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Quick Facts
- NAME: Wilt Chamberlain
- OCCUPATION: Basketball Player
- BIRTH DATE: August 21, 1936
- DEATH DATE: October 12, 1999
- EDUCATION: Overbrook High School, University of Kansas
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Beverly Hills, California
- PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, California
- Full Name: Wilton Norman Chamberlain
- AKA: Wilton Chamberlain
- Nickname: "The Big Dipper"
- Nickname: "Wilt the Stilt"
- Nickname: "Goliath"
- AKA: Wilt Chamberlain
- Nickname: "Dipper"
- Nickname: "The Stilt"
Best Known For
Wilt Chamberlain was the first NBA player to score more than 30,000 cumulative points over his career, and the first and only player to score 100 points in a single game.
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Play NowWilt Chamberlain. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 05:41, May 21, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/wilt-chamberlain-9243766.
Wilt Chamberlain. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/wilt-chamberlain-9243766 [Accessed 21 May 2013].
"Wilt Chamberlain." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 21 2013, 05:41 http://www.biography.com/people/wilt-chamberlain-9243766.
"Wilt Chamberlain," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/wilt-chamberlain-9243766 [accessed May 21, 2013].
"Wilt Chamberlain," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/wilt-chamberlain-9243766 (accessed May 21, 2013).
Wilt Chamberlain [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 21] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/wilt-chamberlain-9243766.
Wilt Chamberlain, http://www.biography.com/people/wilt-chamberlain-9243766 (last visited May 21, 2013).
Wilt Chamberlain. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/wilt-chamberlain-9243766. Accessed May 21, 2013.
Chamberlain stayed with the Warriors as they moved out to San Francisco in 1962. He continued to play well, averaging more than 44 points per game for the 1962-63 season and almost 37 points per game for the 1963-64 season. Returning to his hometown in 1965, Chamberlain joined the Philadelphia 76ers. There he helped his team score an NBA championship win over his former team. Along the way to the championship,
he also assisted the Sixers in defeating the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Division Finals. The Celtics were knocked out of the running after eight consecutive championship wins. Crowds gathered to watch the latest match between two top center players: Chamberlain and Bill Russell.
Traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1968, Chamberlain again proved that he was a competitive and successful athlete. He helped the Lakers win the 1972 NBA championship, triumphing over the New York Knicks in five straight games, and was named the NBA Finals MVP.
Retirement
By the time he retired in 1973, Chamberlain had amassed an amazing array of career statistics. He had played in 1,045 games and achieved an average of 30.1 points per game—the NBA points-per-game record until Michael Jordan broke it in 1998. To this day, Additionally, Chamberlain remains notable for never fouling out of an NBA game.
After his retirement, Chamberlain explored other opportunities. He published his autobiography, Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door, in 1973. He tried coaching for a time, and was a popular pitchman for commercials. Chamberlain later branched out in acting, appearing in the 1984 action film Conan the Destroyer with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Still, his feats as a player were not forgotten. In 1978, Chamberlain was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was named one of the top all-time 50 NBA players in 1996. In 1991, Chamberlain claimed another, more unusual distinction, when he wrote in his book A View from Above that he had slept with more than 20,000 women during his lifetime.
Death and Legacy
Chamberlain died of heart failure on October 12, 1999, at his Los Angeles home. He once said that "no one cheered for Goliath," but the response to his passing proved that to be false. "Wilt was one of the greatest ever, and we will never see another like him," said basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. His former rival Bill Russell told the press that "he and I will be friends through eternity."
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