The Sixers traded Wilt Chamberlain to the Lakers 48 years ago.
On April 12, 1967, Wilt Chamberlain was showered with champagne following Philadelphia’s 140-116 victory over the Boston Celtics to capture the NBA Eastern Division title. Dave Gambee, Wally Jones, Bob Weiss, and Matt Guokas surround Chamberlain from the left. AP Image
Tomorrow is 48 years ago: the Philadelphia 76ers moved seven-foot-one-inch center Wilt Chamberlain, who was 32 at the time, to the Los Angeles Lakers. The pride of Overbrook High, who had only once won an NBA championship with the Sixers (1967), would go on to play in four NBA Finals with the Lakers and take home the championship in 1972. For him, who would we get in return? Darrall Imhoff, Archie Clark, and Jerry Chambers. Yes, that’s right. Here are some of the top points from Wilt the Stilt’s lengthy career to commemorate the event.
Chamberlain went to the University of Kansas following a record-breaking career at Overbrook High, where he averaged 44.5 points per game and scored 90 points in a single game. He scored fifty-two points and pulled down thirty-one rebounds in the Jayhawks’ debut game. Many in the sports world believe that Kansas’ 54-53 triple-overtime loss to UNC in that season’s NCAA final is the finest college basketball game ever played (at least until last April).
When Chamberlain arrived in Kansas, suspicions of recruitment violations were raised due to the red and white convertible Oldsmobile he was driving. He was reported as saying, “I bought a cheap car several years ago and just worked up,” in a May 1958 AP piece. However,
