Basketball: Another Walk for Wilt

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A fellow who stands 7 ft. l 1/16 in. can cover a lot of ground when he has a mind to, and Wilt ("The Stilt") Chamberlain, 31 , is a peripatetic Polyphemus. In ten years as a pro, Wilt has moved four times — jumping from the Harlem Globetrotters to National Basketball Association clubs in Philadelphia and San Francisco before returning to Philadelphia. Last week the greatest offensive player in the history of basketball hit the road again.

Scratch was the cause of Wilt's itchy feet. Coming up to contract time, he demanded from the Philadelphia 76ers not his usual $250,000 yearly salary but a piece of the team. Philadelphia Owner Irv Kosloff was willing to pay him the salary, but balked at making him a partner, so he traded Wilt to the Los Angeles Lakers, whose owner Jack Kent Cooke did not need a partner either. What Cooke needs is an N.B.A. Championship, so he offered Wilt a five-year contract totaling an estimated $1,500,000. Cooke now owns three superstars: Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and Chamberlain, and the problem may be to get three balls into the game so they can all shoot at once.