NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, October 12, 2016, 1:55 PM
(Originally published by the Daily News on Oct. 13, 1999. This was written by Dave Goldiner.)
Wilt (The Stilt) Chamberlain, a basketball legend and American icon who scored a record-setting 100 points in a single game, died yesterday. He was 63.
Paramedics found the 7-foot-1 Chamberlain at his mansion in suburban Los Angeles around noon.
A Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman said Chamberlain, who had been treated for an irregular heartbeat, apparently died of a heart attack.
"Wilt was one of the greatest ever, and we will never see another one like him," said fellow basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Chamberlain had lost nearly 50 pounds in recent weeks, was scheduled to undergo hip surgery and had been in excruciating pain from a tooth extraction last week, relatives said.
It was not clear whether other medical problems could have contributed to the heart ailment.