01x03 - Episode 3

[bunniefuu]

[Announcer] Sitting majestically
on one of the highest hills

in the sumptuous Bel Air section
of Los Angeles

it's a domicile
as dazzling as Disneyland

and even larger than its owner,
who is a giant of a man.

Wilt agreed to give us
his own description

of this marvelous pad
on a hilltop.

Here he is big as life.

Well, like most people,

I always dreamed
of owning a home.

Wilt built his own house.

From the outside,

the house looked like
Darth Vader's helmet.

There were triangles everywhere.

As first I thought
is he doing this right?

But then it ended up being
a fabulous, fabulous house.

[Wilt Chamberlain]
As you look around the house,

it really represents me,

and it's just really too complex

to just sum it up
in a sentence.

It really is
a lot of different things,

as I think I'm probably
a lot of different things.

He had wolf fur on the floor
and over on the couch.

I'm, like, wow,
this really is wolf.

I mean, it has whiskers
and everything.

There were doors
that were nine feet tall

so he wouldn't have to duck.

Then he had water
all through his house.

There was a hole.

We could literally jump in
from the living room,

and then we would just swim
under the house

to take us around the pool.

I loved the round waterbed.

We called that
the triple X room.

We would go in there
and play in there

and jump in there.

As I became an adult,

I wondered to myself, okay,

when was he doing
in that room? [laughs]

That was a special room.

That was a special room.

I am a bachelor,

so I tried to create
a type of house

that would give me the mood

that a bachelor
would normally like to have.

If I'm not mistaken,

before Hugh Hefner
purchased his mansion,

he used to borrow
Wilt Chamberlain's home

for his parties.

Was I thinking in my teens,

you don't wanna get a job,
you wanna invent a job.

Wilt Chamberlain
invented the world famous,

photogenic, millionaire,

seven-foot-tall
basketball player.

He created a job
that did not exist before.

Hello,MTV Cribviewers.

It is I, Shaquille O'Neal.

This is my house.

By the time you get to Shaq,

Shaq's just applying
for that job.

When he built his house,

Wilt called it Ursa Major,

the Big Dipper.

Right next to the bed,
there was a button.

Press that button,
the ceiling went back

and there was the sky.

[Gary Pomerantz]
And at night,

he would look up
at a starry night.

[Robert Cherry] And he liked
to gaze at something

even bigger than himself.

So we're gonna call this
the Saboteur Hall of Fame.

Wilt Chamberlain, he's really
kind of the poster boy

for the Saboteur Hall of Fame.

In 1965, Frank Deford wrote
aSports Illustratedarticle

about how Wilt

had just forced his way
out of San Francisco.

He tried to leave Kansas twice.

He tried to leave Philly
after his rookie year.

And meanwhile they have no idea

he's gonna do it again in 1968

when he forces them
to trade him to the Lakers.

[Wilt] All satisfying stories
have a bad guy,

a villain to make the good guy
look even better.

During my playing days,
I was a classic bad guy.

Controversy followed me
wherever I went.

Many times, though,
the bad guy becomes the good guy

as the plot unfolds.

If Ike Richman was still alive,
during that period of time,

I think Wilt would have
stayed in Philadelphia

the rest of his career.

[Announcer]On the right,
president Irv Kosloff,

sole owner
after the death of Ike Richman.

Back in '68,
we had a situation

where Wilt and Irv Kosloff
had a disagreement.

Ike Richman had promised Wilt
a piece of the 76ers.

That he would have
a share of the team,

and my dad acknowledged
that that may be true.

But there never was
anything in writing,

so was Wilt gonna buy it?

Was it going to be
in lieu of salary?

I think it's highly unlikely

that we were just gonna give him
a share of the team,

because he had no basis for it

other than a verbal promise
that Ike Richman told him.

The 76ers
wouldn't be worth anything

if not for Wilt Chamberlain.

He knew what he was worth.

He was way before his time

to be able to perceive
why can't I own a team?

But my dad felt one owner
making decisions

was the best way to do things.

And Wilt said, look,

if you're not gonna
treat me right, I'm out.

There was no free agency
back in those days.

That didn't come till later.

So the players
really didn't have much say

in what they did.

But Wilt was, like,
if I don't like it here,

I'm gonna figure out a way

that you're gonna
not want me here anymore

so I can get over there.

Wilt did a lot of complaining
to the press.

We're out here to make money.

We're playing something
that we love to do,

but the primary interest for you
is how much you can make.

On July 9, 1968,

Wilt's traded
to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Sometimes I sit back

and I just wonder
the impact that had

on the whole franchise.

Maybe it could have been
resolved

if he had part of the team.

That might have been the answer.

It would have changed the course
of history, too, by the way.

If that team
could have stayed together

and could have stayed healthy,

no one would have beaten them
for a few years.

They had it all.

The thing that Wilt Chamberlain
often gets criticized for

is the thing that players do now
all the time,

which is moving around a lot.

Player empowerment
has always been

a scary dynamic
in professional sports.

Let me be very specific.

Black player empowerment

has been a scary dynamic
for professional sports.

The people
who did it earliest

often are the ones
that are most villainized,

and in Wilt Chamberlain's case,

it's astounding
that during that time

where speaking up for yourself
as a Black person

could cost you your life,

that he was willing to say

this is what I demand.

Wilt understood people are
treating me like a commodity,

so why don't I act like one?

And you know what?
I wanna go to L.A.

Very happy to announce

that Wilt Chamberlain
has signed

a five year contract

with the Los Angeles Lakers.

You would have thought
the Lakers

had won the lottery, right?

Because you get
Wilt Chamberlain.

You've got Jerry West, one of
the great players of all time,

Elgin Baylor, one of the
greatest players of all time,

This Lakers team in 1969
is so fun

because they were
the first super team ever.

I feel very, very happy
that I've been traded to a team

that I believe
may stand a chance to be...

go down in the records

as one of the best teams
in basketball ever.

Everyone thought the Lakers

were going to walk over
the league,

and that's not quite
what happened.

Butch Van Breda Kolff,
the coach,

got off on the wrong foot
with Wilt

and never got on the right foot.

There was a total
personality clash,

and he was asking things
of me to do

that I didn't feel altogether
that they were right.

The success of great teams

comes from trying to get more
than the sum of your parts.

There's only one ball,

and you need to learn
to share that ball

in a way that
makes you more efficient.

Wilt loved to set up
on the left block,

but Butch Van Breda Kolff

was focusing on spacing,

setting screens,

similar to Bill Russell
in the high post,

creating driving lanes
for West and Baylor.

But Wilt doesn't want to move
up to the high post.

Part of it is probably
selfishly motivated

in the sense that he doesn't
want to play away from the ball.

Well, if you're
Wilt Chamberlain,

you're like, really?

I'm the greatest talent
you've ever coached.

I can score at will,

and you're gonna have me
set screens?

I can understand Wilt
chafing at that, to be honest.

With Van Breda Kolff's
style of play,

you're empowering
Wilt's teammates.

When you play the way they were
in Philadelphia,

you're running more
through Wilt,

and he has the ball.

He's making more decisions.

Wilt wasn't used
to sharing the ball,

and it didn't work.

It didn't work too well.

Those guys had trouble meshing

on the floor and off the floor.

I probably wasn't affected
as much as Elgin,

because
he didn't have enough room

to do the things
he normally did.

It was a chore
to try to find a way

that they could both
be successful at the same time.

It was an awkward period for me

because I was so close to Elgin.

And then Wilt,
I didn't even know him, okay?

And because
he was sort of aloof.

He would tell
some outlandish stories

that, oh, my gosh, I didn't...

He told me he drove from
New York City to San Francisco

in 24 hours.

Elgin and I would kind of
look at each other and...

I don't think
that's true. [laughs]

[Wilt] I love to drive.

I've gone across country
20 times, always alone.

[Reporter] What do you think
about when you're driving?

[Wilt] Who I am.
What I'd like to be.

Going fast. Flirting
a little bit with, um...

not with death,
but, you know,

just those things that seem
to be what we like to do

but are a little bit afraid of.

He wasn't afraid to say things.

If something's bothering him, he
didn't give a damn who it was.

He'd say it.

[Wilt] I'm a loud extrovert

who's not afraid to say
something good about myself

or something bad
about someone else

when the occasion warrants it.

The two of them
were like banty roosters

going at each other.

There was no respect there.

When you don't have respect,
that's what you're gonna have.

Despite having this clash,

at the end of the year,

the Lakers
are still competitive.

They're still a very good team.

With all that great talent,
they start playing better.

And they reach the NBA finals.

And guess who
was waiting for them

in the finals of the NBA?

Number six and friends.

If we tried to write the novel,

it might be dismissed
as, oh, don't give me that.

You're not gonna have them
play the Celtics again, right?

Yes, we are.

And the Lakers are favored.

Everyone's
always been talking about

how the Celtics
have all the talent.

Well, now you finally do.

This was as valuable
an NBA finals

as there had been to that point.

The series has these
back and forth zigzags.

I don't think
it was widely known

that that was Russ's last game,

but certainly those guys knew
on the team.

One of the things I said
before the last game

was that we were
gonna beat the Lakers.

The teams I played on
could play any style.

And the way we were gonna
beat 'em is we were gonna run.

[Announcer]Wilt Chamberlain
driving on Russell.

18 points for Wilt.

Even though Wilt played well...

[Announcer]Chamberlain
with the rebound.

He has over 20 rebounds.

The Celtics take a huge lead

going into the fourth quarter.

[Announcer]Fourth period.

But this time,
he has Jerry West.

Jerry West,
this incredible player

who couldn't call himself
champion.

He was the noble loser in those
days, you know, to the Celtics.

He lost to them
six times in the finals.

Like with Wilt Chamberlain,

it was his misfortune
to play at the same time

that Bill Russell
and Sam Jones

and all the Celtics did.

[Announcer]They have
to make up 17 points

and they've gotta
get that ball down quickly.

They're looking for Jerry West.

Howell switches off on West.

And Jerry West starts
this incredible comeback,

draining jumper after jumper.

Jerry West...another one!

And the Celtics sense trouble.

With five minutes left
in the fourth quarter...

Here's Havlicek.

Rebound coming off
and Chamberlain gets it.

Chamberlain hurt his leg.

Chamberlain can't move, Chris.

He's down there
holding that knee.

[PA Announcer]20 second
official's timeout.

He comes out.

And the lead gets down to seven.

And then to five,
and then to three.

[Announcer]The Lakers
within one point of the lead.

Wilt is on the bench,

so now you're thinking,
is he coming back in?

We could use him now with
the way the tide has turned.

He goes to his coach,
says I'm ready to go back in,

and the coach says,
we don't need you.

[Bob Ryan]
It's a one point game.

The Celtics have the ball.

[Announcer]Havlicek.

Erickson.

Knocked away,
but Nelson gets it.

He goes and tips the ball.

It goes right to Don Nelson,

and Don Nelson
nails a lucky jump shot.

The Celtics win
their 11th championship.

That ball must have gone
in the air 15 feet.

I could not believe it.

The disappointment,
bitter disappointment.

That was probably my lowest ebb

in my life
as a professional athlete.

That one game.

And the coach left after that.

Three weeks after the game,

Russell was speaking
at the University of Wisconsin,

and he started
to criticize Wilt.

[Jackie MacMullan]
He really called Wilt out

and said, you know,
short of a broken back,

you should have been out there.

He felt it took away
from his final game,

from his legacy.

I have to be honest.

I thought Bill
was out of line.

Of all people,

there's no one else on the earth

that would have mattered more

to have his respect
than Russell.

The inference
that somehow he quit

and that Russell
was indignant over it,

it bothered Wilt so much,

they didn't speak for decades.

Wilt loved Los Angeles
from a lifestyle perspective.

Well, he's the highest paid
player in all of sports.

But he wasn't
just getting his money

and just, you know,
hanging out.

He was investing.

Wilt was the first
professional basketball player

that when they retired,

he didn't have to work
another day in his life.

As bad as it was,

we thought,
when he was coming up,

God turned it all around.

My mother was worried about him,

and he was able
to take care of her.

[Wilt] Of course, it didn't
take me long to realize

that it's not the amount
of money you have.

It's what you do with it
that brings contentment.

My parents and several of my
aunts and uncles and cousins

actually lived
in an apartment building

that my uncles owns.

We called it Chamberlain Villa.

28 apartments.

There was a swimming pool

so mom can have a swimming pool.

My dad was loving
sitting on the patio

watching my mother
jump in the pool

like a crazy lady.

But then my mother
was a lot like Dip.

She was a natural.

The adults hung out.

It was really like
a little community,

a really close little community.

And then we'd be in
the back yard sh**ting sh*ts.

Kids would lose their mind

if they was around the
neighborhood and see his car.

A Ferrari or a Maserati

or a Rolls-Royce.

He bought that Chamberlain Villa
for my father basically.

Because my father
was getting older,

and we didn't trust his health.

My dad died, you know, when
we were still in California.

My mother didn't do well
after my father passed,

and she came to the East coast,

but she didn't want to live
with none of us.

She wanted to live by herself.

I was at home
in my house in Santa Monica

when he called me
from Philadelphia.

His mother was dying.

[monitor beeps]

[Wilt] I lost
both my mother and father

to the disease of cancer,

the most extraneous,
indescribable.

Wilt came home.

That was a good thing.

All the other kids
had been around,

and then he said,
when I got there,

the others left
and it was just me.

There was the incredibly
moving thing I read

about the end of her life,

where he got into bed with her

to nurse her till the end.

[monitor beeps]

[monitor flatlines]

And she died in his arms.

When I think about
my Uncle Dippy,

I think about
just how warm he was.

He was a hands-on uncle,

almost like a father figure.

Do you have any children?

I'm a single man.

I'm not sure.
If I have some children...

Yeah, but wouldn't you like
to be a father?

[ding dong]

Hey-hey.

How you doing, cuz?

Good to see you, man.
Good to see you.

Looking good, looking good.

Welcome back, welcome back.

My full name is Aaron Levi,

and Wilt Chamberlain
was my biological father.

You know, being in his family,
I hate to say it.

We got a lot of stuff

where, like, oh,
I think I could be...

And it's just, like, no, no, no.

Come on, man, you're not.

Aaron brought more than a story.

He brought documentation.

It's called
a non-identifying letter,

and the description
of the biological father

was he's a professional
basketball player,

six-foot-ten, and that
he had a connection to Kansas.

I was born
in San Jose, California.

January 27, 1965.

I knew I was adopted.

I knew our adoptive parents
were Jewish.

I knew I was half Black,
half white.

All my brothers and sisters
were adopted.

I'm a little bit over 6-5.

I definitely felt looked at
as a kid

because I'm tall and Black.

I can only guess
how it would have been

for someone
who looked like Wilt.

It wasn't till
I got a little older

that I started thinking
more about, well,

you know,
where are my parents

and why did they,
you know, let me go?

And it was a long journey

to find my birth mother.

She did confirm immediately

that Wilt was my father.

She met him in a jazz club
in San Francisco.

He was playing for the Warriors.

It was the sixties.

The truth is
it was a one night stand,

and it was very clear to me

that this was
a big secret for her,

and that maybe
only one or two people

even now know
that she had a child.

It's kind of funny. I see
some of the resemblance, though.

-Yeah.
-You know what I mean?

The first thing I noticed
about me and Wilt

is the eyebrows.

What my mother told me

was that she did reach out
to Wilt

and said that, you know,
she was pregnant,

but that she was going
to put me up for adoption.

And according to her,
he said, okay.

Yeah, this is when...because he's
coming out of high school then.

And then there I am right here.

I like your hair.

Finally do our own
little thing, right?

Yeah, it's...

My Aunt Barbara told me

that he would have been
very surprised

that I existed,

because he thought
that my birth mother

was considering ab*rtion.

But he would have been happy.

-How's Peggy doing?
-She's doing well.

But because there's
different versions of the story,

I sometimes
still think about, you know,

what did he actually know?

Once I confirmed
when I did a DNA test

that Wilt was my father,

it was this very strange moment

because I knew his name probably
at three or four years old.

You know, you could not
not see him on TV.

Reaching high

All along the borderline

I'm Wilt Chamberlain.

His life was epic
in so many ways.

He's in a movie
with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Aah!

I'm more intimidating
in my BVDs.

He's stuffed inside
a Volkswagen bug in an ad.

He's on TV all the time.

Hey, it's nice
to see you guys again.

Oh, it's great to be here, Wilt.

He is spectacular.

It doesn't mean
he's a perfect person.

I suppose if you're a spectacle
all your life

that it would make sense

that you are also spectacular.

Building his own race car
was amazing.

He was gambling.

We were playing them
in this exhibition,

and he said, I gotta be
at a party, you know,

for, you know, the changing
of the showgirls

over at the Stardust.

So he said, go cash these in.

$20,000.

I went and cashed it in.

I was making 15,000
for the season,

and I gave him $20,000
that I cashed in for him,

and he said, hey,
come with me to the party.

The first time
I ever met him in person,

come out of a restaurant
in Santa Monica, California,

and there in a white Rolls-Royce

with two dogs
the size of small horses,

a beautiful blonde woman,
is Wilt Chamberlain.

And he's got the wrap around
tangerine sunglasses.

He's got
an African walking stick.

He's got a beret.

His feet are propped up
against the steering wheel.

No shoes.

I said, Wilt Chamberlain, I'd
love to have you on the show.

He goes, Roy Firestone,
I'd love to do the show,

but you have to understand, I'm
trying to keep a low profile.

He was a peacock.

Man, he looked good.
He had that big medallion on.

And when he wore those suede
velvet shirts he had,

then he was really cool.

Long fringe leather jacket
and pants.

Of course,
they had to be custom made

because who makes clothes
for a seven-footer?

Wilt Chamberlain was the
original gangster of fashion

for NBA players.

[laughs] Well, he thinks
he dresses hard,

but my mother was person
that liked us to look nice,

so we all dressed well.

So because we dressed well,

he thinks he's in fashion, too,
but he's not.

Keeping him in his place.
[chuckles]

Nine games into the 1970 season,

Wilt Chamberlain takes a pass,

starts to dribble
towards the basket

and collapses.

It was the first time

that I saw a distressed look
on his face.

I got the news that
he was gonna miss a long time.

His patellar tendon
in his right knee was ruptured.

It was the same knee

that he wrenched
in the '69 finals.

The orthopedic surgeons thought

that he may never
play basketball again.

[Wilt]
My body was the one thing

I'd always been able
to count on.

Now my body had failed me.

Wilt rehabbed his knee

on the beaches at Santa Monica.

He went and ran on the sand.

Gene Selznick,
the king of the beach,

taught him the game
of volleyball for rehab,

because running around
in the sand,

you get to really
work your legs.

He remembered me from when
he was on the Globetrotters.

I got into volleyball
before basketball.

So I started
playing a lot with Wilt.

And we hung out
and we played cards together.

And they're all cheating.

Wilt cheated at backgammon,
he cheated at cards.

Let's face it. Wilt did not
like to lose at anything.

And then talk about
yelling and screaming.

We were the loudest
on the beach.

Everybody's going,
what's going on over there?

But he had fun.

I think Wilt just loved it.

You go to the beach and
everyone's in a bathing suit,

so you don't know
if they're rich or they're poor.

And everyone
opened their arms to Wilt.

They loved him.

[Wilt] I was forced to do

some serious thinking
about myself

and to take stock
of Wilt Chamberlain the man.

He had a whole new
subculture of friends

that he really did things with

and liked him not just because

he was the best basketball
player for the Lakers,

but for who he was.

I mean, I think
those dudes down on the beach

knew Wilt better
than any of us as teammates.

People left him alone out there
when he was doing...

and maybe that's
where he felt...

he felt, um...more normal.

[Wilt] I found out

I really didn't need
being the center of attention

to be happy.

And that led to him loving
outdoor and indoor volleyball,

and that's another phase
of Wilt's life.

Years later, he didn't go
straight to retirement.

He went straight
into volleyball.

People would flock
to all these volleyball matches

that he would be part of.

Wilt put volley ball on the map.

You know, you would think
he would have been spoiled

in this or that,
but he wasn't.

He had good values
about hard work.

And way back in the seventies,

when he was coming back
from his knee injury,

I'm convinced that the reason

that he came back
so much quicker

was because he was running
in that soft sand every day.

He put in 10 hours of rehab
almost every day.

Now, even with modern surgery,

it's a good year

to where you could come back
and play.

Well, he came back
after four and a half months.

Well, we're hoping
it's strong enough.

You know, it really
feels different, I must say.

The only way
we can really test it

is to try it, you know.

It's unfortunate
that it can only be proven

by an error, which would be
a very costly error.

This is the guy that quit
and didn't wanna play

and came back
four and a half months

after fricking surgery
for the playoffs.

And they make it
all the way to the NBA finals.

[Announcer]NBA basketball

is being brought to you
by Salem filter cigarettes,

with the taste
that's springtime soft,

menthol fresh.

The 1970 finals

were the Lakers
against the New York Knicks,

led by Willis Reed.

And there are very clear clips
in the 1970 finals

where Wilt looks much stiffer.

Just getting up and down
the court,

where you can see him laboring.

In the middle
of a tough series...

Willis Reed injures his hip.

I was there in game five
when Willis went down,

and now the Knicks played
the entire second half

with nobody over 6-6
of consequence,

and Wilt did nothing
in the second half.

And they lost the game
and Wilt got criticized

that he didn't have
that k*ller instinct.

You know what happened
in game six though, by the way.

After all the ballyhoo,
Wilt went for 45 and 27

and they won the game.

So here it is.
It's game seven.

We have theater.
Theater counts.

[Announcer]Tonight
its a one game showdown.

New York hoping
that Willis Reed will play.

I think we see Willis
coming out.

There he comes right now.

Willis Reed literally limps
onto the floor.

This is certainly amazing.

You never heard anything
like that in your life.

[Announcer]Frazier
then slows it down,

is picked up by Jerry West.

Top of the post, Reed, good!

Makes the first two jumpers.

That was the only two baskets
he made all game.

The momentum shifts,
and you can't stop it.

[Announcer]Frazier.

And then it was
the Clyde Frazier game.

36 points, 19 assists.

We have a new NBA champion!

But the story needs to be...

Congratulations.

You offered I think the best

that the human spirit
can offer.

Willis Reed's almost put on
the sporting Mount Rushmore

for his effort.

It was like a big miracle.

You know what a miracle is?

A miracle is getting on
that freaking court

four months
after patellar tendon surgery,

competing for the NBA title.

That's a freaking miracle.

Winning changes things.

The theater could have been
Wilt Chamberlain,

after rehabbing
from a knee injury

and winning the game
for the Lakers.

Because he didn't win
the championship that year,

no one remembers.

You know, you're talking about

Wilt's surgically repaired knee.

I forgot completely about it.

Because at the end of the game,

there goes Goliath again.

I don't think
it's fair to him at all.

That was one of the most
remarkable recoveries

from an injury ever
in the history of the game.

Ever.

At least here in Los Angeles,

and the fans
gave him a big ovation.

[Wilt] It's almost
as if my injury

freed me of that Superman image.

No one ever roots for Goliath,

but in today's world...

[Announcer]At center,
from the Milwaukee Bucks,

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The fans are not always sure
who Goliath is.

[Announcer]
Jabbar and Chamberlain.

I was never used to seeing
anyone taller than Wilt

until I saw Kareem.

Wilt said, Sonny,
this is the first time

that I've ever looked around
and said maybe I need some help.

1971, young Kareem
is coming off an MVP season,

and then Milwaukee,
they won the championship.

People probably
never would have guessed

that Kareem met Wilt
when he was a teenager

at Rucker Park.

You know the expression

"he'd give you
the shirt off his back?"

Well, he literally did.

Wilt would give him his clothes.

He wasn't old enough
to get into the clubs.

Wilt got him in.

There was a mentorship
relationship that was there.

[Wilt] When he got to UCLA
and then turned pro

and got so heavily into the
Black pride/Black power thing,

he started to snub me.

He seems to think because
I haven't changed my name

and still have
a lot of white friends

I've abandoned the Black man.

Kareem did not respect the fact

that Wilt was
a Nixon Republican.

Kareem grew up
in a more progressive era.

You know,
they had a rivalry.

[Announcer]
Right hand 12-footer good!

The new king of scoring.

has ascended his throne.

[Wilt] I could have put
the scoring record

so far out of reach,

Kareem would have had to play
30 years to break the record.

I've found big men
are much more sensitive

than we realize.

And I saw it in my interviews.

And this is the open letter
to Wilt.

Which I've never read,
by the way.

So you're gonna read me
something I've never read.

You, Wilt Chamberlain,
complain about the officiating,

your teammates,
and other things,

and then you quit,
leaving college early

to tour with the Globetrotters
and make your fortune.

That seemed
to set a pattern for you.

After any tough test
in which you didn't do well,

you blamed those around you
and quit.

Playing 15 years
of professional basketball,

14 years in the NBA
is quitting?

Their competitive rivalry
continued for years,

but during the 1971/72 season,

Wilt faced a crossroads

that we've seen
a lot of athletes face,

which is the physical gifts
that you once had

are not as dominant
as they used to be.

I just couldn't play this guy
all by myself.

The hardest thing
for a superstar to do

is to not be a superstar
anymore

and to take your game
down a notch

for the better of the team.

Wilt Chamberlain has to decide

whether or not he is able

to become
more of a role player,

as opposed
to being the centerpiece

to ironically
play more like Bill Russell.

The differences with Russell,

he was never the guy
scoring the winning baskets

and getting all the points.

His ego was already in check
in some regards

because of the way
he played the game.

There's things
that Bill Russell does

that are incredible,
but he's not a great scorer.

So there are literally
players on the team

who'd be, like, he needs them.

I need you because
I cannot score the way you can.

Built trust
amongst his teammates.

That seemed to be something
that Wilt maybe struggled with.

Bill Russell,
there was no such struggle.

When I played for
the Boston Celtics as a rookie

with Bill Russell,
the trust was there

because that team
stayed together

for all those years.

They won championships together.

But Wilt, who was so dominant
as an individual,

and with all
the different coaches,

moving and getting traded,

it took him a long time
to learn that.

He came to a place in his life

where if this is what
it's gonna take to win,

I'm gonna do it.

[Announcer]
Screen by Washington.

sh**t a 17-footer. No good.
Tipped by Wilt to himself.

Tight rope act.
Throws the ball to McMillian.

Great play by the big man.

McMillian, bounce to Jerry,

down the middle,
around Maravich, up and in!

They say that Wilt Chamberlain

is now playing sort of
Bill Russell style basketball.

What does this mean?
How does he...

Well, first you have to say
as well as he can.

One of the reasons they call it
a Russell impression

is because Bill Sharman,
former teammate of Bill Russell,

comes in and coaches the Lakers

On defense, Wilt's
protecting the paint,

blocking sh*ts.

He would go out to the perimeter
if he needed to.

He decided to play defense
the way he could,

and of course
he became a great defender.

He is grabbing the rebound
and starting the fast break

and getting Jerry West,

getting Gail Goodrich
out and going.

On offense, now Wilt
is playing up top

off of the ball.

He's setting screens,

creating space
for his teammates.

He was an exceptional passer.

And if we needed
a big bucket,

I mean, Wilt was the Big Dipper.

He was only taking, you know,
nine sh*ts a game then.

He'd do that in a minute
and a half in 1962.

That year
we won 33 games in a row.

It was like magic.

To this day, it is the record

among all professional
sporting teams

in North America.

They had Jim McMillian,
Happy Hairston,

Gail Goodrich, and Jerry West.

They just played together
like a symphony.

[Announcer]Wilt playing
another tremendous game.

Wrap around bounce pass...

And now here's the final

and third stage
of Wilt's career.

They were all scoring points,
and he's okay with that.

He actually felt, I think,
a lot more happy

to play that kind of game.

I think he's one of the most
misunderstood people

that I've ever seen.

I spent a lot of time
with Wilt personally,

particularly our last two years
in the league.

He was a good guy, okay?
A good guy.

I remember a time
in San Francisco.

Wilt, Happy Hairston,
and myself

pile into a cab.

On the radio, all of a sudden
The Temptations come on.

And I looked back
at both of them,

and I said, hey, have you heard
The Temps new one?

You know,
Just my imagination

Running away

And they picked up
in the back seat.

All the way to the arena,

we're singing
Just My Imagination.

And I became one of his
favorite dinner partners.

He took Chris and I to dinner.

He brings out
this great bottle of wine.

So he told me
all about the wine,

the grapes
and where it came from.

Wilt knew everything
and all things about anything,

and whether
he was accurate or not

didn't make
any difference to him.

If I had the savoir faire...

There you go.

What happens to the team,

they win 69 games that year,

and that was the record for wins
at the time,

producing
the most efficient offense

in NBA history.

Everything clicked.

They defeat Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

and the Milwaukee Bucks
for the Western Division title.

They cap the season with
a dominant NBA championship.

[Announcer]
The Los Angeles Lakers

have won their first NBA title.

Of course,
I climbed all over his back

as he drug me
and everybody else there.

Jerry West
finally got a championship.

That was a great team.

A team.

Widely considered one of
the great teams of all time.

And Wilt wins the MVP
of the finals.

When Wilt retired,

he owned over 100 records
in the record book.

No athlete in team sport

has been able
to accomplish that.

I'm a big fan of the lists.

Like, who are the top?
Who are the number one?

If you had to start a team,
who would you pick?

Because in a life
where you can't figure out

why is my dog sick?

Why is my wife mad at me?

Why are the kids upset?

It's one of the reasons
people love sports

is because we keep score.

Wilt is often
not in anyone's top five.

Bill Russell
won 11 championships

in 13 seasons,

and many of those were at
the expense of Wilt Chamberlain.

He had one to do
and one job only.

I had several that I had to do.

I had to score at times
and rebound and play defense.

I don't think as far
as individual talent goes

that Russell even comes close.

A sad thing about Wilt's legacy

is that he gets defined
by Russell,

but not vice versa.

Because he didn't win enough.

f*ck winning.

No one's out here.

We gotta put
three, four people out here

to be able
to match up with this.

Like, just think about that.

You had to start saying,
hey, well, you can't win.

You had to.
You had to go to that.

History's written
by the winners,

and then it becomes about
we wanna tell the story

of why this person
deserved to win.

Why he was guaranteed to win.

Especially
if we like that person.

You don't win repeatedly
by mistake.

You just don't.

There's something about you

that makes that possible.

The legacy of a great player,

they make their own luck.

[Gary Pomerantz]
Russell won the four game sevens

in the playoffs between them

by a total of nine points.

That's very close
if you think about it.

Sam Jones
making an off balance shot

doesn't change
how Wilt Chamberlain played.

Don Nelson hits the crazy bounce
off the back of the backboard

and up and in,

What if that shot misses?

If the ball bounces
a few different ways,

Russell could easily have
seven or eight championships

and Chamberlain
could have four or five,

and Wilt's legacy
would be completely changed.

But does that make sense?

And the need
for these simplified narratives

reflect something in us

even maybe more so
than the athlete themselves.

Wilt lives at the soul
of the game today.

Don't the younger
generations know

about the mighty Dipper?

The way he saved the NBA
when it needed saving?

The way that he symbolically
blew apart the quota

that limited opportunities
for Black players?

The one thing
that Wilt wasn't prepared for

is all this thing
that is very common now:

legacy talk.

How can you write a book

and not say all the things
that make you what you are

to what actually helped you
construct your views?

He couldn't just allow
his legend to rest.

He was always
stoking the embers.

Wilt called me one day
and said, I have a book deal.

This editor wants me
to say that I, like,

that I slept with 20,000 women.

I said, what, are you crazy?

I thought it was
a joke at first.

And I said, don't do it.

You don't need to prove
that women like you.

20,000 liaisons with women.

Wilt did always like
to put up numbers. [laughs]

That averages out
to 1.2 women per day

from the age of 15.

20,000? Come on, man.

But I know about 30 in Rome.

[laughs]

I said, come on.
You know it isn't 20,000.

He just winked at me.

He goes, what's a zero
between friends?

It has been treated more
as a punchline, a joke.

These 20,000 names

are the women who slept
with Wilt Chamberlain.

[audience laughs]

When the reviews came out,

everything
was all about the 20,000.

I said you got six sisters.

You cannot be talking
that dumb talk.

He was devastated.

Why anyway?

He said I don't know why
I did it.

In a way in his mind,
there's constantly a dialogue

with the external world

about who he is.

I mean, everything
he writes in his book

is in response
to a real or imagined critique

or pressure
or view of him.

When you're always in response,

there's certain things that
you don't know how to evaluate.

If you can't evaluate
by how do I feel about things,

what do I really want,

then you go to numbers,

and you say, okay, if it's
higher than this, it's good.

[Wilt] I used the 20,000
as a figure of speech.

I called my relationships
"encounters"

because that's what they were,

not conquests
the way some people say.

I'm sorry if I did an injustice
to my women friends.

Coming up, our program
with Wilt Chamberlain.

We taped this show
literally days

before the story
about Magic Johnson

contracting the HIV virus broke.

The tone of it
would have been different

had we known
about Magic's tragic story.

And Wilt's on a book tour
at the time in 1991

that Magic Johnson announces
he's HIV positive.

So suddenly Wilt is seen
as this symbol

of the over-sexed athlete.

Do you think that now

people are seizing
on the tone of the book,

women's group especially,
to single you out

as an example
of everything wrong

with the way men treat
and feel about women?

Well, I think
that because of the times

and because of AIDS
being so prevalent,

they just think that maybe
I had the wrong attitude.

I'm not proud of what my life
was all about then,

but it was my life
and it was of mutual consent.

With AIDs being as bad as it is,

have you been tested for AIDS?

Yeah, I have,

not that I think
it's anyone's business.

I think it's hilarious
that you won't announce

whether or not
you've had AIDS testing.

You all say in your book
that you've had 20,000 women.

You have to say whether or not...

It is people's business.

Children look up to you.

It did haunt him.

He remained upset about that.

It just put
this overwhelming shadow

on what was a tremendous
basketball legacy.

It's one of the first things
that comes up

when people talk about him.

People that don't even
follow basketball.

It's too bad.

There's more to him than that.

Wilt, people would be
almost shocked to learn

that it's been about 20 years

since you've seen
Bill Russell, right?

Yeah.

It wasn't beneficial
to either one of them

to have all this animosity
between the two of them.

And then Shaq tells me

it was his idea
to have this commercial

about his entrance
into the Big Man's Club.

[knock knock knock]
Password.

Don't fake the funk
on a nasty dunk.

I.D.

It's a great commercial
because it has Shaq,

Wilt Chamberlain,
Bill Walton, Bill Russell.

-That's not enough.
-And Kareem.

And from what I understand,

it was Wilt Chamberlain
that was the big enough man

to extend his hand
to everyone,

including Bill Russell,

and break the ice.

Wilt and I could talk,

and neither one was asking
the other for anything

except friendship.

And friendship that is not
this way or this way.

It's this way.

If you keep examining
all the narratives about Wilt

and discarding these
and discarding those

and finally getting
to that core of Wilt,

you're gonna discover kindness

and sensitivity.

Wilt's teammate
in his first three seasons

was Paul Arizin.

Even though they had
very different lifestyles,

Wilt really admired my father.

Now you advance decades later,

and Paul Arizin's
granddaughter Stephanie

has an inoperable brain tumor.

The doctor says your daughter
has 12 to 18 months to live,

and there's nothing we can do.

Maybe it was the next day,

Stephanie said
I just got off the phone

from a half hour conversation
with Wilt Chamberlain.

Did grandfather call him
and tell him?

I said, I don't know.

I didn't do anything.

I wouldn't know how
to get in touch with Wilt.

And I get a phone call
at my house.

[deep voice] Hello, Mike?

This is the Dipper.
Remember me?

He said, do you mind
if I call her

on a regular basis?

We had such
a lovely conversation.

[exhales]

From that point onward,

she always had reserved
6:00 to 7:00 on Fridays

her and Wilt were gonna talk,

and he would call her.

She called him Wilty,

making her smile,

and we were not sure

if we would ever see her smile
ever again.

After each call,
he would call me

just to see how am I doing.

There was nothing in it for him.

Paul Arizin and Wilt
are both named

to the NBA's All Time
Top 50 Players list,

and they go to the All Star Game
for a ceremony.

As we rolled up
to the door to get in,

out comes Wilt.

I got her.
She's with me.

The popular fad among
my daughter and her girlfriends

was collecting autographs.

She wanted to collect
the autographs

of all the players.

Wilt asked if he could lead her
player to player.

He took her up to every player.

He was with her every second.

And Stephanie says,
who's that guy?

And I said, that's Bill Russell.

Can we get his autograph?

And I said,
he's kind of famous

for not signing autographs
for anybody.

Wilt says, hold on.

Russ, this is Stephanie.
Sign her book.

Happy to. Bill Russell.

Stephanie Arizin died
months later.

Wilt sent a massive
floral arrangement.

There was a telegram

that accompanied
the flower arrangement.

"To the Arizin family,

I am here for you."

[clears throat]

"I am here for you,
all of you.

"I lost a friend today

"who was full of strength
and loved life passionately.

"From Stephanie, I realized

"you're never too old to learn

"and never too young to teach.

Love and peace, Dippy."

That's how I choose
to remember Wilt Chamberlain.

He made such an effort.

I had a relationship,
and a lot of it was by phone,

for almost 20 years.

Friend after friend told me

about Wilt's one hour and
two hour long conversations.

It was 213-something.

I have it written down
in my book.

I haven't scratched it out.

He'd call late at 11:00.

We'd talk like an hour
just about everything.

Sometimes I was doing
something else.

I'd just hold the phone
out here, let him talk.

If I could go back,

I wish I'd spent
more time with him.

I think that Wilt

was just about always lonely.

I wish I had
done the search earlier

and at least
been able to meet him.

I really did wait too long.

What scares you?

Probably not old age,

but not being able
to do things

that I now
am capable of doing.

I remember him saying one time,

you know, us big dogs
don't last too long.

He told me I'm gonna stop by

when I come from the doctor's.

I had a purple lavender tree
with these lavender things,

and he would always
pull one off.

And he didn't do it.
He hurried up and sat down.

I said to him,
you want me to stay?

Because he wasn't feeling good.

No, I'm okay. I'm fine.

He didn't share a lot of stuff

that he thought
might upset us.

He wouldn't want us
to be burdened down with him.

[Reporter]
Police and paramedics

rushed to the Bel Air home of
Wilt Chamberlain this afternoon,

responding to reports
of a cardiac arrest.

The 63 year old
basketball great's attorney

was the first to release news

that Chamberlain had died.

It was the gardener
who found his body.

He called out to Wilt
and he went upstairs

and saw Wilt motionless in bed.

[Cherry]
The roof was open.

Wilt Chamberlain's
last moments on earth

were looking at the stars.

As he did
when he was 10 or 11 years old

in Philadelphia.

[Wilt]
People always have tried

to make me feel like a freak,

but I'm just a person.

I lived with that loser label

stuck on me
like some big ugly scar.

People, just people

are the only ones that hurt you.

Wilt, from the standpoint
of the world,

was one of the toughest people
on the planet.

But the reality is
he was like a little sweet man

inside of this giant body.

Things happened to him

that he could never
rid himself of these things.

And everybody's got something,

and his is such a big life

that he just had
the biggest version of it.

[Announcer] At halftime
out at Allen Fieldhouse,

Kansas State
trailing Kansas 32-31.

And Wilt Chamberlain
is having his jersey retired

in a ceremony
just getting underway.

Let's go out to Tim Ryan.

Thank you, Michelle.

It's been 23 years
since Wilt Chamberlain

has been here in Lawrence.

A lot of people have wondered
why he hasn't been back.

I think it was because
Wilt felt

that he'd let down
the entire state.

Not the school,
the entire state of Kansas

when they lost
that painful triple overtime.

Not until
the year before his death

did Wilt agree to attend

to retire his number.

And he spoke to a journalist,

and said that I'm afraid
that they'll boo me.

One of the true legends
in the history of the game,

welcome back Wilt Chamberlain.

[cheering]

[Firestone] He walks out on
that court and received the love

and he's overcome with emotion.

It meant the world to Wilt,

because deep down I think

the one thing
that eluded this guy

was love.

Wilt was always admired
and held in awe,

but not loved.

But what he should
have taken to his grave

is the knowledge that people
thought he was a damn good guy.

A little over 40 years ago,

I lost what I thought was
the toughest battle in sports

in losing to
the North Carolina Tar Heels

by one point
in a triple overtime.

It was a devastating thing
for me

because I felt as though I let
the University of Kansas down

and my teammates down.

But when I come back here today

and realize how many people

have shown me
so much appreciation

and love and warmth

from the University of Kansas...

[cheers and applause]

All right, all right.

I've learned over the years

that you must learn to take
the bitter with the sweet,

and how sweet this is
right here.

[cheers and applause]