My God.
I'm taller than everybody that comes on this show.
Then you've just thrown the whole curve off.
How tall are you exactly?
5'11 and a half.
(Laughter)
Now I'm really depressed.
But it's a big half. That last half is a big half.
Congratulations on the book coming out.
Who's Running the Asylum?
You have some, make some pretty interesting statements here.
You talk about, in your prime,
how you think you would have maybe stacked
up against Shaquille O'Neil or, you know,
what do you think might what would have happened?
You versus Shaquille O'Neil today?
Because people sometimes lump the two of you together.
Yeah, because we were both terrible foul shooters
but other than that, Shaquille and I is like
comparing me with Clark Gable.
In this case, I'm Clark Gable and he's me.
(Laughter)
I thought you were going to be self-effacing for a second.
And then nah. Screw that.
No, he plays a entirely different type of
basketball game than I do.
He uses his physicality and he's a big strong, young man.
And that works well in today's game.
If he was facing me and other guys of my time,
not so, not so good.
I mean, I'm a guy bench pressing around 600 pounds when-
[Conan] 600 pounds?
I'm at 510. That's pretty good.
I'll just work on it a little while.
I'll be in your league, my friend.
Right, right. That's why you better be rather nice to me.
And I'm a little surprised because
I know you want to talk about a subject that
is dear to my heart.
Well, we gotta talk about this.
You made a statement and this statement is going to
follow you around for a while that you,
that you slept with 20,000 women. You made that statement.
Now, and I, you know, and I got to say, that's a
that's the kind of thing that you say,
and then people bring it up later.
Especially people like you, right?
Exactly. Well, it's not just me.
If you've seen, there's a clock in Times Square.
Take a look at this thing.
It's pretty incredible.
[Conan] I didn't think that-
(Laughter)
[Wilt] Oh wow. Wow. Okay, yeah.
[Conan] Now, I'm curious.
Yeah, I like that.
I'm curious, I want to know about my family share.
That's the part I'm curious about.
Well, first of all, it was encounters, but you know
I thought maybe one of the reasons you invited me
on the show was to give me an award
from the Board of Education
because whenever people see me now,
they go 20,000 and, let's see, he must've started when
he was, like, 15 and he's now maybe 55.
So let's see 20,000, 365, and 20,000.
And, you know, and then-
You're getting people thinking.
Not only that, I'm teaching them mathematics
which is really the whole story here, you understand?
I don't think that's gonna be a word problem for kids.
"If Wilt Chamberlain is with 10 women
on a train headed East,"
[Wilt] That's right. There you go. That's right.
"And when he gets to Missouri,"
God, alright but-
But on the serious side of that though, you know,
just so women don't think me of being really whatever,
the number was to make a statement about something.
And it was not ever to sort of, like,
belittle the ladies that I've known
and make them just another number.
In fact, in my book, they were a number,
really a great looking numbers they were.
You know what I'm saying?
But, what I was trying to say in my-
20,000!
20,000. Right, right.
That's all I'm thinking as you're talking.
I'm not hearing any of this.
There's nothing wrong with short romance.
You keep fading out of the number 20,000.
There's nothing wrong with short romance.
Short romance.
As long as it's a happy thing you have going on.
Right. Believe me.
But the idea was to say that, you know,
sexually rules the world, and that, you know,
for men who think that having 1,000 different women
is really cool, I have found out,
but you have to first find out that having one woman
a thousand different times is what's really happening.
[Conan] Oh?
Yeah.
(Audience applause)
So you had sex a thousand times with each of the 20,000.
That's what I'm thinking now.
(Laughter)
I'm really impressed.
[Wilt] It takes stamina. It takes stamina.
It takes stamina.
All right. Well, let's talk about another number.
Alright?
Let's talk about the number, 100 points in one game
which I believe was versus the Knicks 1962?
That's right.
That's a long, long time ago.
Was there a point, 100 points in one game,
was there a point where just the other team, like,
left and made sandwiches on the bench? I mean-
Well I really wish it was.
Actually they were really, very embarrassed
about the whole thing.
And so they were mad at me, you know?
And I was just out there trying to have fun.
[Conan] Did you start to, like, at 85 points?
Did you start to feel bad a little bit?
Yeah. Absolutely.
Like, I'll just try and miss this one. 100 points.
And I did that. I know, I did that.
And then my mother scolded me when I got home.
(Conan laughing)
It was not an easy night.
Because I had a lot of friends on the Knicks.
Let's talk about Michael Jordan, I'm curious.
Michael Jordan, say we had a time machine here,
and we could send Michael Jordan back to the civil war.
No, that's stupid.
(Laughter)
That's just my own fantasy, you know?
What if we could send Michael Jordan back
to playing basketball with you in your prime, alright?
How do you think he would do in those days?
Well, first of all, I'm glad you said with me,
you know, and not, against me.
Michael Jordan is one of those rare specimens
that could have played at any particular time
and is a gifted athlete who is using those gifts
in basketball incredibly so.
He has been the liaison
between something that's not so good
and making it great for all the risks.
I think that almost every man in the NBA
should give him 10% of their checks.
Now, what would his playing style?
How would that have translated back then?
Well, his playing style is he's 6'7
and he's, like, 197 pounds
coming into, what we call, our domain,
the pivot for us big guys.
Wouldn't have been very wise of Michael, you know,
if he was playing, doing our time.
So we would say, Michael, you know
as long as you do all those fancy things outside
of where we are, that's fine.
So it wouldn't have been good for Michael.
[Conan] Really?
No.
You think he'd have been crushed is what you're saying?
I don't think, I know you've been crushed.
(Laughter)
Really? He just wouldn't have worked back then?
No, he would've came in there once or twice-
What about the 360 degree whip around dunk?
What would've people thought of that at the time?
Well, you know what?
I'm glad you said that because, you see,
the mentality of the fan today is wonderful
when they've learned to accept showbiz.
[Conan] Right.
And Michael is the epitome of showbiz
along with that great talent.
During my time, if you did a 360, first of all,
the opposition would take it
as an insult that you would try to do something
like that against them.
The coach on your own team,
if you weren't at least 90,000 points ahead,
would bench you and the fans would look at you like,
well he's the biggest hot dog in the world.
[Conan] So you're saying, Michael Jordan back then
would have been on the bench the whole time.
Absolutely. You know, being considered, think about that.
And that's the truth.
Really?
But now, in Chicago, if he doesn't give you
one of those 360s you're talking about,
Right.
even though their team is 90 points ahead,
Right.
they're looking for something spectacular.
[Conan] The fans will turn on you.
Back then, it was more about teamwork, working together.
Absolutely.
What's happened to basketball?
Were you a basketball player?
Who me? Well I had, I used to like to play basketball,
but, and I had the height and everything,
I lacked what's called coordination.
(Laughter)
And it's true.
And I found out later that you need that.
I didn't know where.
I was one of those guys who's like,
"To me, to me, you know, and, ah!"
And I get it, and I fell a lot.
I wept openly sometimes during the game.
It was just a messy thing.
Well, that could be a problem. Yeah, you know?
But still, I oughta given you a run for your money.
All right. Now we'll talk about a record.
So this blew me away,
but you, you're a competitive guy, and you,
I didn't know this, this translates into your personal life,
you like to drive cross country.
And some people do.
I've driven cross country a few times. I enjoy it.
But you like to do it really fast.
Is that the case?
Right. Absolutely. Absolutely.
How fast are we talking about here?
Well we're talking about trying to average up
in 130s and go as high as 175-180 miles an hour.
(Audience cheering)
And that's a nonstop drive from like New York-
[Conan] And this is in a Volkswagen Bug.
That's the impressive thing.
Well, I did a commercial for Volkswagen?
It was with a little different engine, but you know.
What are you talking about?
How can you go that fast and not be constantly pulled over?
What happens?
Well, you have to be clever.
You have to use your eyes.
[Conan] Clever? What do you mean clever?
You're going 180 miles. Everything's a blur.
Birds are just piling up on your windshield.
[Wilt] A clever bird. A clever bird.
But you also, you like to, I found kind of interesting,
but you have a method for sort of, like, killing time.
When you see that you're six miles out
of Denver and you're on the road going 150 miles an hour,
what do you do to try and kill?
I hold my breath and see if I can hold my breath
all the way to Denver. You know what I'm saying?
Like, it was eight or nine miles away, you know?
And, so, I worked, you know, I got to work my way up,
but when I started in New York,
I could only hold my breath about, like, a minute.
About time, I'm halfway across the country.
I can get up to almost five, five and a half minutes of,
you know, holding my breath.
What I would love to see, I would love to be the,
see the policemen who pulls you over
Going 125 miles an hour, pulls you over, walks up,
looks into the windshield, it's Wilt Chamberlain there,
and he goes,
(excessively breathing)
and then passes out.
So that's just to amuse yourself.
Yeah, It is.
And I sure wouldn't advise anyone to do it
because it's one of the dumbest things
that one could possibly do.
(Laughter)
[Conan] Thanks for adding that.
They don't like people out there holding their breath
to the point of passing out
while they're driving a car 125 miles an hour.
And you could definitely pass out just-
You also, you like to water ski at great speeds.
Yeah. I tried for the quarter mile water speed record,
126 miles an hour, it was. You know?
You can't water ski 125 miles an hour.
Well I can, and I did.
You gotta have big feet, man.
You know what I'm saying? It helps out.
You didn't use skis?
(Laughter)
No, I use skis.
In fact, I don't even have big feet.
You did 125 miles.
I would just love to see the old fishermen now
sitting on the dock and
(imitates speedboat)
"I think that was Wilt Chamberlain going by."
That's incredible.
We used to ski in the Sacramento River in California.
And there was a highway right by the river.
And the cars would be going 70, 80 miles an hour,
and we would just, right on past the cars, you know?
And then we would slow up and see their expressions
on their face because they couldn't leave either.
Okay. Well, there's that and plenty more in this book
Who's Running the Asylum?: The Insane World of Sports Today.
And it was great to meet you, finally.
Very nice to have you on the program.
You can you come back sometime?
I'ma tell you something.
I enjoy your program. I really watch it.
So I want to say you are funny.
(Audience applauding)
That's nice of you to say.
Finally, thank you.
Someone who admits they've seen the show.
I've seen the show a number of times.
He actually watches the show.
All right. Wilt Chamberlain, thank you very much.