The Los Angeles Lakers sued Wilt Chamberlain for one of the most bizarre “long distance” head-coaching assignments ever.

The Los Angeles Lakers sued Wilt Chamberlain for one of the most bizarre “long distance” head-coaching assignments ever.

Wilt Chamberlain once took on a head-coaching position but never showed up on any of the practices even though he was signed as a player and a coach.

With his notoriety and influence outside of the court, the late great Wilt Chamberlain became one of the most dominant players in NBA history and a divisive personality who went beyond the game of basketball. Though there are many amazing anecdotes about Wilt and his many pursuits, one particularly noteworthy one is when he made the decision to become a coach while still a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. Wilt always did things his way. That’s not all that shocking, but in Wilt’s instance, his “long-distance” coaching style garnered notice in addition to the fact that he insulted the team’s starting center by calling him a “fat pig.”

Wilt aspired to be a Conquistadors player and coach.
Many things may be said about Wilt Chamberlain and his illustrious NBA career, but for the purposes of this discussion, we’ll focus on his brief tenure as the San Diego Conquistadors’ head coach. At the conclusion of his brilliant career as a Los Angeles Lakers player in 1973, Wilt made the decision to try something different in his life and took a position with the ABA team Conquistadors. That one choice alone created a great deal of commotion and was unquestionably one of the worst coaching appointments in NBA/ABA history.

Wilt agreed to a $600,000 deal to join the Conquistadors as a coach and player, but he never dressed for a game and never made the journey to San Diego to be a member of the team. Wilt’s careless actions quickly led the Lakers to pursue legal action against him. In a press conference announcing his new coaching role, Wilt even mentioned that Jerry West was considering a reunion with the franchise. Wilt claims that this was due to some contractual disputes West was having with the Lakers; you might say that this was the final straw that led the Lakers to decide to sue Wilt.

It’s interesting to note that the court decided in favor of the Lakers, ruling that Wilt could coach The Conquistadors but not play basketball for any other team. After that, Wilt made the decision to delegate the majority of his coaching responsibilities to his assistant Stan Albeck, who claimed Wilt had a wonderful sense of the game but was impatient with the long hours a coach must put in every day to be the best at what he does. Furthermore, Albeck recalls that Wilt occasionally prioritized his personal affairs over leading the squad.