Wilt Chamberlain

1936–1999 · 63 years Specialist

A Philadelphia kid who outgrew basketball's own rulebook

Portrait of Wilt Chamberlain — Bill Allen — 1960 — Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Wilt Chamberlain was the sixth of nine children in a West Philadelphia family, his father a welder and handyman, his mother a domestic worker, and as a toddler he nearly died of pneumonia, missing an entire year of school. He entered Overbrook High School already 6-foot-11 and left it 7-foot-1, good enough at basketball to break the city scoring record and good enough at track to run a 49-second 440 and clear 6 feet 6 inches in the high jump. Recruiting letters came from more than 200 colleges; Chamberlain chose the University of Kansas in 1955, scored 52 points and grabbed 31 rebounds in his varsity debut, and found a Lawrence, Kansas still segregated enough that he and other Black students were barred from many of the restaurants and theaters near campus.

Chamberlain debuted for the Philadelphia Warriors in 1959 and won Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season, the only player ever to take both at once. On March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, he scored 100 points in a single game against the Knicks — still an NBA record, and one no video survives to confirm, only a partial radio broadcast of the fourth quarter. He averaged 50.4 points across the 1961-62 season, led the 76ers to a 1967 championship that ended Boston's eight-year title streak, and closed his career with the Lakers in 1972, part of a 33-game winning streak and a second title. He retired holding 72 NBA records, and the league rewrote its rulebook around him three times over: the free-throw lane was widened, offensive goaltending was banned, and passes over the backboard were outlawed.

For all the records, Chamberlain spent his career losing the argument that mattered most to fans: Bill Russell's Celtics beat his teams in six of seven playoff series between 1959 and 1969, and 'stats versus rings' became the permanent shorthand for the rivalry, however lopsided the underlying numbers actually were. In his 1991 autobiography he claimed to have slept with 20,000 women, a figure that works out to more than two new partners every day for 33 straight years; sportswriters, and eventually Chamberlain himself, walked the number back as exaggeration, though it followed him past his death regardless. He never married and left no legally acknowledged children — a man named Aaron Levi later claimed to be his son, but Chamberlain's surviving family declined to allow the DNA testing that could have settled it either way.

Chamberlain died at his Bel Air home on October 12, 1999; his agent said the cause was congestive heart failure, following heart problems his doctors had flagged for months. Four franchises and his college retired his number 13, an unusual sweep for a player who moved teams as often as he did, and the Basketball Hall of Fame had already enshrined him back in 1978. The 100-point game and the 50.4-point season are treated today less as records to chase than as evidence of a different sport entirely — nobody has approached either since the league widened the lane and rewrote its rules specifically to slow him down.

Lifespan

15401700180019002030

Wilt Chamberlain's life against the full span of the corpus.

Notable works

100-point game other
March 2, 1962, vs. the New York Knicks, in Hershey, Pennsylvania 1962
1966-67 NBA championship other
Philadelphia 76ers — ended the Celtics' eight-year title streak 1967
1971-72 NBA championship other
Los Angeles Lakers — part of a 33-game winning streak season 1972
Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door book
First autobiography 1973
A View From Above book
Second autobiography, source of the disputed 20,000-partner claim 1991

Life in brief

with age at each point

August 21, 1936 aged 0 Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1955 aged ~19 Enrolls at the University of Kansas
October 24, 1959 aged 23 Makes his NBA debut with the Philadelphia Warriors 43 points, 28 rebounds; wins Rookie of the Year and MVP.
March 2, 1962 aged 25 Scores 100 points against the New York Knicks
1967 aged ~31 Wins his first NBA championship with the 76ers
1972 aged ~36 Wins a second championship with the Lakers
1978 aged ~42 Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
October 12, 1999 aged 63 Dies at his Bel Air home, at 63