Wilt Chamberlain 1936-1999 NBA Legend Remembered

Jet, Nov 1, 1999

Wilt Chamberlain, the 63-year-old NBA legend who dominated professional basketball during the 1960s and owns records that many feel never will be broken, recently died at his Los Angeles home of heart failure.

The 7-foot-1 towering figure, who once scored a still-unbelievable 100 points in a single game, was remembered by family and close friends during a memorial service at City of Angels Church of Religious Science in Los Angeles and by countless fans around the world.

Chamberlain had a history of heart trouble, according to family members. He was found by a longtime employee at his home on a private road in the exclusive Bel-Air section of L.A.

During his entire 14-year basketball career, and long after, Chamberlain is recalled as having a larger-than-life presence.

Besides having scored an amazing 100 points in a 1962 game against the New York Knickerbockers (a feat believed to be unbreakable), Chamberlain owns other records that are likely to remain out of reach of current and future basketball players. His other records include averaging 50.4 points a game in 1961-62, scoring 50 points or more 118 times, averaging 22.9 rebounds over his career and getting an astounding 55 rebounds in a single game. In his 1,205 games he did what most players could never imagine-he never fouled out.

Chamberlain was on two NBA championship teams, the 1967 Philadelphia 76ers and the 1972 L.A. Lakers.

So dominant a player was he that the NBA changed its rules to limit his control of the entire game. The league widened the lane to keep Chamberlain farther away from the basket. It also limited the manner in which free-throws could be shot, making players stand behind the line, thus neutralizing Chamberlain's ability to lean toward the basket.

Wilt "the Stilt," as he was known by many fans, made news in 1991 when he penned an autobiography, A View From Above where he claimed to have bedded 20,000 women.

Born Wilton Norman Chamberlain in Philadelphia in 1936, he was the son of a porter and a mother who sometimes cleaned homes to supplement the income. Because he was so incredibly tall, people often wondered about his parents' height. However, according to numerous media reports, neither of his parents was taller than 5-foot-9 and neither were any of his eight siblings. Chamberlain attended the University of Kansas where he set a school record by scoring 52 points in a game against Northwestern. Basketball wasn't the only sport at which he excelled. The guy who had been teased as a kid for being so tall and skinny, was also an outstanding track star, becoming the Big Eight high jump champion. He also ran the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds.

In 1958, he played for a season with the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters, earning a reported $65,000 annually. The following year he joined the Philadelphia Warriors of the NBA, becoming the rookie of the year and Most Valuable Player.

For much of his professional life, he battled Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell in wars that pitted the top offensive force (Chamberlain) against the premier defender in the game. The two premier big men of basketball met eight times in the playoffs, and Chamberlain prevailed only once.

After he retired in 1973, Chamberlain did not vanish from public life. He coached in the defunct American Basketball Association, tried his hand at big-league volleyball, did national TV commercials and even made it to the big screen. In 1984, he performed in Conan the Destroyer with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Grace Jones.

Beyond the fact that a legend is gone, what surprised many fans is the fact that Chamberlain had heart trouble. Seymour Goldberg, Chamberlain's attorney and friend of 40 years, told the L.A. Times that the legend had been hospitalized in 1992 for an irregular heartbeat.

His sister, Barbara Lewis, told reporters on the day of his death that Chamberlain recently had undergone dental surgery and was in excruciating pain from it.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a man who engaged in some frosty, verbal wars with Chamberlain, said, "Wilt was one of the greatest ever, and we will never see another one like him." Abdul-Jabbar is the only player who scored more overall points than Chamberlain's 31,419. And only Michael Jordan has averaged more points.

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

During the memorial service, Russell said, "My memory, first of all, was that he put me through hell so many nights." The two adversaries became closer friends as they aged, he said. "The only person who understood what we were doing was the other guy. He and I will be friends through eternity."

Chamberlain's home at the top of a hill in Bel-Air, was according to Lakers photographer Wen Roberts, "the only $1 million, one-bedroom house you ever saw." He had everything custom-made for his extreme size. Roberts said the shower "was like a car wash. And the pool went right inside the house."