Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 21, 1936, and passing away in Los Angeles, California, on October 12, 1999, Wilt Chamberlain was a professional basketball player who is regarded as one of the best offensive players in the history of the sport. Standing at a height of almost 7 feet (2.1 meters), Chamberlain was an exceptional center. With 4,029 points, or an average of 50.4 points per game, he became the first player to score more than 4,000 points in an NBA season during his 1961–62 campaign.
Following his play at Philadelphia’s Overbrook High School, Chamberlain was approached by over a hundred colleges and universities during his adolescence. He played at the University of Kansas for two years (1956–1958) before spending a year (1958–59) with the Harlem Globetrotters. In 1959, he entered the NBA and played for the Philadelphia Warriors (1959–65; the team relocated and became the San Francisco Warriors in 1962), the Philadelphia 76ers (1965–68), and the Los Angeles Lakers (1968–73) for the remainder of his career. There was a long-standing, friendly rivalry between Chamberlain and Boston Celtics star Bill Russell. Many people attribute the rise in popularity of professional basketball to the excitement these players created during their games.
In Hershey, Pennsylvania, on March 2, 1962, he scored 100 points against the New York Knicks, which remains the greatest single-game achievement in professional basketball history. In regular season play, he also recorded 61 games with 56 or more points scored, 36 field goals in one game (March 2, 1962), and 55 rebounds in one game (Nov. 24, 1960). The fact that Chamberlain never fouled out of an NBA game is his greatest achievement. In 1978, he was chosen for admission to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door, his autobiography coauthored with David Shaw, was released in 1973. In 1991, Chamberlain also released A View from Above, a more candid book about his personal life.
