Wilt Chamberlain Set the Template for Living in New York While Starring in Philadelphia
As reports float the idea of LeBron James living in New York while playing for the Sixers, friends of Wilt Chamberlain recall how the Hall of Famer commuted by fast car in the 1960s.
By Aever Bundji · · Originally reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer
The notion that LeBron James could make his home in New York while playing for the Sixers has a precedent in Philadelphia basketball history. More than six decades ago, Wilt Chamberlain did much the same thing, only with luxury cars instead of the helicopter one report suggested James might use.
Several NBA insiders reported last month that James might live in New York this season and travel to Sixers games and practices. Tom Hoover, who befriended Chamberlain as a Villanova student and later played for the Knicks, said he had thought James might follow that path. "Philly is not his kind of town," said Hoover, who now lives in Manhattan. "And that's not a knock against Philadelphia." He described James as a New York kind of person after living in Los Angeles.
In the 1960s, Chamberlain kept a residence in Philadelphia but spent most nights in an apartment overlooking Central Park. Hoover recalled riding with him in a purple Cadillac El Dorado after Philadelphia Warriors games at Convention Hall, when the trolleys had stopped running for the night. A 40-minute trip to the Villanova dorm became a 10-minute sprint. "Dippy had a heavy foot," Hoover said, adding that Chamberlain would push 90 to 100 mph on the turnpike and that police who pulled him over often asked for an autograph instead.
Chamberlain's New York life centered on Harlem. He bought Smalls Paradise in 1959, spent $200,000 renovating it, and renamed it Big Wilt's Smalls Paradise. He told Ebony magazine that he spent 18 hours a day there learning the business. Performers such as Sammy Davis Jr. and The Coasters played the club, and James Brown would stop by after Apollo Theater shows. Gloria Miller said her mother often told of meeting Sidney Poitier there.
His apartment at Park West Village, a high-rise near Central Park, was on the top floor and had a terrace. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then a high schooler named Lew Alcindor, called it "the ultimate bachelor pad" in his autobiography Giant Steps. After closing the club at 4 a.m., Chamberlain's friends would play cards at the apartment, and the loser had to chug a quart of water.
When the Sixers acquired Chamberlain in February 1965, owner Ike Richman did not want him spending nights in New York. His son David said his father even paid a driver not to take Chamberlain there. Richman had Chamberlain stay at the family home in Elkins Park for the rest of that season. Michael Richman recalled his mother preparing his room, saying, "Wilt's moving in. Daddy's making him." David Richman, then 16, once drove Chamberlain to Convention Hall in his father's Cadillac, with the center draped over the front seat from the back.
The next season, Chamberlain shared an apartment on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway with Vince Miller but again spent most of his time in New York, commuting by train or in a powder blue Bentley delivered to his Manhattan apartment. The press criticized him for missed practices and for living in another city. David Richman said that on game days, Chamberlain was never half-hearted. "It was a war," he said.
After retiring in 1973, Chamberlain lived mostly in Los Angeles but stayed close to his Philadelphia friends. He was best man at Vince Miller's wedding and godfather to Gloria Miller. "He never forgot where he came from," she said, recalling that her mother made him fried chicken and cobbler whenever he visited.
Hoover said he never thought much about Chamberlain's arrangement, since the 7-footer belonged in the big city, and he would not blame James for feeling the same way.
