Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are two centers who have etched their names in NBA history books for their successes, most prominently with the Lakers. They both won their first championships with another team, but their second rings were both in a Lakers uniform.
Wilt Chamberlain had an extroverted and extravagant lifestyle, while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar always valued his privacy and was very selective about his interactions with others. Recently, in an interview on the Rich Eisen Show, the four-time NBA champion John Salley recalled his first meetings with the two NBA legends.
“I met Wilt Chamberlain, who hit me in my stomach. Wilt had this thing. He was like, ‘Take a picture.’ If you’re standing there, I was told, do not loosen up around Wilt; he will try you somehow.”
“And so, I’m sitting there, and then it hit me in my stomach. He was, ‘Oh, you got a good core.’ And I was like, Oh, yeah,” said Salley while imitating the voice and expression of a man in excruciating pain.
After discussing that Wilt Chamberlain was only two or three inches taller than Salley, he goes on to describe his first meeting with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He explains how, even as a celebrity, he would feel starstruck while meeting celebrities bigger than him.
“People don’t realize when you’re a pro, a lot of guys go around and act cool. Man, I would let you know. Man, you Wilt Chamberlain, oh my boy! I saw Kareem, and Kareem didn’t talk to me.”
“He had nothing to say. He talked to my brother Ron, but he goes like ‘I don’t talk to rookies.’”
Salley was not very surprised to get this response from Abdul-Jabbar, as his reputation was that he liked to keep to himself. Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar walked so players like LeBron James and John Salley himself could run, in terms of player empowerment.
They were among the first players in the league to request a trade themselves to play in bigger market teams (coincidentally, both landed in the Lakers during different eras). John Salley eventually became the first NBA player to win a championship with three different NBA teams (Pistons, Bulls, and Lakers).
Unfortunately, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were never teammates on the Lakers. Their playing time only overlapped for four years (1969-1973), where they played as rivals against each other before Chamberlain eventually retired, just two years before Abdul-Jabbar eventually joined the Lakers.
Even if Chamberlain technically punched him and Abdul-Jabbar ignored him, Salley got a memory of a lifetime when he met these two legends.
