coastalmarker99
04-23-2021, 09:20 PM
By February 1967, Wilt Chamberlain and the Philadelphia 76ers were on their way to notching a historic 68-13 regular-season record. With Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics struggling to find their rhythm, NBA arenas began asking the inevitable: Were the 76ers destined to become the league’s next great dynasty? “I really can’t say,” answered Wilt, also hoping to avoid comment on the recent whispers and winks making their way down Philadelphia’s Broad Street. Some considered “in the know” claimed that Philadelphia’s seven-foot wonder was preparing to jump to the brand-new American Basketball Association.
The ABA rumour had started a month earlier at the league’s second organizational meeting. An ABA “delegate” reportedly flashed a $250,000 contract signed by Wilt himself to potential investors. The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner ran with the story, and Chamberlain ho-ho-hoed it to a halt. A few weeks later, the rumour picked up again at the ABA’s lively opening press conference in New York, the one where George Mikan stepped to the podium to save the day and the league. Mikan, however, couldn’t save one of his new ABA colleagues from declaring on the record, with no proof, that Wilt “has committed himself to us.”
“It’s not true that I’m going to the other league,” Chamberlain countered. “They’ve used my name the last couple of months. I didn’t like the manner in which my name was being prostituted.”
Was Chamberlain being truthful? The ABA was misusing his name. Or, was Chamberlain, by not threatening to sue or otherwise hold the ABA fully accountable, allowing the rumour to simmer? His contract was indeed up at the end of the season, and it was no secret that Chamberlain and Philadelphia owner Irv Kosloff were at odds. Chamberlain claimed he’d been promised a handsome ownership stake in the 76ers; Kosloff claimed his superstar was badly mistaken. The ABA rumour, if kept at a low simmer, would provide Chamberlain with some needed leverage in the bitter bargaining months ahead.
Then again, Wilt preferred to live in New York. Why wouldn’t he want to own part of an ABA team there? Hadn’t Wilt attended the ABA’s first organizational meeting and allowed his name to be bandied about as a prospective owner. Actions speak louder than words.
Before attempting to answer these questions, there’s more to the story. The ABA rumour came to a brief head in February 1967. Below, I’ve added three newspaper articles to thresh out the story. Two are from the Philadelphia Daily News’ Jack Kiser, who covered the team and had a cozy working relationship with Chamberlain. The other is a follow-up story to the ABA rumour. It’s from the Philadelphia Inquirer and tells a little bit of the other side of the story. We start with Kiser, a.k.a., “Jack the Ripper” for his occasional poison pen, on February 1.
Wilt Talks on Topical Things Jack Kiser
Wilt Chamberlain, the voices said, is playing his final year for the 76ers. That the great center already has signed a contract as a combination player-owner-star attraction of the new league, which will begin operation next season with a powerful setup of established stars who already have been induced to jump from the National Basketball Association.
At first, the voices were just whispers, delivered out of the corner of the mouth and protected by a cupped hand and a knowing wink. But they kept getting louder and louder and finally, they became roaring headlines. Now practically everybody around believes them, which has to be the greatest sports farce of the decade.
No Truth
The truth is, you can take all the truth there is to these rumours and put it in the navel of a canary and still, have enough room for a couple of caraway seeds.
The truth is that the supposedly rich brains behind the new American Basketball Association have yet to come up with a paltry sum of $50,000 each that they were supposed to cough up for initial operating expenses. There is much more mouth than money behind the entire operation and if you think that Wilt Chamberlain is going to be roped into a situation like that, then you don’t know Wilt Chamberlain.
But hasn’t he already signed a contract with the new league for $250,000 and a chunk of the proposed New York franchise? After all, some prospective ABA owners were shown a contract with his signature on it at a recent organizational meeting here in Los Angeles.
Ask Chamberlain if you want a straight answer.
“No, I have not signed any such contract,” Chamberlain said firmly last night as he relaxed in his plush Hacienda International hotel suite, resting up for tonight’s game with Los Angeles. “I definitely have signed no contract with a new league. If somebody is showing any contract around, it certainly doesn’t have my true signature on it.”
Chamberlain, like so many other NBA stars, admits he talked with representatives of the new league. “I will talk with anyone who presents me with an opportunity to better myself,” he explains. “But talking and signing are two different things.”
Big Wilt can spot a con artist a mile away, so you can’t believe he would be serious about such an obvious shaky setup. But he also knows that the threat of his jumping to a new league can’t hurt his bargaining position with the 76ers in the future, so he plays it cool.
Chamberlain and club owner Irv Kosloff have had their contract differences, mainly over promises made by the late Ike Richman when he was serving in the dual role as co-owner of the club and Wilt’s personal attorney. Insiders say that Chamberlain was coaxed into postponing his retirement plans for at least three years by a hefty contract, plus a piece of the 76ers action, but it couldn’t be put into the formal contract because league rules forbid an active player from owning stock in a club.
After Richman’s untimely death, the report goes, Chamberlain learned that Kosloff had never heard about his well-publicized (lost boy) act while his teammates were in their pre-season training camp.
Chamberlain was asked about this yesterday and the conversation went something like this:
Do you now own stock in the 76ers, stock that will be delivered to you when you retire from play? You don’t have to expound, just answer yes, no, or no comment.
“That’s a very sticky question,” he replied after a long pause. “I can’t say ‘no comment’ because that would be like saying yes. What I will say is this: that I had several agreements with Ike Richman that I thought were binding. And that because of my respect for Ike’s memory, that some concessions have been made on these agreements. Some concessions have been made on both sides.”
What then, he was asked, were his plans for the future?
“My immediate plans are to beat Boston, beat Boston in the regular season and in the playoffs,” he replied. “That is all I am thinking about right now.
“As for next year, well I’m not going to think about that until this season is over. I’m getting to be an old man (he’s 30 years 5 months and 10 days old) and I honestly don’t know whether or not I will play anywhere next season. Have said this every year I’ve been in the league, but now I really mean it.”
For what it’s worth, here is one man’s opinion on Wilt’s future: if the 76ers were to win the championship this year and he wipes out that never-a-winner tag that has been chasing him around ever since he got out of Overbrook, it will take some powerful persuasion on the 76ers’ part to get him back for the third year of his contract. And unless some legitimate money men come into the new league picture, he wouldn’t even think seriously about jumping anything but center for the 76ers
The ABA rumour had started a month earlier at the league’s second organizational meeting. An ABA “delegate” reportedly flashed a $250,000 contract signed by Wilt himself to potential investors. The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner ran with the story, and Chamberlain ho-ho-hoed it to a halt. A few weeks later, the rumour picked up again at the ABA’s lively opening press conference in New York, the one where George Mikan stepped to the podium to save the day and the league. Mikan, however, couldn’t save one of his new ABA colleagues from declaring on the record, with no proof, that Wilt “has committed himself to us.”
“It’s not true that I’m going to the other league,” Chamberlain countered. “They’ve used my name the last couple of months. I didn’t like the manner in which my name was being prostituted.”
Was Chamberlain being truthful? The ABA was misusing his name. Or, was Chamberlain, by not threatening to sue or otherwise hold the ABA fully accountable, allowing the rumour to simmer? His contract was indeed up at the end of the season, and it was no secret that Chamberlain and Philadelphia owner Irv Kosloff were at odds. Chamberlain claimed he’d been promised a handsome ownership stake in the 76ers; Kosloff claimed his superstar was badly mistaken. The ABA rumour, if kept at a low simmer, would provide Chamberlain with some needed leverage in the bitter bargaining months ahead.
Then again, Wilt preferred to live in New York. Why wouldn’t he want to own part of an ABA team there? Hadn’t Wilt attended the ABA’s first organizational meeting and allowed his name to be bandied about as a prospective owner. Actions speak louder than words.
Before attempting to answer these questions, there’s more to the story. The ABA rumour came to a brief head in February 1967. Below, I’ve added three newspaper articles to thresh out the story. Two are from the Philadelphia Daily News’ Jack Kiser, who covered the team and had a cozy working relationship with Chamberlain. The other is a follow-up story to the ABA rumour. It’s from the Philadelphia Inquirer and tells a little bit of the other side of the story. We start with Kiser, a.k.a., “Jack the Ripper” for his occasional poison pen, on February 1.
Wilt Talks on Topical Things Jack Kiser
Wilt Chamberlain, the voices said, is playing his final year for the 76ers. That the great center already has signed a contract as a combination player-owner-star attraction of the new league, which will begin operation next season with a powerful setup of established stars who already have been induced to jump from the National Basketball Association.
At first, the voices were just whispers, delivered out of the corner of the mouth and protected by a cupped hand and a knowing wink. But they kept getting louder and louder and finally, they became roaring headlines. Now practically everybody around believes them, which has to be the greatest sports farce of the decade.
No Truth
The truth is, you can take all the truth there is to these rumours and put it in the navel of a canary and still, have enough room for a couple of caraway seeds.
The truth is that the supposedly rich brains behind the new American Basketball Association have yet to come up with a paltry sum of $50,000 each that they were supposed to cough up for initial operating expenses. There is much more mouth than money behind the entire operation and if you think that Wilt Chamberlain is going to be roped into a situation like that, then you don’t know Wilt Chamberlain.
But hasn’t he already signed a contract with the new league for $250,000 and a chunk of the proposed New York franchise? After all, some prospective ABA owners were shown a contract with his signature on it at a recent organizational meeting here in Los Angeles.
Ask Chamberlain if you want a straight answer.
“No, I have not signed any such contract,” Chamberlain said firmly last night as he relaxed in his plush Hacienda International hotel suite, resting up for tonight’s game with Los Angeles. “I definitely have signed no contract with a new league. If somebody is showing any contract around, it certainly doesn’t have my true signature on it.”
Chamberlain, like so many other NBA stars, admits he talked with representatives of the new league. “I will talk with anyone who presents me with an opportunity to better myself,” he explains. “But talking and signing are two different things.”
Big Wilt can spot a con artist a mile away, so you can’t believe he would be serious about such an obvious shaky setup. But he also knows that the threat of his jumping to a new league can’t hurt his bargaining position with the 76ers in the future, so he plays it cool.
Chamberlain and club owner Irv Kosloff have had their contract differences, mainly over promises made by the late Ike Richman when he was serving in the dual role as co-owner of the club and Wilt’s personal attorney. Insiders say that Chamberlain was coaxed into postponing his retirement plans for at least three years by a hefty contract, plus a piece of the 76ers action, but it couldn’t be put into the formal contract because league rules forbid an active player from owning stock in a club.
After Richman’s untimely death, the report goes, Chamberlain learned that Kosloff had never heard about his well-publicized (lost boy) act while his teammates were in their pre-season training camp.
Chamberlain was asked about this yesterday and the conversation went something like this:
Do you now own stock in the 76ers, stock that will be delivered to you when you retire from play? You don’t have to expound, just answer yes, no, or no comment.
“That’s a very sticky question,” he replied after a long pause. “I can’t say ‘no comment’ because that would be like saying yes. What I will say is this: that I had several agreements with Ike Richman that I thought were binding. And that because of my respect for Ike’s memory, that some concessions have been made on these agreements. Some concessions have been made on both sides.”
What then, he was asked, were his plans for the future?
“My immediate plans are to beat Boston, beat Boston in the regular season and in the playoffs,” he replied. “That is all I am thinking about right now.
“As for next year, well I’m not going to think about that until this season is over. I’m getting to be an old man (he’s 30 years 5 months and 10 days old) and I honestly don’t know whether or not I will play anywhere next season. Have said this every year I’ve been in the league, but now I really mean it.”
For what it’s worth, here is one man’s opinion on Wilt’s future: if the 76ers were to win the championship this year and he wipes out that never-a-winner tag that has been chasing him around ever since he got out of Overbrook, it will take some powerful persuasion on the 76ers’ part to get him back for the third year of his contract. And unless some legitimate money men come into the new league picture, he wouldn’t even think seriously about jumping anything but center for the 76ers