Wilt Chamberlain utterly dominated the league for 14 years. Over the course of his NBA career, he played for three teams including the Los Angeles Lakers, where he spent the twilight years of his career, before retiring after the 1972-73 season.
Having said that, Wilt, who went down as one of the best Lakers of all-time, obviously never had the chance to play with another Lakers legend, Magic Johnson who entered the NBA and started his career with the Lakers in 1979.
But there was one time they shared the court together and it was during a pick-up game when Wilt was already done playing professional basketball.
The pick-up game took place at the Men’s Gym on the UCLA campus in the early 1980s. The game featured Magic who was joined by Bernard King, James Worthy, Byron Scott, and A.C. Green, while the other team had Wilt and four UCLA freshmen.
The story was recalled by coach Larry Brown who was the coach of the Bruins at that time.
Larry Brown started, “It was game point; Magic soars a sky hook and Wilt blocks it, Magic calls game [implying Wilt’s block was a goaltend]. And Wilt says, ‘that wasn’t goaltending, that was a clean block.’ and Magic took the ball and said, ‘game over, next.’”
Brown continues, “And Wilt said, ’hey coach, was it goaltend?’ I said, ‘no, that was a clean block.’ Magic says, ‘what do you think he’s gonna say? they’re his kids.’ And Wilt says ‘alright, look we’re gonna play a game ‘till 12. We’ll do it again. Winners stay and there would be no more shots made at this basket.’”
“He blocked every shot. 43-years old. He was blocking everything. It was unbelievable.” Brown recalled.
