A new documentary series follows the life of Philly basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain
Chamberlain grew up in West Philly and notched the only 100-point game in history. “I’m not sure that Wilt becomes Wilt without growing up in Philly,” one of the filmmakers said.
Wilt Chamberlain is one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and one of Philadelphia’s favorite sons.
Chamberlain was born in the city in 1936, grew up in West Philadelphia, and graduated from Overbrook High School. He began his professional career in 1959 with the old Philadelphia Warriors, notching the only 100-point game in history, in 1963. After the Warriors moved to San Francisco, he returned to Philadelphia in a 1965 trade, to play for the 76ers in their second year in the league.
Goliath: The Complete Story of Wilt Chamberlain, a three-part documentary debuts July 14 on demand and on streaming, on Paramount+. It debuts on the Showtime cable channel on July 16, with a new episode every Sunday.
“I’m not sure that Wilt becomes Wilt without growing up in Philly,” Christopher Dillon, the film’s co-director, told The Inquirer.
“Philly is very entrenched in the film, and from a foundational/locational perspective, the heart of where the film lives,” added co-director Rob Ford.
When Chamberlain was around 10 years old, as the series tells us, he was the tallest person in just about every room he ever entered, which often led him to be insecure. The doc series’ title is a reference to “Goliath” one of Chamberlain’s many nicknames. Wilt the Stilt and The Big Dipper are among the others.
Making the documentary, which visits Chamberlain’s childhood home, at 401 N. Salford St., near 60th and Callowhill streets in West Philly, was an uphill task. There is no existing video footage of many of Chamberlain’s key moments, including the 100-point game, and there is little archival material than there would be for athletes who played more recently. Chamberlain died in 1999 at age 63.
The filmmakers used a stick figure-style animation process, for some scenes, in addition to a great deal of experts and the archival footage available.
They also use artificial intelligence to recreate Chamberlain’s voice as narration, which is disclosed at the beginning of each episode. While this practice has been controversial in other documentaries, including one about Anthony Bourdain in 2021, Goliath filmmakers, used only quotes from what Chamberlain really said or wrote. The Chamberlain family signed off on the use of A.I.
“One of the big themes for us, in telling Wilt’s story… is Wilt’s relationship to the story that was told about him in his lifetime,” Dillon said. And Philadelphia shaped a large chunk of that and Chamberlain’s worldview.
“Growing up in the part of West Philly where Wilt grow up, and going to Overbrook High School, it was a multiracial, multiethnic neighborhood, and this really informed Wilt’s experience, before he went to Kansas,” Dillon said, referring to Chamberlain’s college career at the University of Kansas, in the 1950s, which was segregated.
In Philadelphia, Dillon said, Chamberlain had friends of every race, and was especially close with members of the Jewish community.
Chamberlain had a wildly eclectic career and life, which included a stint with the Harlem Globetrotters, appearances in movies and on talk shows, and three autobiographies.
Goliath is among a glut of documentaries on cable and streaming services about basketball history which includes, The Last Dance, a 2020 series about Michael Jordan.
“Last Dance is an ongoing exercise in myth-making [around Jordan]…,” Dillon said.“The myth of Wilt already exists — we are responding to it, and trying to unpack and reveal the man — where it aligns with the myth, and where it deviates.”