Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain (21 August 1936-12 October 1999) was an American basketball center who played for the Harlem Globetrotters from 1958 to 1959, the San Francisco Warriors from 1959 to 1965, the Philadelphia 76ers from 1965 to 1968, and the Los Angeles Lakers from 1968 to 1973.
Biography[]
Wilton Norman Chamberlain was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 21 August 1936, and he went to Overbrook High School and the University of Kansas. From 1959 to 1973, he was a legendary NBA basketball player, playing for the Harlem Globetrotters, the San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers. The 7'1 Chamberlain became known as one of the greatest players in NBA history, becoming the only player to score over 100 points in a single game, averaging more than 40 or 50 points. Chamberlain won two NBA Championships, earned four MVP awards, the Rookie of the Year award, and one NBA Finals MVP award. He also became a successful businessman, authoring several books, becoming an actor, and being an infamous bachelor (he claimed to have slept with 20,000 women).
Chamberlain was also involved with politics, and he supported the Republican Party. He denounced the Black Panthers and other Black Power movements of the 1960s, and he supported the Republican Richard Nixon in the 1968 and 1972 presidential elections; he accompanied Nixon to the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. Chamberlain died in Bel Air, California on 12 October 1999 from congestive heart failure at the age of 63.