Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain were among the players that defined the history of the NBA and the center position. Both are always mentioned in conversations about who the greatest player of all time is and won multiple championships and MVPs during their careers. And when Abdul-Jabbar was a young man coming into the league, Chamberlain was one of his idols.
Wilt was a killer on the court and he carried his dominant personality even outside the arena. The big man wasn’t one to take any nonsense from people and wouldn’t hesitate to speak his mind either. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once shared a story of Wilt having a memorable interaction with a rude fan in HBO’s Minority For One documentary.
“I got on an elevator with Wilt, and as the elevator was going down, some guy gets on and says ‘oh wow, how’s the weather up there?’” He said that to Wilt. Wilt spat on the dude and said ‘it’s raining.’ I was like ‘oh my god what is all of this about?”
It’s tough to speculate what led to Wilt’s reaction, maybe the big man was simply tired of having to deal with questions like this from fans all the time. In any case, Kareem’s story doesn’t paint Chamberlain in poor light. Despite their good relationship in Abdul-Jabbar’s initial years, the duo developed some animosity. A lot of this had to do with Wilt’s comments about Kareem criticizing him for his performances on the court.
Both players have unquestionable legacies in the league, though, and have cemented themselves as undisputed legends of the game. Kareem won 6 rings to go along with 6 MVPs and set the record for most points by an individual in an NBA career. Wilt had 2 championships and 4 MVPs of his own and still holds the record for most points in a game with 100.
