January 15, 1965: Wilt Chamberlain Returns to Philadelphia

January 15, 1965: The Philadelphia 76ers lose to their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, 104-95 at the Boston Garden.

Nevertheless, this is a good day for the team that, from 1946 to 1963, was known as the Syracuse Nationals: They traded Connie Dierking, Paul Neumann, Lee Shaffer, and $150,000 to the San Francisco Warriors for one man. That one man was Wilt Chamberlain.

A native of West Philadelphia, Wilt came into the NBA in 1959, with the Warriors, then in Philadelphia. He became the greatest player the game had ever seen. He put up point and rebound totals no one had seen before. He put up blocked shot totals that, officially, still haven't been seen, as the NBA didn't begin to record them until 1974-75.

Wilt Chamberlain not only did to offensive stats in basketball what Babe Ruth did to them in baseball and Wayne Gretzky in hockey, he was the best defensive player, too. At the absolute least, 2nd in his time to Bill Russell. 

Despite Wilt's achievements, at the end of the 1961-62 season, the Warriors were sold, and moved across the continent. They would play from 1962 to 1971 as the San Francisco Warriors, then move across the Bay to Oakland, using the name Golden State Warriors. They returned to San Francisco in 2019, but have kept the Golden State name.

After 1 season without an NBA team, 1962-63, Philadelphia got the Syracuse Nationals to move into the Warriors' former home, the Convention Hall of the Philadelphia Civic Center. They were renamed the Philadelphia 76ers. They also adopted the Warriors' former rivalry with the Celtics.

Warriors owner Frank Mieuli was glad to be rid of Wilt, saying, "Chamberlain is not an easy man to love... The fans in San Francisco never learned to love him." There's a reason for that: San Franciscans are notoriously provincial. When the New York Giants baseball team moved there for the 1958 season, the locals loved the great players who debuted there, like Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda and Juan Marichal; but, until it was too late, they didn't love the Giants' established star, Willie Mays.

Mieuli wasn't smart enough to figure that out. He was smart enough to figure out that Wilt wasn't happy, but he wasn't smart enough to figure out that trading him was not the answer -- for the Warriors, anyway.

But in his hometown, Wilt was loved. He got the 76ers into the Eastern Conference Finals, though a steal by John Havlicek on the final play of Game 7 gave the Celtics the win. Finally, in 1967, Wilt led a Sixer destruction of the Celtics in the Conference Finals, and then won the title -- beating the Warriors in the Finals.

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January 15, 1965 was a Friday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NHL had no games scheduled. There were 2 other games in the NBA that night. The Warriors lost to the New York Knicks, 89-87 at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium). Because of the trade, Wilt didn't play in this game or in the Sixers-Celtics game. And the Cincinnati Royals beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 124-106 at the Cincinnati Gardens.