Top 43 Quotes & Sayings by Wilt Chamberlain

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American athlete Wilt Chamberlain.

Last updated on November 21, 2024.

Wilton Norman Chamberlain was an American professional basketball player who played as a center. Standing at 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) tall, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 years and is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the sport's history. Several publications have argued that Chamberlain is the greatest NBA player of all time. He holds numerous NBA regular season records in scoring, rebounding, and durability categories; most notably he is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game, and average more than 40 and 50 points in a season. Further records that Chamberlain achieved include being the only player in NBA history to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season, which he accomplished seven times, and the only player to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game over the entire course of his NBA career.

American - Athlete | August 21, 1936 - October 12, 1999

Source: Wikipedia

I get constant reminders from fans who equate that game and my career as one and the same.

Wilt Chamberlain

They were willing to do anything to stop me.

Wilt Chamberlain

If you have ability in a certain area, why not capitalize on it and improve it and use it?

Wilt Chamberlain

They were so clever finding ways to get me the ball. They had to do more than just give up open shots. They had to avoid fouls and pass me the ball in traffic.

Wilt Chamberlain

I guarantee you, if you could give me 10 points in all those seventh games against the Boston Celtics, instead of Bill Russell having 11 rings, I could've at least had nine or eight.

Wilt Chamberlain

When you go out there and do the things you're supposed to do, people view you as selfish.

Wilt Chamberlain

You must understand as a kid of color in those days, the Harlem Globetrotters were like being movie stars.

Wilt Chamberlain

Nobody roots for Goliath.

Wilt Chamberlain

But the point of using the number was to show that sex was a great part of my life as basketball was a great part of my life. That's the reason why I was single.

Wilt Chamberlain

I believe that good things come to those who work.

Wilt Chamberlain

With all of you men out there who think that having a thousand different ladies is pretty cool, I have learned in my life I've found out that having one woman a thousand different times is much more satisfying.

Wilt Chamberlain

It was a challenge to my teammates to help me.

Wilt Chamberlain

I couldn't have come close without my teammates' help because the Knicks didn't want me to make 100.

Wilt Chamberlain

Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.

Wilt Chamberlain

It just wasn't right the way they were behind by 25 points and then they're told to hold the ball.

Wilt Chamberlain

We're all fascinated by the numbers, as we were about the 100 points.

Wilt Chamberlain

And I remember leaving my place in L.A. and - my father is a big fight fan - and I said, 'Dad, I got a couple of days off and I'm getting ready to go to Houston to sign to fight Muhammad Ali.

Wilt Chamberlain

The man who won't loan money isn't going to have many friends - or need them.

Wilt Chamberlain

He fouled out in the fourth quarter, and that's when I really started getting points. He was no more at fault than anyone.

Wilt Chamberlain

Villains are kind of hard to really know on a personal level when you see them as mean, unsensitive-type people.

Wilt Chamberlain

My thing I liked was to challenge guys that were smaller, guys that were supposed to be quicker. Because I think self-consciously I was trying to prove to people it wasn't just my height that was getting me across in these various sports. It was some other intrinsic things that I had that made me a good athlete.

Wilt Chamberlain

It was a different sexual situation going on than it is in the '80s and '90s, and I did a very poor job of describing that.

Wilt Chamberlain

Everything is habit-forming, so make sure what you do is what you want to be doing.

Wilt Chamberlain

This is a team game and one man doesn't win and one man doesn't lose. In the end, the best team usually wins.

Wilt Chamberlain

It seemed like whatever I touched, I was breaking record after record. I just knew I was on. I completely destroyed all existing shooting records there - an omen of things to come.

Wilt Chamberlain

Scoring 100 points is a lot, but I maybe could have scored 140 if they had played straight-up basketball.

Wilt Chamberlain

All of the sudden, my right leg caved in. I crumpled to the floor in pain. The doctor weren't sure I'd ever be able to play again...and even if I did recover physically, the psychological scars of so traumatic an injury might never heal.

Wilt Chamberlain

The toughest thing for me was growing up and being stared at and being looked at and being talked about in that particular way. Other than that it was a good childhood.

Wilt Chamberlain

I was played the villain so much because I was bigger and stronger than most, and they cast me as the villain everywhere I went.

Wilt Chamberlain

I think a lot of ladies found me so attractive because I was different, and I acted on that in a way.

Wilt Chamberlain

Bill Russell helped make my dream a better dream because when you play with the best, you know you have to play your best.

Wilt Chamberlain

If I were given a change of life, I'd like to see how it would be to live as a mere six-footer.

Wilt Chamberlain

When I was a freshman, I fooled around with shooting free throws this way: For some reason, I thought you had to stay within the top half of that free-throw circle, so I would step back to just inside the top of the circle, take off from behind the line and dunk. They outlawed that, but I wouldn't have done it in a game, anyway. I was a good free throw shooter in college." Actually he was a 62% free throw shooter, which is poor except in comparison to his 51% as a pro.

Wilt Chamberlain

That's my tag, whether I like it or not.

Wilt Chamberlain

Meadowlark was the most sensational, awesome, incredible basketball player I've ever seen.

Wilt Chamberlain

I'm a big man and I like big dogs.... The dogs kept growing until only one of us could get in the elevator. It caused enough hassles so they finally kicked me out of my apartment.

Wilt Chamberlain

We make too much of winning. The mere fact of winning doesn't make you great.

Wilt Chamberlain

It is said that good things come to those who wait. I believe that good things come to those who work.

Wilt Chamberlain

People say my ego is grand. I think it's in proportion to me.

Wilt Chamberlain

I've prided myself on being in excellent condition-as good as any man in my profession. Now this doesn't come from sitting around on your rear end. This comes from hard, hard work.

Wilt Chamberlain

Monogamy is the true path to happiness.

Wilt Chamberlain

Nobody seems to appreciate what an incredible player Wilt was," Russell said at 1997 All-Star Game when the league named and honored its 50 greatest players. "He was the best player of all time because he dominated the floor like nobody else ever could. To be that big and that athletic was special.

Wilt Chamberlain

A big dog tends to be much more at ease with kids and gentle with them than a little one that's always yelping.

Wilt Chamberlain