Claim: Wilt Chamberlain is an athlete.

Wilton Norman Chamberlain -LRB- August 21 , 1936 -- October 12 , 1999 -RRB- was an American basketball player . He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors , the Philadelphia 76ers , and the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association -LRB- NBA -RRB- ; he played for the University of Kansas and also for the Harlem Globetrotters before playing in the NBA . The 7 foot 1 inch Chamberlain weighed 250 pounds as a rookie before bulking up to 275 and eventually to over 300 pounds with the Lakers . He played the center position and is widely considered one of the greatest and most dominant players in NBA history .   Chamberlain holds numerous NBA records in scoring , rebounding , and durability categories . He is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season . He also won seven scoring , eleven rebounding , nine field goal percentage titles and led the league in assists once . Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season , a feat he accomplished seven times . He is also the only player to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game over the entire course of his NBA career . Although he suffered a long string of professional losses , Chamberlain had a successful career , winning two NBA championships , earning four regular-season Most Valuable Player awards , the Rookie of the Year award , one NBA Finals MVP award , and being selected to 13 All-Star Games and ten All-NBA First and Second teams . Chamberlain was subsequently enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978 , elected into the NBA 's 35th Anniversary Team of 1980 , and chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History of 1996 .   Chamberlain was known by various nicknames during his basketball playing career . He hated the ones that called attention to his height such as `` Goliath '' and `` Wilt the Stilt '' , which was coined during his high school days by a Philadelphia sportswriter . He preferred `` The Big Dipper '' , which was inspired by his friends who saw him dip his head as he walked through doorways . After his basketball career ended , Chamberlain played volleyball in the short-lived International Volleyball Association , was president of this organization , and is enshrined in the IVA Hall of Fame for his contributions . Chamberlain was also a successful businessman , authored several books , and appeared in the movie Conan the Destroyer . He was a lifelong bachelor , and became notorious for his claim to have had sexual intercourse with as many as 20,000 women .