In his first game playing for the Warriors, Chamberlain managed to score 43 points and got 28 rebounds. His fourth game was more memorable however. The Warriors played against the Boston Celtics, which contained Bill Russell, his rival from the past. Chamberlain
bested Russell by 2 points. This was the beginning of one of basketballs greatest rivalries.
Even though the two were rivals on the court, they became good friends. Most people compare this rivalry with that of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. In the next season, Chamberlain won the NBA Most Valuable Player award (the MVP award) and the NBA rookie
of the year award. He ended the season by winning the 1960 All Star Game MVP. This season also highlighted Wilton’s biggest weakness, his free throws.
In the year 1960, the Warriors managed to get into the NBA Playoffs and defeated the Syracuse Nationals, paving their way to a match against the Boston Celtics. During this game, Celtics coach Red Auerbach (still sore from being rejected by Chamberlain in
the past), had his forward constantly foul Chamberlain. They would grab onto Chamberlain, effectively preventing him to get back to his side of the court fast enough to defend his basket. This allowed the Celtics to score easily due to the undefended basket.
During one game, Wilt got angry at Celtic player, Tom Heinsohn that he punched him (it is reported that he had teeth mark on his fist). The Warriors ended up losing the series.
After being defeated by the Celtics, Chamberlain decided that he wanted to retire. The double and triple teaming, and the hard fouls committed by the other teams made him fear that he might “lose his cool”. Adding fire to the fuel was the fact that Chamberlain
was seen as a freak due to his size. He was ridiculed by his fans and the media. Eddie Gottlieb, the coach and manager of the team at that time, managed to change Chamberlain’s mind by increasing his pay from 30’000 dollars to 65’000 dollars.
In the season that followed, Chamberlain managed to break his own rookie records by averaging 38.4 points and 27.2 rebounds per game. He also managed to become the first player to cross the 3000 point barrier, and is also the first and only player to break
the 2000 rebound barrier in a single game. The Big Dipper also set the all time record for rebounds in a single game by getting 55 rebounds. Chamberlain scored 32 percent of the points made by his team and got 30.4 percent of the rebounds. Even though he had
awesome statistics, Chamberlain was not able to share that success with his team. Everyone blamed each other for their lack of success. Chamberlain was hard to manage and had no respect for the coach, on the other hand the coach himself was not ready for the
big leagues.
In Chamberlain’s third season, the team was coached by Frank McGuire. He was the coach of the Tar Heels, the same team that had caused Chamberlain to suffer the loss during his NCAA days. The team improved and was untouched under his watch. In March, Chamberlain
made NBA history, by scoring 100 points in one game, while playing against the New York Knicks. He was also the only player to ever break the 4000 points. This record has not been broken even now.
During the 1962 to 1963 season, the Warriors were sold to a group of business men from San Francisco, changing their names and relocating themselves from Philadelphia Warriors to the San Francisco Warriors. This change caused the team to split apart, Paul
Arizin retired, and Tom Gola requested to be traded to the New York Knicks midway into the season. Even though the secondary scorers of the team had left, Chamberlain managed to keep his amazing statistics going.
This success was not achieved by the team as a whole; the Warriors lost 49 games out of the 80 games played and were not able to make it to the playoffs. During the 1964 to 1965 season, Wilton Chamberlain was traded to the Philadelphia 76er’s (used to be
the Syracuse Nationals) for Paul Neumann, Connie Dierking and 150’000 dollars.
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