Wilt Chamberlain entered the NBA history books with 100 points in a single game. However, he was also notorious for his extravagant luxury and sex life. Today, 26 years ago, the NBA legend passed away after a rapid health decline.
They called him “The Big Dipper.”
A nickname that seems peculiar at first glance, but one must know: “The Big Dipper” is the name of the constellation in the USA that is called “Big Dipper” in this country. And so it fits in several respects, the designation for an equally huge and immortal sports phenomenon.
100 points in an NBA game, 55 rebounds in another, the most rebounds overall (23,924), the highest scoring average in a season, the most double-doubles: The list of records and unique achievements by Wilt Chamberlain is unique.
And then “Wilt the Stilt” is also remembered for a rather flamboyant life off the court – which ended under depressing circumstances 26 years ago today.
Wilt Chamberlain: Many records seem utopian today
The 2.16-meter man, born as the son of a craftsman in Philadelphia, was an exceptional phenomenon, already when he entered the NBA in 1959 – after a successful college career with the Kansas Jayhawks and an interlude with the famous Harlem Globetrotters.
In 1973, a career full of records, crowned with two championship and four MVP titles, ended with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Some records will last forever because the modern game no longer allows individual performances like his “100 Point Game” with Philadelphia against the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962. Some records have since been broken; as the all-time leading scorer, Chamberlain was surpassed in 1984 by his Lakers successor Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Meanwhile, this record has also been broken – by LeBron James.
Chamberlain had a noticeably troubled relationship with Abdul-Jabbar; after his career, he repeatedly stood out with strangely hypercritical and sometimes malicious comments against Abdul-Jabbar, who initially admired him.
The dispute also had a political level: Unlike Abdul-Jabbar, who is still known today as a progressive voice, Chamberlain was conservative, close to the Republicans and former President Richard Nixon.
With Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Conan the Destroyer”
After his career – also marked by his sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile rivalry with Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell – Chamberlain became a successful businessman and sports patron.
Due to his special passion for volleyball, he even founded an association in the sport and played for several teams within it.
The “Big Dipper” (whose name actually stemmed from the fact that he had to “dive” bent through many doors because of his height) also immortalized himself in Hollywood: In 1984, Chamberlain played Bombataa in “Conan the Destroyer,” alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Grace Jones, and wrestling star André the Giant.
Chamberlain lived a lavish life – which he could afford: with an annual salary of then unheard of $30,000, he immediately became the NBA’s top earner.
The $1.5 million he later earned with the Los Angeles Lakers was dizzying for the time. It enabled him to own various luxury cars and build a huge estate in the upscale neighborhood of Bel Air (named “Ursa Major,” another constellation pun).
Wilt Chamberlain boasted about his sex life
Chamberlain’s biographer Robert Allen Cherry compared the house to Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion, not only for architectural reasons: Chamberlain, a lifelong bachelor, was also notorious for his promiscuous sex life.
His estimate of having slept with more than 20,000 women – allegedly documented relatively accurately with the help of a calendar – is remembered at least as well as his NBA records. The saying by his lawyer Seymour “Sy” Goldberg, “Others collect stamps, Wilt collects women,” also became famous.
Shortly before his death, Chamberlain himself had already taken a critical look at the hype surrounding his often romanticized womanizer image (“For all those who think it’s really cool to have thousands of women: I’ve learned in my life that it’s much more satisfying to have one woman a thousand times”).
In the era of #MeToo, the perspective has shifted further, also due to a specific accusation by actress Cassandra Peterson.
Peterson, who became famous in the USA through her alter ego “Elvira, Mistress of the Dark,” alleged in her biography published in 2021 that Chamberlain, who was friends with her, forced her to perform oral sex at a party in the seventies – and that she only gained a clear perspective on the alleged incident through #MeToo.
Dental surgery with fatal consequences
In his final years, Chamberlain had severe health problems: He had heart troubles, which were also likely due to his height and the associated strain on his organs.
In 1999, Chamberlain’s condition deteriorated rapidly; he lost over 20 kilograms of body weight. Under these circumstances, the strain of dental surgery, which he underwent in the fall, had fatal consequences.
Chamberlain died on October 12, 1999, at the age of 63.