble, and his health declined quickly over a period of just a few weeks in the fall of 1999. He died of a heart attack at his home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles at age 63. In addition to Russell and Abdul-Jabbar, mourners at the City of Angels Church of Religious Science in Los Angeles included Meadowlark Lemon of the Globetrotters, West, Bill Walton, and Jim Brown.

The Warrior

Chamberlain earned enemies in the African American community when he condemned the Black Power movement in the late 1960s. He never aligned himself with civil-rights leaders such as Jesse Jackson, and invoked considerable ire when he supported Richard Nixon's campaigns for the presidency in 1968 and 1972. Blacks and whites alike expressed antipathy toward Chamberlain's oft-stated preference for white women.

Related Biography: Philadelphia Warriors Owner Eddie Gottlieb

Edward "Eddie" Gottlieb, who in 1959 succeeded in claiming Philadelphia native Wilt Chamberlain for his Warriors on the National Basketball Association (NBA) territorial rule, did not simply own the Warriors; he had founded the team and its predecessor.

Born September 15, 1898, in Kiev, Russia (now Ukraine), Gottlieb came to the United States with his parents as a small boy. In 1910, he began playing basketball with the Combine Club, a group of Jewish boys in grammar school, and went on to play for South Philadelphia High School. After graduating, Gottlieb organized a team known as the Sphas for their sponsor, the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association. Because they had no home court, they called themselves "the Wandering Jews."

The Sphas, who were good enough to beat the Original Celtics in a three-game series, changed their name to the Philadelphia Warriors in 1926. Originally members of the American Basketball Association, they joined the newly formed NBA in 1946. During the team's first three decades, Gottlieb was coach, manager, and part owner, but in 1953 he became full owner. After he sold the team to buyers in San Francisco in 1963, he became a consultant with the NBA.

Gottlieb also worked closely with the Harlem Globetrotters as business adviser and scheduler, and promoted black major-league baseball teams, as well as professional wrestling. He died December 7, 1979.

A Bum Rap

Go ahead and remember Chamberlain as a scoring machine, a braggart and a guy who needed some tutoring with his bedroom arithmetic. He was certainly all of the above. But you should remember him, too, as a winner. If two world championships, six trips to the NBA Finals and over 700 regular season victories don't make someone a winner, what does?…

The King is dead. And by now, St. Peter probably has heard far more about Hershey, Pa., finger-rolls and rejected jump shots than he ever wanted to know.

Source: Ryan, Jeff. Sporting News 223 (October 25, 1999): 12-14.

In the world of basketball, Chamberlain won many a detractor with his candid talk and his outspoken persona. In the mid-1960s, he caused a stir with a Sports Illustrated story in which he was quoted as criticizing various coaches and players provided his critics with plenty of ammunition. Yet for all his ability to spark controversy, Chamberlain could get the job done on the court, and the breathtaking scope of his accomplishments will stand long after the disagreements have been forgotten. Said Russell, speaking to USA Today at the time of Chamberlain's death (quoted in Jet ), "I'm one

of the guys who think Wilt was so good that people don't even known how good he was. I remember sitting at home, getting ready to play him one night, and thinking, 'another night in hell.'"

SELECTED WRITINGS BY CHAMBERLAIN:

(With David Shaw) Wilt: Just Like Any Other Seven-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door, Macmillan, 1973, published as Wilt, Warner, 1975.

A View from Above, Villard, 1991.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Chamberlain, Wilt with David Shaw. Wilt: Just Like Any Other Seven-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door. New York: Macmillan, 1973.

Chamberlain, Wilt. A View from Above. New York: Villard, 1991.

Garner, Joe and Bob Costa. And the Crowd Goes Wild: Relive the Most Celebrated Sports Events Ever Broadcast. Napierville, IL: Sourcebooks, 1999.

Libby, Bill. Goliath: The Wilt Chamberlain Story. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1977.

Periodicals

Achenbach, Joel. "Wilt, Filling a Tall Order; The Hoops Legend Bares His Greatest Stat: 20,000 Women." Washington Post (November 1, 1991): B1.

Ryan, Jeff. "A Bum Rap." Sporting News 223 (October 25, 1999): 12-14.

"Wilt Chamberlain, 1936-1999: NBA Legend Remembered." Jet 96 (November 1, 1999): 51-56.

Other

"NBA History: Wilt Chamberlain." National Basketball Association. http://www.nba.com/chamberlain_bio.html (November 19, 2002).

The Official Web Site of Wilt Chamberlain. http://www.wiltchamberlain.com/ (November 19, 2002).

"Wilt Chamberlain Biography." Basketball Hall of Fame. http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/Chamberlain.htm (November 19, 2002).

Sketch by Judson Knight