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This story appears in the July 16, 2018 issue of Sports Illustrated. For better storytelling and in-depth badysis, subscribe to the magazine and get up to 94% off the sale price. Click here to read more …
Late in the afternoon of Saturday, March 11, 1972, Wilt Chamberlain, 35, and in the 13th season of a career that will only last 39 years. another year, began welcoming a few hundred of his closest friends to a party at his recently completed Bel-Air mansion. He had christened the 7,100 square foot pleasure palace, the Big Dipper, after the constellation that contains the stars that make up the Big Dipper, the nickname that he preferred to Wilt the Stilt by far. Many guests, including his Los Angeles Lakers teammates and a friend of the football world named O.J. Simpson, were still there as dawn broke high in the Santa Monica Mountains. Wilt himself did not go to sleep until 7 am, although it was not unusual for the Dipper himself, for example, a routine on Tuesday
The housewarming marked Wilt's true arrival as a member of Hollywood stars. "The host wore what the Los Angeles Times described as a" pale gold antelope costume "- and also emphasized the fact that the Philadelphia Chamberlain, at its fourth season as Laker, had finally found a real "Wilt was a wanderer and a researcher," says Jerry West, Wilt's teammate at the time and now consulting with the Los Angeles Clippers, "and I guess that's # He could have called a lot of places at home, but there is no doubt that he loved being at LA Wilt loved the beach, he loved the weather, he loved to be a celebrity in a city that worships celebrities .. it suits him the greatness of it all, star quality. "
As dust begins to settle after the still-noisy expected landing of the coast west of LeBron James, who last week accepted a free agent of $ 153.3 million against Lakers, we must think about the historical role that the City of Angels in general and the Lakers in particular have played in the transformation of the power elite of the NBA over the years. 60 years in Los Angeles, played in three of these movements, all involving game change centers.
West teamed with Wilt to win a championship in 1972, which came in five games against the Knicks two months after the immortal Ursa Major of Wilt. A few years later, West coached Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the product of UCLA which, in 1975, had reoriented to SoCal, Abdul-Jabbar had spent six seasons in Milwaukee, where he had won a championship , three MVPs and reputation of being "moody" or "distant" the code words of the day for a black athlete who distrusted the media.
And especially for his own legacy as a managing director, West 's collapsed in the summer of 1996 to attract the free agent Shaquille O' Neal. to the Lakers, days of nonstop negotiations that have landed in the west of the hospital. So as a player, coach and GM, West has been in the midst of reinventing basketball in a city where reinvention is the professional M.O.
West, of course, would have liked to have dirty hands in the LeBron lottery. He and James are members of a society of mutual admiration – West has firmly defended LeBron against his enemies, while James speaks of West as godfather – and there was speculation that the mere presence of the logo would attract LeBron at the other LA team "But West, who has never encountered a bargaining battle which he did not rejoice, did not buy." The clips did not have the space needed to play, even though LeBron had been interested, which was not the case.
Be that as it may, West has no hostility towards LeBron for The outcome of his latest decision, "It's amazing for me to see how folks have gotten into these guys, like Kevin Durant and LeBron, to be gone," West said last week. In my opinion, no player owes an apology to a city, certainly not LeBron, who did so much for Cleveland … Damn it, I 'm not sure about it. would have liked to be able to move when I played. "
not. Chamberlain, loudly and proudly, was this rare player who fought for, and won, his geographic independence in the pre-free-agency days of the NBA. Most early battles in the NBA were conducted not on the players' movement but on issues such as a pension plan and better medical treatment. Oscar Robertson, a victim of racial contempt, spent most of the decade trying to break away from Cincinnati before finally getting the Royals to exchange him in the spring of 1970. He went to Milwaukee and won immediately a championship with Abdul-Jabbar, However, at the end of four seasons in Brewtown, both wanted to go out.
Boston could be considered as the first destination of the NBA since the Celtics won 11 championships in 13 years between 1957 and '69. But the orchestra conductor of this orchestra was Red Auerbach; the players were the talented string section. Bill Sharman, Jim Loscutoff, Tommy Heinsohn, Sam Jones, KC Jones, Frank Ramsey and John Havlicek were all in Auerbach's draft (Bob Cousy was snubbed by Auerbach in the 1950 draft and came to Boston when the Chicago Stags went to bed), and Bill Russell came across a Louis Hawks
"After what Bill Russell said about racism," says West, "I do not think he would consider Boston as a "destination city", especially if we take a look at the weather, all accustomed to hearing at the time, and still do, was "mecca & ## New York was supposed to be the mecca of basketball, but I also do not remember having run for New York. "
The Knicks player who considered New York a" destination " "was probably Phil. Jackson, who climbed the subways and ran through the libraries. And even Jax ends up landing in LA
It was a big story when Wilt found a way to join Elgin Baylor and West, who said, "I remember seeing that magazine cover saying, Is this a great team I can tell you this: Elgin was injured and aged, and there were adjustment problems, and it took us four seasons to win a championship. "
But the Lakers got one , and it seemed Wilt-observers that the Dipper never found real satisfaction until he found Locust Land, where he continued to be an Alpha Angeleno until his died in 1999: His gardener found him in his custom – made 72 square foot bed at Ursa Major, from which he had never moved.
Now, let 's forget not one of the main reasons why Los Angeles became the destination city of the NBA.As the Beach Boys say in 1965: "The West coast has sun and girls are so tanned. Clearly, Wilt, a perpetual bachelor, had an eager interest in getting a female company, and he was not alone in that interest.
But the lure of the Lakers goes beyond the glittering surface of LA Few players have tried to travel to San Diego even though the Rockets (1967-68 to 1970–71) and the Clippers ( 1978-79 to 1983–84) played in this meteorologically perfect place. And the Clippers played in the same climate as the Lakers in all those seasons when GM West turned the Lakers into a final finals contender and owner Donald Sterling turned the Clippers into trouble. Basically, the real players do not go to the losers.
So, to a large extent, the people most responsible for the Lakers status as franchise are George Mikan, who led the Minneapolis Lakers to five championships, and Baylor and West, who together built the LA version in a must-watch in the 1960s. Another cry must be addressed to the Lakers owner, Jack Kent Cooke, who, despite his shortage in most cases, has built the Forum, which he called the "Fabulous Forum ".
"Los Angeles has everything you want except poor traffic and an incredibly high tax rate," West says. "I'm going to tell you a band that's just as excited about LeBron to come as the Lakers fans, the government." After the Democratic Party of California tweeted an invitation for LeBron to register to vote in the state, conservative representative Devin Nunes countered with a tweet that stated that LeBron "should have stood for more just to pay the Moonbeam tax, "Gov Jerry Brown
Becoming a political football before playing a single game is something that Wilt, Kareem and Shaq have never had to deal with.
Abdul-Jabbar did not necessarily legislate a move to Los Angeles because he was thinking about titles. The Lakers were away 30-52 the year before his arrival, and Kareem did not yet know of the existence of a high school student in Lansing, Michigan, named Earvin Johnson, with whom he would go in tandem with him. # 39; history. Kareem just wanted to get out of the Milwaukee cold and get into the Los Angeles sun. But, remember, it was always a trade, not a decision of I-think-I-go-here.
"The Bucks nodded a bit because Kareem really wanted to go out," said West, who had retired the previous year, Kareem came in and got the Lakers coaching job in 1976 , the second season of KA-J in Los Angeles "But they had very good players in return." In exchange for Abdul-Jabbar and Walt Wesley, Milwaukee earned Junior Bridgeman, Brian Winters, Elmore Smith and Dave Meyers, all solid pros. But, look, the teams almost never have the fair value when they drop an immortal. The Philadelphia 76ers had received Jerry Chambers, Archie Clark and Darrall Imhoff in exchange for sending Wilt to LA in 1968. Do the math on that one.
"Kareem was a kind of quiet market, at least by the standards of the West. "He was one of those incredibly talented players who do not get as much credit as he should, of course, everyone knows his name, but he was so efficient and consistent, and he played the game … so … "
It was true even after Magic was drafted in 1979. After four seasons in which the Abdul-Jabbar Lakers won a total of two Playoffs, Magic and Cape, like Johnson, always referred to Kareem, led the Lakers to five championships in the 1980s. "The magic ran to the light and made the pbades; Kareem retreated to solitude and made the baskets. The Skyhook Sultan will later make peace with Milwaukee, telling fans at a book signing that he has learned "Midwest Values" as Buck.But it is in the City of Angels that Abdul-Jabbar became the best combination of college and professional players that there was and that "It will probably never be.
In the summer of 1988, Tom Chambers became the first unrestricted free agent in the NBA. when West made his 1996 pitch to Shaq, he did it in a more fluid, yet complicated environment. The players now had real freedom, and no one knew exactly where O-Neal, deliciously unpredictable, wanted to land. Or even if he wanted to leave Orlando. With the Magic he had a great team that had already made the finals, a best friend of Dennis Scott and a Dynamic Duo partner still in full maturity in Penny Hardaway. In addition, West also had other center options in the free agent menu at Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo.
"But for me it was always Shaq," said West. "From the first time I saw him in college, I always imagined him in a Lakers uniform, he reminded me of a little Wilt, a wanderer, a researcher, a man. for all seasons. "
and his Los Angeles-based agent, Leonard Armato, West finally got the agreement where Neal ended, which arrived only a few weeks after West also skillfully arranged the Kobe Bryant's acquisition of the Charlotte Hornets, who had written it to No. 13 "I was exhausted after everything was done, and my doctor ordered me to go in the hospital for three days, "says West. "But it was obviously worth it."
As was the case with Kareem and Wilt, the lure of the city (Shaquille had already finished his immortal film Kazaam that came out when he signed the Lakers agreement ) and the franchise (O Neal was a fan of Showtime Lakers) helped the Big Aristotle make his decision. But West could have cared less about Shaq's portrayal of a nice genius or his rapper work on "What's Up Doc?" From Fu-Schnickens. Shortly after Shaq's arrival in Los Angeles, West took him to the Forum and told him to watch all the championship banners (11 at the time) and all numbers removed, like Magic, Baylor, Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, Gail Goodrich, James Worthy – and of course West himself.
"I know you're thinking about movies and your music career and all that," West told him. "But it's about basketball, and you have a chance of being up there, one of Laker's greats." Four seasons later, Shaq and Bryant teamed up for the first title in a hat-trick that opened the new millennium.
West's relationship with O & # 39; Neal remains strong. "Of all the players I've ever dealt with," says West, "Shaquille remains the most approachable, the most steadfast, the most grounded, I love the guy, I'm also proud of this deal that all I've ever done. "
As a representative of Clippers, West would have liked to have escorted LeBron for a similar ride, this one to midcourt at Staples Center where he would have pointed out all the .. Well, there is no championship Clippers banners. Which is part of the reason why drawing LeBron to Clips was a non-stop jump.
"All due respect to the Lakers, who handled everything well," said West, "but, as these things go, LeBron was not LeBron wanted to come to LA and he wanted to come to the Lakers period he has a family to which he thinks, he has a house here. [Actually two homes.] He has a son [13-year-old “Bronny” Jr.] He wants to stay in a school in Los Angeles, he will be a celebrity here, of course, but that's all. is a place where, from time to time, he can get lost, be himself … You can not do it everywhere.
"This celebrity factor was not a consideration for me when I arrived here in 1960. I was 22 years old and I knew nothing. I did not kick out any endorsement and did not get one. The Los Angeles Locator Factor was not great for me because I was not hanging out.
"But all I could get out of basketball came from my badociation with this city and the Lakers … playing with Elgin Playing with Wilt and playing for the fans Despite all the losses we lost in the final before To win one, LA fans have never turned against us.
"I hope LeBron has this experience here. I really do. I hope that he will find the happiness that I have found. "West is stopping and clarifying this point." Just not when he plays the Clippers. "
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