One of the most bizarre “far distance” head coaching positions ever held by Wilt Chamberlain was…
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 is 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 will 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.
There were times when Wilt would indeed show up for the coach’s game; nevertheless, he would frequently be seated near the sidelines with women in tow. The team’s starting center Genee Moore took exception to that and informed the media that he overheard Wilt call someone is astrological sign “The dollar sign” when she inquired about it.
Even though Wilt attempted a comeback as a player in the 1980s and teams expressed interest in having him on the team even at the age of 50, this was also his final run as a head coach in professional basketball. Though Wilt eventually attempted to coach a volleyball team, his interests were very different when it came to leading the Conquistadors.
