Good morning! Before we get to today’s missive from Ray, a quick heads up: I think we’re late enough in the summer that I need to chime in on a potential KAT extension, so I’ll be doing that next week. Have a great weekend everyone.
A Knick You (almost) Knew: Wilt Chamberlain
by Ray Marcano
Photo from YouTube
There’s no need to recap the career of one of the greatest and most athletic big men of all time. I’ve always been fascinated by the number of teams that chased Wilt Chamberlain long after he retired, believing that a nearly 50-year-old man could compete against the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, and Hakeem Olajuwon.
That list of teams includes the New York Knicks, who chased him twice.
Chamberlain retired at the age of 36 in 1973, and he seemed to have a lot left in the tank. He played all 82 games that year and averaged 43.2 minutes per contest, 13.2 points and led the league with an amazing 18.6 rebounds. He was an All-Star, second team All-NBA, came in fourth in the MVP voting and first-team all-defense.
And he retired to play volleyball.
Remember that?
In 1975, he was the player-owner of the Southern California Bangers and played five games in the team’s lone season in the co-ed International Volleyball Association.
“When you play against Wilt, obviously it was intimidating,” Jay Hanseth, a former IVA player, said in a YouTube video. “He’s 300 pounds. He’s 7-2. He had so much power, he was tremendously strong, it was just awe-inspiring. A lot of people hit the ball 100 miles an hour, but it seemed to me that he was hitting it 200 miles an hour. He hit the ball hard, blocked well, and for a while led the league in attacking efficiency.”
The year 1975 was also the first time the Knicks tried to lure Chamberlain out of retirement. According to a New York Times story, Eddie Donovan, then the general manager, and Mike Burke, president of the Knicks, flew to Los Angeles, ostensibly to meet with Chamberlain and his lawyer, but Wilt never showed. Turns out he was in Hawaii.
“I’m annoyed,” Burke told the Times. “We have come here on a fool’s errand.”
It wouldn’t be the last time the Knicks would try. In his book, “A View from Above,” Chamberlain wrote on page 98: “The New York Knicks tried to get me to play in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and I must admit this was tempting. I would have loved playing in New York because the fans are so knowledgeable.”
The Knicks romancing Chamberlain made sense given the times. Willis Reed, the victim of failing knees, retired following the 1974-75 season, which he missed in its entirety due to injury. That left New York with John Gianelli and Neal Walk at center, so it’s no wonder the team finished 38-44 and missed the playoffs for the first time in nine years. With a then 39-year-old Chamberlain, the team likely gets to the playoffs, where anything can happen.
The Knicks also needed help in the middle in the early 80s, when the team went to the playoffs three of four seasons. In those seasons, between 1980-81 and 1983-84, Bill Cartwright and Marvin Webster manned the middle. At the minimum, Chamberlain could have shown the young and growing Cartwright the ropes while pushing Webster down the depth chart.
Other accounts claim Chamberlain met with Red Holtzman at some point, but there’s no date attached to when. The Bulls, Nets, 76ers, Mavericks, Suns and Clippers were all linked to Chamberlain and each time a report surfaced about his potential comeback, New York media hyped a possible Knicks return.
The last known flirtation came from the New Jersey Nets in 1986, when the team offered Chamberlain $362,500 for the last seven games of the regular season. Chamberlain said no.
“I did not consider it at all,” Chamberlain told the Los Angeles Times. “It was not a fair proposal. They didn’t ask what kind of shape I was in, whether I had a cold or a toothache. I respect pro basketball players too much to think I could go out and be competitive with them after they’ve been playing all season, doing what they do better than anybody else in the world.”
Chamberlain was intrigued, he noted on page 99 of his book, by the offers because he would have been the first NBA Hall-of-Famer to come out of retirement and play again. “Coming back would have been a great, fun challenge for me. I had a feeling I could help these teams and I will always wonder, ‘What If.’ He said he had “no doubt” he would lead the league in rebounding, but in the end, he didn’t have a strong desire to play.
In his later years, Chamberlain had an eclectic life. He took a role in Conan the Destroyer movie opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger. He played with the legendary Meadowlark Lemon and his new team, the Bucketeers. He was a staple of radio and television programs, and famously told Conan O’Brien he slept with 20,000 women.
He also excelled at telling stories, including one about his legendary game on March 2, 1962, when he scored 100 points against the Knicks. He said the thing he remembered most about the game was the trip back, when he rode with Knicks players back to New York, where he had an apartment.
“I wanted to ride with a good friend of mine, Willie Nauls” he wrote in his book. “Willie drove and I took the front passenger seat. In the back seat sat two other Knicks. Within a mile, I was fast asleep and snoring. Every now and then I would stir and hear the same conversation: “Would you believe that son-of-a-bitch scored a hundred points against us?! A hundred points!” They kept telling each other all the things they did to try to keep me from scoring. Then they’d repeat, “Can you believe that son-of-a-bitch scored a hundred points on us!” I’d go back to sleep with a smirk on my face.
“When they let me off at my apartment on ninety-seventh street and Central Park West, I said to them, “You guys are sure nice to this S.O.B. Letting me score a hundred points, then giving me a ride all the way back to my apartment. Thanks, fellows.”
Wilt Chamberlain died in 1999 from congestive heart failure at the age of 63, and it took him until later in life understand the impact he had on people.
“I can remember driving to the beach one day and pulling up next to a truck at a red light. As I often do, I said hello to the driver: “What’s happening, my man?” He said hi back, then did a double take before blurting out, “Wilt Chamberlain! I can’t believe it! And you said hello to me! What a great day this is! I’m going to have a smile on my face the rest of the day. Thank you!
“Well, when I’m able to do that for a person just by saying hello, it makes me realize that all the inconveniences of being famous, of being a foot or two taller than the average Joe, are small in comparison to the smiles I can bring to people just by being me.”
Ray Marcano writes for some of the country’s biggest brands and has been named best columnist in Ohio two straight years (2025-26). You can read his free newsletter, the Bourbon Resource, right here on Substack.
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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Hey Ray, thanks. This was great. What a fascinating character he was. I probably followed the "Knicks chase Wilt" stories back in the day but I have long forgotten. Thanks for the reminder. Also - the drop off from Willis Reed to John Gianelli.... I think that was the year I decided girls were a lot more interesting than the Knicks.
After Wilt required due to balky knees after '73, he became Coach of the ABA's short-lived San Diego Conquistadors. Their owner expected Wilt to be a player-coach, but the Lakers blocked that moved as they still held Wilt's rights. I attended a Nets/Conquistador tilt at Nassau Coliseum and Wilt appeared extremely disinterested in the proceedings (almost as disinterested as he was at the free throw line). Wilt was really the beard and nominally titled coach only with the expectation that he would be allowed to play at some point, and the actual coaching was done by former Sixer HC Alex Hannum. Wilt was truly a unique individual and incredible athlete. It is somewhat a shame that Wilt's dominance/greatness is being lost through the sands of time. He was truly a larger than life character. I can just imagine him driving 110 mph down the NJ Turnpike from his NY home to attend Philadelphia Warrior or Sixer practice with the seat all the way back and his knees still approaching the roof. The Comeback talks with the Knicks never felt real at the time -- more like manufactured flirtations seeming designed by Wilt to inflate his massive ego (just read one of his books and you will know of what I speak).