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Here's an unexpected story about a guy who says he's Wilt Chamberlain's son. Given Chamberlain's famous boast that he'd slept with 20,000 women, the odds of him not having a child are pretty low.
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The man in question, Aaron Levi, is a 6-5 man of mixed parentage. His mother is an Englishwoman who slept with Chamberlain once in the '60s, but really doesn't remember much of the evening, knew next to nothing about Chamberlain, and had a drinking problem to boot.
She put the kid up for adoption.
Levi says he has no interest in financial reward; he just wants to know the truth.
Chamberlain's relatives are not interested and have refused to provide DNA.
It may not mean much, but there is a definite resemblance if you look at the picture of Chamberlain and Levi on this page.
Chamberlain remains a compelling figure, an icon of the game. Check out the gallery included, which has some beautiful shots of his college career. The last photo is of Chamberlain and Michael Jordan. It's not the one we have mentioned before and habe been looking for, where the two legends shake hands and Chamberlain is staring intently at Jordan, but it's a kindred image: Chamberlain looms over Jordan who, uncharacteristically, is looking anywhere but at the Big Dipper.
Incidentally, if anyone tries to tell you that Chamberlain couldn't play today, don't believe them.
First, the man was a supreme athlete. He ran track, did the high jump, even did the rings in gymnastics. He raced Jim Brown on a street and held his own.
With modern training techniques, not to mention decent shoes, he could dominate the NBA today, perhaps even more so than in his own era.
Athletically, Chamberlain was a freak, an unbelievable rarity. The closest we've seen since is Shaquille O' Neal, and as great as o' Neal was, he wasn't nearly as good an athlete as was Chamberlain. There's never been anyone like him and we're still waiting for someone who's even approximately in his class.