Wilt Chamberlain is an NBA icon surrounded by mystique. The Big Dipper is famous for several records, including his legendary 100-point game. But the stories about Wilt aren’t limited to what he did on the court. John Salley has a story about the night he met the two-time champion.
Advertisement
Meeting Wilt was not as simple as it sounds. The big guy had a certain reputation that he always protected, for reasons only he knew. When Wilt met Shaquille O’Neal for the first time in 1992, he aggressively shook the Diesel’s hand, almost like he was trying to assert his dominance. Shaq was just a rookie then, but you could tell he wasn’t fazed for a second.
Salley’s story was a little more fun. The Bulls and Lakers legend was a recent guest on the Rich Eisen program, where he recalled going out one night as a rookie with famed TV personality Arsenio Hall. It was on that night that he met the Goliath.
“I met Wilt Chamberlain that night. He hit me in my stomach. Wilt had this thing. I was told not to loosen up around Wilt. He will try you somehow. I’m sitting there, and he hit me in my stomach and he’s like, ‘Oh, you got a good core,'” shared Salley, which made Eisen and company laugh.
That wasn’t the only famed Lakers center he encountered. Salley revealed that he nearly met Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, too, but Cap didn’t acknowledge him because he hadn’t made a name for himself in the league yet. “I saw Kareem, and Kareem didn’t talk to me. He had nothing to say. He talked to my brother Ron, but he was like, ‘I don’t talk to rookies.'”
Honestly, it sounds like the best night ever for Salley. He got to experience two of the greatest basketball players of all time in back-to-back encounters, and both went exactly the way you’d expect for each man.
Salley’s Chamberlain praise earlier this year
Speaking highly of Chamberlain isn’t new for Salley, who appeared on the OGs podcast earlier this year to discuss Chamberlain’s freakish physicality. For instance, the fact that the 7″2 center could run a 40-yard dash at the same speed as an NFL wide receiver was astounding.
“Wilt Chamberlain ran a 4-5-40,” stated Salley, which made the OGs’ hosts gasp. “Right? He was 7’2.” Thinking about a guy that big who can run as fast certainly puts an anchor on any conspiracy theories about Wilt not actually dropping 100 in one game.
“So imagine…he can run this fast, high jump, shot put, Arnold Schwarzenegger said he’s the strongest man he’s ever seen in his life,” added Salley. The group then joked that his ‘sleeping with over 20,000 women‘ made sense.
That’s why, even in 2025, Chamberlain is still worth talking about. The accomplishments he had on the court were sometimes barely matched by the wild accolades he earned off it. He truly lived life to the fullest.
