One of the more bizarre “long distance” head-coaching assignments that Wilt Chamberlain had led to…
With his notoriety and influence outside of the court, the late great Wilt Chamberlain became one of the most dominant players in NBA history and a divisive personality who went beyond the game of basketball. Though there are many amazing anecdotes about Wilt and his many pursuits, one particularly noteworthy one is when he made the decision to become a coach while still a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. Wilt always did things his way. That’s not all that shocking, but in Wilt’s instance, his “long-distance” coaching style garnered notice in addition to the fact that he insulted the team’s starting center by calling him a “fat pig.”
Many things may be said about Wilt Chamberlain and his illustrious NBA career, but for the purposes of this discussion, we’ll focus on his brief tenure as the San Diego Conquistadors’ head coach. At the conclusion of his brilliant career as a Los Angeles Lakers player in 1973, Wilt made the decision to try something different in his life and took a position with the ABA team Conquistadors. That one choice alone created a great deal of commotion and was unquestionably one of the worst coaching appointments in NBA/ABA history.
Wilt conducted remote coaching from his opulent Bel-Air estate, without even bothering to relocate to San Diego. Wilt’s major priorities were ladies, signings, and living the life of a celebrity; coaching was just something he wanted to do on the side.
