A retrospective on Wilt Chamberlain on the occasion of his passing.
On October 12, 1999, Wilt Chamberlain, the talented and graceful giant from West Philadelphia who had a near-mythic basketball career and set statistics records as breathtakingly daunting as his 7-foot-1 stature, was discovered dead at the age of 63.
The day following Wilt Chamberlain’s 63rd birthday, October 13, 1999, saw the initial publication of this piece.
Yesterday, Wilt Chamberlain, the talented and graceful giant from West Philadelphia who had a near-mythic basketball career and set statistics records as breathtakingly daunting as his 7-foot-1 frame, was discovered dead at the age of 63.
When fire department officers were sent to Mr. Chamberlain’s residence in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, they found his body shortly after 3 p.m., Philadelphia time. According to the first reports, he had had a heart attack.
One of his best friends and Philadelphia basketball expert Sonny Hill revealed last night that Mr. Chamberlain has cardiac issues and would be receiving a pacemaker.
When Mr. Chamberlain was a player with the 76ers, Al Domenico, their trainer, remarked of him, “He always seemed indestructible.” It still amazes me that he passed away in bed. I would have assumed that a truck would be needed to kill him.
Indisputably Philadelphia’s greatest athlete ever and one of the overpowering figures in American sports, Â Mr. Chamberlain generated unprecedented numbers while playing in the National Basketball Association from 1959 through 1973 for the Philadelphia and San Francisco Warriors, the 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Reeling them off, even 26 years after Mr. Chamberlain’s retirement, remains a mind-boggling exercise.
He held more than 90 records and was the league’s all-time leader in points (31,419) and rebounds (23,924) when he left following the 1972–73 campaign. Though Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who grew up idolizing him in New York, later outscored him in scoring, he still maintains the record for rebounds.
He was the NBA’s top scorer for seven consecutive seasons, its top rebounder for eleven, and—perhaps most astonishingly—its top assist leader just once. He was the four-time league MVP. Never once in 1,205 games did he foul out. And he averaged over 50 points per game for the Warriors in the 1961–62 campaign, just two years after winning rookie of the year and MVP awards.
That season it was, in the evening of March 2.
On March 2, 1962, Mr. Chamberlain created the well-rounded milestone that will live on in his memory forever. He scored 100 points in a game against the New York Knicks in front of a half-full arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a mark no player has matched since.
Typical of Mr. Chamberlain’s arrogance, he later claimed to have made love to two women and set a record on an arcade pinball machine the same day he scored 100, before boarding the train that would take him to Hershey from New York.
Former Chamberlain teammate and Lakers president Jerry West declared, “I feel confident to say that 100 points is a record that will not be broken.” West is also a fellow Basketball Hall of Famer. “Whole teams today don’t even score 100 points.”
His 76ers colleague Billy Cunningham said, “All I can tell you is that Wilt would still be the best center in the NBA, still be the dominant player.”
