While NBA legends like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant dominate the NBA GOAT debate, Wilt Chamberlain occupies the space almost as a mythical monster, who nobody has seen, but everybody has heard stories about. Modern NBA fans mostly seem to be confused as to what to make of Chamberlain’s astronomical numbers. Some even dare to question his greatness citing the lack of a comparable number of Championships in his resume. Therefore, a Redditor recently unearthed two contemporary Sports Illustrated reports to understand the prevalent narrative around Chamberlain and decipher why he was traded in his prime despite putting up unprecedented numbers.
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Wilt Chamberlain is mostly remembered by posterity as the guy who scored 100 points in a single NBA game and who averaged 50 points throughout the course of a season. However, few people know that the 7’1 giant was actually traded by the then San Francisco Warriors to the Philadelphia 76ers, just three years after Chamberlain’s 100-point game in Hershey, Pennsylvania in 1962.
Wilt Chamberlain was seen as a Rolls-Royce with a broken horn by San Francisco fans
A Redditor recently highlighted excerpts from two Sports Illustrated reports from the 60s to portray Wilt Chamberlain’s situation in his prime. According to this 1964 SI report, “A year ago the San Francisco fan, paying his money to see Wilt play, got his 50 points’ worth all right, but he still felt like someone who bought a Rolls-Royce only to discover that the horn didn’t work… [The fans] did not get to see the Warriors win very often, and no citizen of San Francisco is going to stand for that very long.”
The report even claimed that local fans only filled their Arena when the mighty Boston Celtics came to play and during those occasions, the home crowd would actually root for the Celtics against the Warriors. Meanwhile, the recruitment of head coach Alex Hannum started to turn things around for the Warriors in 1964.
Hannum diagnosed the problem for the Warriors soon and started making amends. “I realized how completely inadequate the team had become. They had learned to depend on Wilt so completely they were even incapable of beating a squad of rookies.” Chamberlain’s teammates showed little enthusiasm about playing with Wilt because the 7’1 big man had a reputation for not passing the ball. So much so, that one Eastern sportswriter would accuse him of stacking stats instead of trying to win chips, “Chamberlain is a loser. Has been all his life. Neither his college nor his pro team has ever won a title, because he won’t take coaching. All he wants to do is score points.”
Hannum’s system of capitalizing Chamberlain as an all-round player fell apart in nine months and Chamberlain was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers the next year on a $50,000 deal involving three other players. A 1965 SI report claimed the 76ers had probably overestimated Wilt’s ability to attract crowds, “…The 76ers’ owners are deluding themselves about Wilt’s gate appeal. Actually, he is only a one-time attraction, and most people in Philadelphia (his real home town) have seen him already.”
Chamberlain once threw shade at Shaq
Wilt Chamberlain once claimed that Shaq wouldn’t be able to play in his era. Citing his bench press record of 600 lbs, the two-time NBA Champion said that Shaq’s physical style of play wouldn’t work in his time.
Chamberlain is the only man on Shaq’s path to becoming the most dominant NBA player ever. However, if his stat-padding allegations are to be believed, the Big Diesel surely has an edge over him.
