When LeBron James and Michael Jordan were both retired, did Wilt Chamberlain ever claim he would defeat them both one-on-one?

Just before LeBron James started high school, Wilt Chamberlain passed away. When Wilt passed away in 1999, he was most likely 14 years old.

 

When he passed away, Michael Jordan had only been retired by the Bulls for around a year.

 

It is clear that Wilt was unaware of LeBron’s identity, and he would undoubtedly claim the same about Jordan.

 

He would most likely tell Jordan that he did. When Wilt was Lou Alcindor, Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s big brother.

During the summer, when Wilt was not playing in the NBA and Kareem was a high school star at Power Memorial, they would spend time together in New York City.

 

They actually spent time together; Wilt dressed him, and they occasionally went out at night, but usually they played basketball on the playgrounds in New York City.

 

In his Showtime documentary from a few years back, Wilt discusses this. One bizarre, humorous story.

 

When Wilt and Kareem are in an elevator one day and this other dude turns around or gets on, whatever, he asks

 

“Hey, big guys. How’s the weather up there?”

 

Wilt Chamberlain tells the man it’s raining and spits on his head.

 

Jabbar has never been the type of man to make things up in public, so I doubt he’s doing it now that Wilt is unable to defend himself. This is a factual story, as given by Kareem.

 

In any case, their bond remained big brother-little brother even when Jabbar joined the NBA; Wilt was nearing the end of his career, and Kareem was the younger brother.

 

However, things changed when Jabbar started smashing Wilt’s records, and Chamberlain started criticizing Kareem in public.

 

This was his mentor and older brother, and it got serious and disturbed Kareem. In 1990, he wrote a section of his memoir that said something like this.