Several years after Wilt Chamberlain stopped playing, he toyed with the idea of a comeback. On the day he visited the Knicks’ offices in Madison Square Garden, he talked to Red Holzman, then strode out to the elevator. When it opened, two deliverymen were struggling with a dolly piled high with boxes of office supplies, mostly letterheads and envelopes.
The load was so heavy, the elevator had stopped maybe four inches below the floor level and now the deliverymen were huffing and puffing, but they couldn’t raise the dolly high enough to get it on the floor level.
After maybe two minutes of the deliverymen’s huffing and puffing, Wilt, his biceps bulging in a tank top, peered down at them and intoned,
“Gentlemen, maybe I can help.”
They stepped back, he stepped into the elevator, grabbed each end of the rope slung under the dolly and without much exertion, quickly lifted the dolly onto the floor level.
Looking up in awe, the deliverymen said, “Thank you.” Wilt said, “You’re welcome.” Wilt stepped into the elevator and rode down to the street level as another witness followed the two deliverymen toward the Knick offices and asked,
“How much does all this weigh?” They quickly surveyed the stack of big boxes of office supplies. “Close to 600 pounds,” one said.
