01x01 - Episode 1

[bunniefuu]

[Wilt Chamberlain] There's
just no way the average guy

could envision what it's like
being a seven-footer.

When that seven-footer
is also black, rich,

famous,
and dominates his sport

as no other man in history
has dominated any sport,

well, you can see
how difficult it is

for people to relate to me.

I am judged
on what people have said,

not what I actually have done.

My guess is you have certain
preconceptions about me.

My guess is, too,
that you're wrong.

But when we get
to the end of the story

where they say, can this
poor monster from Philadelphia

really find happiness,

you'll know
just how it feels to be alive.

How it feels to be seven feet
and 1/16th inches tall

with no place to hide.

He's the greatest athlete
that ever played.

Shot block by Antetokounmpo!

What a block from Giannis.

Giannis is incredible
what he can do,

but you're not
Wilt Chamberlain.

Wilt Chamberlain
has a bunch of records

that will never be touched.

Kobe Bryant with 81,

second only to Wilt Chamberlain.

He did score 100 points
in a basketball game.

100 points.

Wilt against Michael,
my prime and his prime.

How much money would you
be willing to bet?

He's been polarizing
for over half a century now.

There's two numbers
in basketball.

There's Wilt getting 100,

and Russell
getting 11 championships.

They were marketed
as Russell being the good guy

and Wilt being the villain.

In his mind, there's
constantly a dialogue

with the external world
about who he is.

Wilt was demanding
to be a part of ownership.

It was revolutionary.

We're out here to make money.

The first player empowerment

all the way back then
in the sixties.

Wilt, what about the young
people in the Black community?

A Black celebrity
who transcended the sport.

It's his claim that he slept
with more than 20,000 women.

20,000 women?

Wilt did always like
to put up numbers.

[laughs]

Today, the NBA
is a global product.

Today, a Black
basketball player

can create
billion-dollar empires,

is able to be
the kind of celebrity

that can influence styles,

and that playbook originally
started with Wilt Chamberlain,

the original gangster
of fashion.

Wilt was a Renaissance man.

[Wilt]
This couldn't have happened

to a fella like myself

anywhere else but in America.

He was the most
important player of all time.

Wilt Chamberlain invented
the world-famous, photogenic,

Black millionaire, seven-foot
tall basketball player.

He created a job
that did not exist before.

Shaq's just
applying for that job.

He was the first rock and roll
superstar in basketball.

Without Wilt, wouldn't be
any Kevin Garnetts.

Wouldn't be any Kobe Bryants.

LeBron James,
Michael Jordans,

wouldn't be none of us.

Wilt Chamberlain was
an absolute m*therf*cker.

I think he is one of the most
misunderstood people

that I've ever seen.

[cheering]

Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain,
the seven-foot giant

of the University of Kansas
Jayhawks,

is one reason
why the Jayhawks

are picked as the team to beat.

The 1957 national
championship game

is the biggest game ever
at the time.

This is Wilt's first time
on the big stage.

He's playing an undefeated team
in North Carolina,

but Kansas, his team,

is actually favored
because he's out there.

North Carolina coach
Frank McGuire

tried to get into Wilt's head

by starting the game
by having Tommy Kearns,

who was 5-11,
jump tip-off against him.

Wilt has his hands on his hips,
looking down at me,

But there's no question
it was a psychological thing,

and that created
the whole atmosphere.

North Carolina came out

with multiple players
swarming around Wilt.

The strategy was fairly basic:
five against one.

[Announcer] Goes to Kindred
on the left.

Down the line to Elstun
for the shot.

It's no good.
Young has the rebound.

And so they're conceding outside
shots for Wilt's teammates.

[Announcer] Out to Parker
to the right of the circle.

He fires the shot,
missed it.

Quite frankly, if they started
hitting a couple of those,

we would have had to
have changed our tactics.

[Announcer] Rosemond
gets it to Cunningham.

Below the circle.
He shoots it.

And then on the other side
of the court,

North Carolina's starting five,

are all capable
of making outside jumpers.

[Announcer] Cunningham over near
the right sideline to Kearns.

He fakes, tries a push shot
from outside and hits.

We shot extremely well.

We got off
to a quick lead on them.

[Announcer]
Takes the shot from outside.

It is no good.

Chamberlain gets the rebound,
sh**t and misses.

But Wilt starts to score.

[Announcer]
In to Chamberlain in the lane.

He shoots and makes it.

24-19.

And then Kansas came back.

[Announcer]
Some help for Chamberlain.

Chamberlain shoots and hits.

Out it comes to Kearns
near the center circle.

Kearns faking with it.

[Kearns] I remember
just dribbling around

because we just wanted
to keep the ball away from Wilt.

d*ck Harp,
who was the coach at Kansas,

should have been a lot more
aggressive with us defensively.

I think strategically
a mistake was made.

[Announcer] Brennan
puts it up and hits it.

It's a hook and he hits it.

Amazing, amazing game.

Eight seconds, seven, six,
five, four.

Driving in, it's Kearns.
He shoots.

It's knocked down
by Chamberlain.

That's it.
A double overtime.

I knew it was going in,

and then out of nowhere,
this guy comes

and knocks it into
the third row of the balcony.

So the game goes in
to not two overtimes,

but triple overtime.

[Announcer]
North Carolina brings it in.

Nine seconds left.

Driving in is Joe Quigg.

And we have a foul,
I believe, on King.

It's on King
with six seconds left.

Shot is up. It's good.

It's tied up 53-53.

Here comes another.

It's up. It's good.

54-53,
North Carolina leading.

Quigg made two foul shots.

Kansas called a timeout.

[Announcer]
In to Loneski.

It's tipped by Kearns.

The ballgame is over.
The Tar Heels win.

They are champions!

It was not a great pass
into Wilt.

Wilt didn't have
a chance at getting it.

The game was over.

This game was the toughest
loss of Wilt's career.

Wilt shot 46% for the game,

and Wilt had 23
of 53 points that Kansas scored,

and his teammates shot 26%.

We were really, ultimately
no match for him,

and nobody was.

So were we lucky? Yes.

We were blessed for one game,
and I'll take it.

[Wilt] I've always been
more bitter about that loss

than almost any other
single game in my whole career.

I guess it's because
that's the game

that started the whole
"Wilt's a loser" thing.

Like Goliath, I was a guy
who should never lose.

No one roots for Goliath,

and no one tells the truth
about him, either.

I like to win.

After all, I wanted to be
the best at what I was doing

long before I even knew
what a basketball was.

My mother and father
had 11 children.

The first two died
with pneumonia

before we were born.

We're all 15 months apart,
all nine of us.

My brother Wilt,
he would be 86 in August.

His birthday's in August.

My father and mother
both did not finish school.

Everybody was poor.

As far as we were concerned,

we were in better condition
than most of my relatives

because we owned a house
with a garage.

Not that we ever had a car.

His father was William.

His mother
was Olivia Chamberlain.

His father was a janitor
at Curtis Publishing.

Wilt's mother was a homemaker

for predominantly
Jewish-American families.

My mom was a very tall,
stunning-looking woman.

My dad was a short guy.

My mother was my height.
I'm 5-9.

Wilt, right away we knew
that he was gonna be tall.

Even at five years old,

he looked like
he was 12 years old.

My father was born in Virginia,

my mother was born
in North Carolina,

and my father
was born on a farm.

My father did not like
the South at all

and refused to go back there
after he got married,

and so he sent
my brothers back there

to do the farm work
every summer.

Which was fine with Wilt,

because he absolutely
loved animals.

And when
he come back from Virginia,

he'd be another two inches
or so taller.

One summer he came home.

At that time we were in
elementary school,

and my mother,
she almost fainted.

She could not believe
he had grown so tall so fast.

Like 6-5.

Wilt stuttered as a child.

Some of the teachers
or administrators

thought that Wilt was slow
because of the stutter.

They asked him questions
in class,

and because he did have
a speech impediment,

he didn't want to respond

and that the kids
would laugh at him.

And they put him in a class
for slow learners.

That OB class
was really something.

It really affected him
emotionally a lot.

He kept saying that
he wasn't learning anything.

He began to lose
his regular personality,

and he really got upset
and started stuttering worse.

He came home really sad.

He got very sick
and had to stay in the bed

for I think almost a month.

My older sister said,
mom, he doesn't belong OB.

He's way too intelligent
to be in this class.

She went to the school,
both her and my mother,

and they fought.

We're all outspoken,
all of us.

We would not let people
take advantage of us.

And they had to put him
in my class.

It makes me sad

that he lived through that
as a fourth grader

when we are most vulnerable.

People would imagine
the abuse for being so tall.

I don't know how tall
you were in sixth grade?

-Absolutely. In fact...
-How bad was it?

It was really very, very bad.

It was actually embarrassing.

It was quite traumatic.

A lot of people looked at a guy
like Wilt Chamberlain

as though
he was some kind of freak,

almost like
he has a disability.

When Wilt was born,
there was no NBA,

and by the time
there was an NBA,

it wasn't necessarily
accessible to Black people.

Nobody goes,
"Oh, you're so tall.

"That's going to lead you
to fame, fortune,

and everything
that goes with it."

Nobody says that.

Because, honestly,
people hadn't seen it.

I grew up in a Christian home.

My mother often would pray

that God would
let her live long enough

to see my brother would
be able to take care of himself.

As she said, God will provide.

He and I both just loved to run.

He would take my hand
every day

and try to get me to be
the fastest girl running

so he could be the fastest boy.

He was chosen to anchor
his elementary school team

that ran in the Penn Relays,

one of the most prestigious
track events in the country.

He said it was
a wonderful feeling.

The applause from the crowd
made him tingle all over,

and it was a moment
that he never forgot.

In the summer, Wilt used
to sleep on the garage at night.

He was fascinated by the stars.

Wilt was a very
unusual human being.

Given the gifts
that God gave him,

and given the way
that he overcame

the path that he was put on
as a child,

he completely
obliterated that.

He started playing basketball.

That was probably one of
the best time of our lives.

I would be at every game.

Well, I've been coaching him
for two years now,

and I marvel
at just watching him play.

Everybody was aware

that someone special
was in West Philadelphia

at Overbrook High School.

There was one game
when he scored 90 points.

His team won the championship

both in his junior year
and senior year.

Wilt Chamberlain
was a phenomenon.

There had never been
a high school athlete

who had got the attention
that Wilt Chamberlain did.

I used to get upset,
quite upset.

All these White men
would come in, these reporters,

and were sitting around
the table and all that,

and I wasn't used to that,

and I didn't want them
to invade our privacy.

And then they start
calling him Wilt the Stilt,

which he did not like at all.

He preferred The Dipper:

the great constellation
in the sky,

the starry night.

To get under the door,
he had to dip his head.

He kept hitting that arch
and getting knocked on his head.

So we got in the habit
of calling him Dip

because we had
to keep telling him dip.

And then
we start calling him Dippy.

Him being as tall as he was,
that was the hardest part.

Trying to get him with
some clothes and some shoes.

When we got in high school,

they made his clothes
for him.

I don't remember
him having a girlfriend

until he got
maybe into college.

He wasn't a lover boy
in those days.

We were all dancers
in our house.

We loved to dance,
but Dip didn't do it.

He just didn't dance
with the girls.

This is Al Packman,
a high school classmate.

"In Wilt's sophomore year,
his coach, Sam Cozen,

"said to me,
do you know any girl

"who can dance with this guy?

"So I went to this girl,
she said she would,

"and then Coach Cozen
said to me,

you stand at the girls' gym
while they're in there dancing."

"And if anyone hears music

"and wants to know
what is going on,

"just tell them to move on.

And that helped Wilt
with his coordination."

He didn't go to his prom.

He didn't go to the things
that we all went to.

I guess he didn't ask nobody

or they didn't want
to go with him.

I don't know what it was,
but he didn't go.

It's hard to be the Black guy
who everybody's looking at

for whatever reason,

because it doesn't make you
feel more safe in the world.

We might have been
juniors in high school,

and as we were walking,

there was a number of people
stopping, gawking.

By golly, look how tall he is.

Wilt trying to hide.

But when you grow
to be seven-feet-one,

you can't hide.

[Wilt] One of the things
that always bothered me

was people always wondered,
well, where do you sleep?

How big is the bed
that you sleep in?

An old lady once asked me
how tall I was,

and I said 6-11.

I was in high school
at the time,

And she said
I just lied to her.

She couldn't believe:
"You gotta be nine feet tall."

People had never seen
a seven-foot kid.

On top of that
he's fast as sh*t.

He's blocking all the shots.

So, yeah, you're
supposed to be stared at.

You're supposed to be looked at

like you're
something different,

because you are.

[Announcer]
Your sports commentator

drove up to New York's
Catskill Mountains

to look in on tall timber,

basketball timber in the person
of Wilton Chamberlain.

Kutsher's Country Club
is a resort in the Catskills.

The Borscht Belt
was the compilation of hotels.

It was like the Jewish Alps.

Kutsher's brought in players
from college and the pros

to work by day,
usually as waiters.

Wilt was still in high school,
which was unusual.

He was a bellhop.

Can you imagine
Wilt Chamberlain

taking your bags
to your room?

At night they would entertain
by playing basketball games.

You saw a 16-year-old
outplay 20-year-olds,

against college All Americans
and kicking their butts.

Remember the name
Wilt Chamberlain.

It'll probably make
big sports copy

for years to come.

I think all of those things
kind of helped him

to get even more confidence.

He stopped stuttering.

Became powerful.

All of these letters here
in front of us,

where do they come from?

Well, from various colleges
all over the nation.

Some from the Midwest, West,

even some from out East here,
even some from the South.

-Some from the South, too.
-Yes, some from the South.

And this is in a period
of segregation.

[Announcer]
Arkansas National Guardsmen,

under orders of Governor Faubus,

preventing
nine n*gro youngsters

from attending the Central
High School in Little Rock.

[Reporter]
The demonstrations

that came to be called
the sit-in movement,

exploded across the South.

And for the first time,

the community
was confronted with Negroes

in places
where they had never been.

When Wilt
decided to go to Kansas,

he was in
a segregated community.

We got to Kansas City.

We stopped at a place
and went in to eat,

and the proprietor
came to the table,

and he knew who I was.

And he said
it was nice to have me here,

but he would be
more than happy

to serve me in the kitchen.

Perhaps more than any athlete,

he understood
how to use his power,

how to leverage what he had

to make sure
that the institutions,

the universities
didn't exploit his labor,

at least not without a fight.

One of his proudest achievements

was desegregating
Lawrence, Kansas,

where the University
of Kansas is.

[Wilt] It took me
about a week to realize

the whole area
around Lawrence

was infested with segregation.

I called on a few of the alums
who had recruited me.

I told them
that in no uncertain terms

what they could do with Kansas

if things didn't get
straightened out in a hurry.

A couple of them told me, look,
sit down in those restaurants

and don't leave
until they serve you.

That is exactly what I did.

I went into every damn place
within 40 miles of Lawrence.

I singlehandedly
integrated that whole area.

Suddenly, restaurants,
lunch counters

would allow the celebrity
Wilt Chamberlain

and his teammates in.

But think about
where we are as a nation

in terms of race relations
at that time.

But after Wilt left,
no, it wasn't lasting.

He began to understand
that he was blessed.

My mother used to say,
you know,

you didn't think you were,
but you are.

After four years of waiting,

Eddie Gottlieb, the owner
of the Philadelphia Warriors

of the National
Basketball Association,

has finally signed
Wilt Chamberlain.

We were coming out of
the era of George Miken,

a very different kind of player.

George Miken was at his time

the greatest big man to...

Man, Wilt destroyed that.

Do you feel that
you are ready for this?

I actually do.

I think there will be
a period of orientation

for me to cross like there is
for every newcomer in the NBA.

But I think in the long run,

I'll be able to handle myself
man to man

with almost anyone
in the league.

He was an exceptional athlete

who just happened to be
seven feet,

as he would say,
and 1/16th of an inch tall.

He would funnel the ball
in the basket.

This was before
the phrase finger roll.

Wilt was an amazing leaper.

Philadelphia trainer
Al Domenico

saw Wilt put a quarter
on the top of a backboard.

Basketball may not have
even have been his best sport.

It might have been
track and field.

He was able to win
back to back to back

Big Eight track championships.

He ran 100 yard dash

in a little less
than 11 seconds

for a seven footer.

He was the fastest player
in basketball.

When he was in a running mode,
it was scary.

Like, please don't hit me
in the head with this ball.

They always said
he was by far

the strongest person
who's ever played in the NBA.

Absolutely. I remember
that he came to the gym

and he would do
a tricep extension

that like the big guys,
the strongest guys

would do
let's say 120 pounds.

He would come
and he would do 170 pounds.

That's how strong he was.

When he first started out,

you saw this
really skinny guy, but...

He got to be
a very powerful man.

Picked up by Bill Russell now.

Knocked out of bounds.

He was the first player
I can remember

ever lifting weights.

We used to work out
once in a while

at this place called
the Philadelphia Athletic Club.

And it was 180 pounds.

Why do I remember that?
I have no idea.

My left hand is up here
and my right hand is down here.

All of a sudden,
Wilt comes walking over

and he said, you mean
you can't pick this up,

180 pounds with one hand?
[laughs]

I used to enjoy
using my power

to amaze other people
and get reactions.

Haskell Cohen,

the publicity director
for the NBA,

has a flat tire.

Wilt comes over and lifts
the back of the car up

so Haskell Cohen
can change the tire.

The frame of reference
is Shaquille O'Neal.

[Announcer]
Up off the rim. Oh!

what a dunk by O'Neal.
Shaquille O'Neal.

Shaq. Face up. sh**t.

They were two
of the strongest players

that ever played the game
period.

And there was nothing
you could do

one on one with them.

Yeah, I think Wilt
was stronger than Shaq.

I think he had
a more powerful upper body.

I played against Shaq

and I firsthand know
what that power is like.

And I'm, like, damn.

Wilt was stronger than Shaq?

He was afraid sometimes
guys trying to block his dunks,

he'd break somebody's wrist
up on the top of the rim.

Size, speed,

strength, and agility.

Young Wilt Chamberlain
might have been

the greatest pure athlete
of the 20th century.

I believe Wilt had three
distinct phases of his career.

This is the first stage
of Wilt's career.

It was the "I'm going to
lead the league in scoring

and maybe set a record" phase.

Wilt comes in, averages
about 38 points per game.

That is the all time
single season scoring record.

He not only wins
Rookie of the Year in 1960,

he's voted
the most valuable player.

The year before,

they played
at about a 35-win pace.

Not a playoff team.

They have one of the worst
offenses in the league.

They jump up to a 50-win pace,

and they now have
an average offense

behind this mega scoring
presence in the paint.

And then the defense,
he inhaled defensive rebounds,

a tremendous defensive presence
and shot blocker.

Ooh!

The universal language,
you know what I'm saying?

And they make the playoffs.

My father, Paul Arizin,

played with Wilt
for three years.

If the Warriors won,

my father would let me
in the locker room.

And Wilt sat
in front of his locker,

and he would eat two
full-size hoagies or subs.

We call them hoagies
in Philadelphia.

And then after that,
he would top it off with a pie.

And you add to that

this infectious
from-the-soul laugh.

I was just in awe
of this almost god.

He was just that much better

than the rest of the league
at that time.

But Wilt had to get past
the Celtics

and Bill Russell.

Bill Russell
was nobody's favorite choice.

He didn't have
a lot of scholarship offers.

He played in San Francisco.

He was
a different kind of player.

He didn't have the stature
that Wilt Chamberlain had.

Bill Russell was 6-10 maybe.

We know famously
that Red Auerbach

was trying to rig the system

so that Wilt Chamberlain
went to school at Harvard

so he could be
his territorial pick

with the Boston Celtics.

In the early fifties,

Kutsher's hired Red Auerbach

as their summer
basketball coach.

Pretty good hire,
if you think about it.

And Red would teach Wilt
something,

say, try to do this,
try to do,

and Wilt would say,
Dipper got it, Red.

Red didn't like that.
[laughs]

But Red loved Wilt.

Red Auerbach
wanted Wilt Chamberlain

over Bill Russell.

Red saw what he would become,

and that's when I think
he got the idea

that he needed a top-flight
center to compete.

[Announcer]
It's a 5-5 game.

West again blocked by Russell.

There was Russell
blocking the shot by West.

Bill was an elite defender,

disrupting teams
with his defensive play.

Great rebounder.

He just had a great nose
for rebounding the ball.

He could have played
successfully

in this league today. Very.

I used
to break it down, like,

make sure that
they only get one shot

and no offensive rebounds.

But Bill Russell
was not a great offensive force.

In fact, his teammate,
Satch Sanders,

famously said once,

if he's 12 feet
from the basket

when he turns around
and sees it,

he looks at it
like it's a snake.

Russell maintained that he
could have scored more points,

but they might have lost

because he had disrupted
the balance of the team.

See, I can't be a star that
always has to have the ball.

I have to be a star

in a way that my teammates
can do what they do.

If I'm getting the rebound
and outlet pass,

we'd have
this fast break going.

In five seconds
we got a basket.

I'm out of the picture.

Russell's measurement
was the success of the team.

How well do you set picks?

How well do you pass the ball

that makes it an easy shot?

I tried to put them in a place

where they could do their best.

[Wilt] On the basketball court,
Russell is my sworn enemy,

which is the way
it ought to be.

But in private life,
he is the greatest

and one of my closest friends.

Wilt and Russ were close.

In those days, the NBA
was really an extended family.

I mean, he'd come past my house
on Thanksgiving,

eat the food,
sleep in my bed,

and go out there and whip
my butt, you understand?

And my mother would say,
now, Wilt,

we shouldn't feed Bill
so well next time.

[both laugh]

[Wilt] The White media
was always building up Blacks

to go against each other,

sort of, okay, n*gg*s,
let's see who can fight.

Blacks constantly
have to demonstrate

superiority against each other.

That left
only one Black superstar

to challenge
the White superstars.

The league they entered into,

Russell was one
of the very few Black players

at all in the NBA in 1956,

and one of the reasons that
he was available to the Celtics

as the third pick in the draft
is that the St. Louis Hawks

were not going to have
a Black player period.

The NBA started in 1947.

It was a segregated league.

1950, they bring in
three guys:

the great Earl Lloyd,
Chuck Cooper,

and Sweetwater Clifton.

These three guys
in this eight team league

of about 80, 85, 90 guys.

You can't take Wilt
out of his era.

Wilt's not just
a basketball player

in the way we might think of
LeBron James or Kevin Durant.

He is trying to navigate

an actively hostile
structure and system.

100% they changed the rules
in college and the pros

to target and limit
Wilt Chamberlain.

At that time,
the lane area was six feet,

and they adjusted it
to 12 feet

to at least get him a little
further away from the basket.

Back then, the rule was

you just had to start
from behind the free throw line.

So Wilt would
take a running start

and slam dunk his free throws.

Well, the NCAA
changed that rule.

Said you have to
release the ball

behind the free throw line.

I saw the rule change
as, okay, you're at this level.

In order for everybody else
to catch up,

we need to slow something down.

So that the game
can be more fun

for these short White guys.

Also more fun for the White
guys in the audience to watch.

In 1958,
a former colleague of mine,

Shirley Povich,
wrote for Sports Illustrated,

"The game lost this
particular patron years back

"when it went vertical

"and put the accent
on carnival freaks

"who achieved upper space
by growing into it.

"Who can applaud Wilt the Stilt
or his ilk

"when they outflank
the basket from above

"and pelt it like an open city?

"These fellows
are biological accidents

"who ought to be more
usefully employed,

"like hiring out as rainmakers

and going to sow a few clouds."

It was a vastly different world.

When Wilt
came into the NBA in 1959,

NBA owners felt

that if there were too many
Black players on the roster,

White fans
would not come to the game.

For years,
the attendance was so poor.

But when Bill and Wilt
started playing each other,

those were the games
that would sell out.

The league didn't matter
until Wilt came along.

It's Wilt that put
the fannies in the seats.

People were mesmerized by him.

Wilt was this genius
of marketing...for Wilt.

That was always there.

In the field
of professional basketball,

one man is virtually
the unanimous choice.

Here he is, the star of
the Philadelphia Warriors,

Wilt Chamberlain right here.

[applause]

[audience laughs]

He was the first rock and roll
superstar in basketball.

What one thing
would you say

has helped you
to reach the heights?

My appetite.

[audience laughs]

Wilt Chamberlain
was living in New York City

and would commute
to play in Philadelphia.

He's the one that showed up
half an hour before the game,

ate three hot dogs and went out
and scored 70 points.

He was a fast driver
to put it real nice.

Lived in New York
because he liked the buzz.

He was this
larger than life personality

who was walking into clubs
with two women on his arm.

He played the ponies

and purchased a pony,
Spooky Cadet.

He cut a record.

By the river

'Neath the shady trees

Just my baby

That was one
of the funnier parts.

A lot of my family were singers.

Wilt was not.
Of course, he thought he was.

He was okay in the church choir

because you know
how they take anybody

in the church choir almost.

But he just felt
like he could do anything.

He liked people.

He liked meeting people,
talking to people.

But there was
a flip side to it,

because it was unrelenting.

Fans would often
come up to Wilt

and say,
how's the weather up there?

Wilt's response was usually
I got a phone in my a*s.

Why don't you call and find out?

So there was all these different
kinds of people that he was.

On one hand, Wilt wanted
to be like everybody else.

On the other hand,
I think he liked the idea

that he was a bon vivant.

I think he liked the idea

that he was an owner
of a very important nightclub.

Smalls Paradise was considered
a big thing in New York.

Smalls was a great place
for dancing, dinner, jazz,

and some of
the hottest foxes in Harlem.

He liked to dress cool.

He had a rap,

and you could tell
when he got excited

because he'd stutter
every once in a while.

And then one
of the things

that he'd say
when he leaves you,

he said, I'll dig you later.

[laughs]

And Wilt would have in this club
a young Cassius Clay,

Muhammad Ali.

He'd have Langston Hughes,
the poet.

He'd have Willie Mays,
Sammy Davis, Jr.,

and they'd party
till 6:00 in the morning.

Everything about Wilt
was excessive.

His personality,
the way he played the game,

the statistics he put up,

the amount of women

that he may
or may not have bedded.

Wilt embraced
this bachelor's philosophy.

I mean, that's Hugh Hefner,
that's Jim Brown.

A lot of well-known men
during that period of time

were doing their version
of the same thing,

and a lot of men
are looking at that,

wishing that they
could do the same thing.

He was a womanizer.

The more money you have,
the more women you have,

especially when you're looking
at a high-priced athlete.

It comes with the territory.

Women would walk up
and they'd look down,

they'd look up, and they'd
have that smile on their face.

[laughs]

That's how life went with Wilt.

There were women who kind of
threw themselves at him.

I chose Wilt.

I chose him,
and I went to go be with him.

I grew up in San Jose.

I was at San Jose State,

and I heard a rumbling
on the beach one day

that Wilt Chamberlain was there,

so I went down.

Totally not connected to him.

Had never met him before.

Saw where he was sitting.
I looked around,

I looked for an approach angle

so I could go up and meet him.

I was figuring out what
I was going to say to him,

and before I could do that,
he read my T-shirt.

It said "San Jose" on it.

He said, "Hey, San Jose,
come here, sit down."

[laughs]

And we talked, and already
we were bantering and bickering.

Track and field
was a connection

because he loved
track and field,

and I didn't know that.

I ran the 100 yards

and 220 yards
at San Jose State,

and he said,
you want to run with me?

You want to see
the prettiest runner?

[laughs]

Of course, I wanted
to be able to say, yeah.

I was with Wilt.

Not only did we have great sex,

but we slept
really well together.

And that to me
was an indicator

that that might be fun
to keep doing.

I knew he was a player.

It's the sex
in the sports world game.

I had the sense the more
of his teammates I talked to

that Wilt absolutely
loved basketball,

he loved his women,
and he loved himself.

He was gonna do
what he wanted to do.

Wilt could be difficult
to coach certainly.

There's a moment
early in his career

when Wilt is coached
for the Warriors

by Neil Johnston.

And at halftime,
Johnston says, "Wilt,

there's a guy out in the corner
making all these shots."

And Wilt said, "Well,
I'm not gonna be covering him.

You know, I'm going to be
the guy in the middle."

And it was Wilt saying, "You're
the coach, but I'm the man."

[Wilt]
I know basketball, too.

If a coach told me to do
something I knew was stupid,

I wasn't gonna do it.

Quite frankly, while you have to
be honest with your superstar,

you can't be over-judgmental.

You just can't.

And you as a coach

have to find your way
around that.

In 1961-62,

Eddie Gottlieb
hires a new coach.

His name is Frank McGuire.

Frank McGuire
coached against Wilt

in the famous
triple overtime game.

Who knew that Frank McGuire
and Wilt would rendezvous

in a much more interesting
capacity in Philadelphia?

And McGuire told his players,

we're going to get the ball into
Wilt two thirds of the time.

[Wilt] He actually
put me in a position

to have maybe
the greatest single season

that I think
a basketball player

could possibly ever have.

We had no one
that could bother him. No one.

In 1961, Wilt averaged
50 points a game.

50 points a game.

And these are
double and triple teams.

That's video game sh*t, man.

There's always
the statements that are made

in terms of, well, Wilt
never played against anybody.

They were all six-foot-five
White boys that couldn't jump.

That's what they say,
and that's not true.

Can you imagine
if he could sh**t foul shots

what he would have averaged?

They would hard foul him because
he couldn't make a free throw.

That's the only weakness
that Wilt had.

He tried to do
the Rick Barry way,

you know, underhanded.

But he still was better

than he was
sh**ting it the other way.

[Wilt] I'm a psychic.

I'm a head case
when it comes to the foul line.

It was a sad sight.

So if you have a weakness
in your game,

you got to be smart
and play around it.

Wilt came up with this
unstoppable fallaway jump shot.

The man worked on his game.

There is nobody better
in the league

with that fade away jumper
than Dirk Nowitzki.

Dip had that shot
before Dirk Nowitzki.

Wilt said that he never
wanted to come out of a game,

so McGuire played him
every minute of every game.

The fun trivia
is that he averaged

more than 48 minutes a game
thanks to overtimes.

It's astounding that Wilt
could, in the same body,

have inexhaustible stamina.

Never fouled out of a game.

I mean, it was
a remarkable accomplishment.

And we should give him credit
for providing that value

throughout the whole game.

But pace is a huge deal

when we compare numbers
across era.

And the short of it is
they just took way more shots

than we would see today

because they weren't as careful
about being efficient.

But when you account for pace,
you actually start to see

that it's very close
to the mega scoring seasons

of the 1980s,
of the 1990s,

of the 2000s.

They're usually around
35 points every 75 possessions.

Wilt still looks like one
of the greatest scorers ever.

He just doesn't look like

this complete
video game outlier anymore.

You just don't show up and do
that if you're not phenomenal.

Let's face it.

I don't care how many times
they throw him the ball.

Wilt's signature night
happens on March 2, 1962.

Game 75 out of 80
at the Hershey Arena

in Hershey, Pennsylvania,
the famed chocolate town.

And they're playing
the New York Knicks,

a last-place team.

They had teams play

some of their home games
in nearby arenas

trying to grow new fans
all across America.

There's no footage

because nobody deemed the game
worthy enough to cover.

The rebound, Luckenbill.

Back to Ruklick,
in the Chamberlain.

He got it! He got it!

He got it!
The tip is good. He made it!

He scores the 100-point basket
with 46 seconds left to play.

And all the kids of Hershey,

the sons and daughters
of chocolate factory workers,

storm the court.

They say records
are made to be broken.

There's not a chance
in the world

that anybody will even
come close to doing that.

He was Paul Bunyan
from a basketball point of view.

But to Wilt,
the 100-point game

symbolized that he was a gunner

and that he cared only
about his own statistics.

In the '62 season,
Wilt scored 4,000 points.

Nobody's done that since.

But he got crushed in the MVP
by Bill Russell.

How do you explain this?

It's easy. The players
voted for it back then.

The players voted for Russell,

and they knew
that Wilt was chasing stats

and wasn't fun to play with.

All them would rather
have played with Russell.

Tom Gola was the golden boy.

He'd been a star at La Salle
in the NCAA tournament,

and he didn't like having Wilt
on his team that much.

He told one player
from another team,

he was just bouncing
the ball against the wall.

Ball would ricochet back to him.

Somebody said,
"What are you doing?"

He said,
"I'm practicing our offense.

Pass the ball to Wilt
and just stand there."

Was he selfish?
I don't think he was selfish.

I think he had to sh**t
as much as he could

for his team to win.

The more we got him the ball,
the more games we would win.

So we tried to get the ball
to him as much as we could.

And if the team doesn't win,
then he gets blamed for it.

But he was a team player.

I never felt like I was
giving up my shots for Wilt.

The best basketball player
on the team

should have the ball.

And I think a lot of players
were jealous, frankly.

And I am reasonably sure

that some of the anger
and the jealousy

that was directed at Wilt
had to do with this,

you know, the fact that
he dated White women.

Wilt and I were chatting up
a couple of stewardesses,

and we were gonna
double date two White women.

When we were
getting off the plane,

some of the White guys
on the team

were giving me a hard time
for pimping for Wilt.

I was not a r*cist,
but I wanted to fit in.

I wanted the guys to like me.

That's a very immigrant
kind of mentality,

and I was an immigrant.

So I went against
my better self.

I called Wilt,

and I said I was sick
and I couldn't make it.

To make the story worse,
of course,

I decided, that stewardess,

maybe I could talk her into
going out with me anyway.

Well, I walked in
the back door of the hotel,

and sure enough, as the gods
of justice would have it,

Wilt Chamberlain was walking in
the front door, and he saw me.

And I turned around.

I scurried like the rat
I felt like out the back.

The next day at practice,

we're walking
out of the locker room,

and Wilt pulls me back.

He took his finger and he said,
I'm Black, you're White,

Tom, You got to make
some decisions.

It was just simple kindness.

I'll never forget that.

Through Wilt's kindness,

I learned to be
a better human being.

I mean, honestly, I think
when you talk about the history

of Black athletes
in the twentieth century,

we celebrate
and we praise those individuals

who used their platform
to advocate for social justice.

Jackie Robinson,
Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell.

Wilt Chamberlain comes from
a very different tradition.

Jack Johnson, in the early part
of the twentieth century,

would become the first
Black heavyweight champion

and a threat
to dominant White society.

Jack Johnson
was about the individual.

I'm not trying
to appeal to White people.

I'm not trying to appeal
to Black people.

I'm my own man.

Down the line,
you get Wilt Chamberlain,

who was basically
about individuality,

which is eminently American.

And even though
in today's society

that might sound selfish,

that was a radical position
for a Black man to take.

Sure, he had an ego,

but so did Monet,
so did Einstein.

We're talking about
incredible talent.

I'll guarantee you
some guys on a few teams

would have been very happy
to be on Wilt's team.

We were always in the playoffs.

1962, the Warriors
are competitive enough

to take on as an underdog

Bill Russell
and the Boston Celtics

with the winner
going to the NBA Finals.

It was his best supporting cast
up to that time.

Paul Arizin
was still viable. Gola.

Guy Rodgers, a terrific
Hall of Fame-bound point guard.

Tom Meschery.

But it wasn't the equal
of the Celtics.

This is a team that had won
the world championship

in 1957, '59, '60, '61.

They had the best record
in the league in 1962 by a mile.

This is a Celtic team
that in those years

had upwards of eight
Hall of Famers on the team.

You know, I've heard
that argument before,

but it's more than that.

Bill Russell
had a mental tenacity

that I'm going to argue
Wilt Chamberlain did not.

I never tried
to stop him from scoring.

That would be doomed to failure.

What I would do sometimes
is push him

another two inches
away from the basket.

That changes the angle
to make him less efficient.

Basically, his strategy

was to try to make
Wilt move laterally

more than he wanted to.

There was no doubt

that Russell had greater
lateral mobility always.

In the series,

Wilt only averaged
37 points per game,

13 points below
the regular season.

Wilt played for a coach
that didn't utilize him

as effectively as
he should have been utilized.

How do you say that?

Look at all the points
and stuff he scored.

Well, yeah, but it wasn't
good team basketball.

In the playoffs,

when one player
is doing all the sh**ting

without passing
and setting up your teammates,

defenses overload on Wilt.

It becomes
less efficient to score.

Meanwhile, the other guys
aren't going to be as effective

because you're not creating
any shots for them.

But the fact is that they were
in it because of Wilt.

This is the series

in which he had
a 40-point, 30-rebound game.

That series was tremendous.

[Announcer]
Bob Cousy and Sam Jones,

who's had a great series.

Back and forth.

[Announcer]
This is Al Attles.

The Warriors
take it to game seven.

[Announcer]
A big play by Bill Russell.

Chamberlain gets the score.

Heinsohn.

He's gotta be 12 and a half,
13 feet off the ground

reaching for this ball.

It's called a goaltend

to put the Celtics up five
in the final minutes.

It's controversial.

I think it's a goaltend.

They don't call them every time,

but at that point in the game

it could have gone either way.

Wilt makes two free throws
the next time down the court

to cut it to three.

It's a turnover for the Celtics.

And then with
only a few seconds left...

Just a ridiculous
offensive rebound.

He scored five points
in the final minute.

Russell isn't a scorer.

He's not gonna be
taking the shot

down the stretch of a key game.

Russell can help the team
by setting screens,

opening up pathways
for his teammates to score.

[Announcer]
Russell and Sam Jones.

[crowd cheers]

And Sam Jones hits a shot

to just knock off
Philadelphia.

[Wilt] No one is as lonely
as the loser.

It doesn't matter to me
whether I score at all

as long as we win.

There's not anything
that is beyond me

if I dedicate myself to it.

And I like a challenge.