His wire obituary on Oct. 12, 1999 started with this paragraph: "LOS ANGELES -- The claim was so shocking as to be unbelievable: Wilt Chamberlain said he had sex with 20,000 women. The revelation made him fodder for comedians and turned the NBA Hall of Famer into a reference for sexual braggadocio. Chamberlain died Tuesday at 63. He had a history of heart problems, and a fire department spokesman said there were signs that Chamberlain might have had a heart attack."
Oh, and he was probably the most dominating player in NBA history.
Many of his record-breaking exploits had already happened by the time he reached the last five years of his Hall of Fame career -- four of them All-Star appearances -- but it helped bring the Lakers an NBA title in '71-'72. He still played a full 82 games the next season before calling it quits.
The Philadephia native arrived in L.A. in a trade with Philadelphia for Jerry Chambers, Darrell Imhoff and Archie Clark, and right away led the league in rebounds (21.1 a game average) and field goal percentage, and a Western Division title for coach Bill van Breda Kolff. The team lost in Game 7 to Boston by two points, with Wilt on the bench. During a game against Detroit that season, Chamberlain made 14 of 14 field goals, fourth-best performance in NBA history. The next season, he tore knee ligaments and was limited to just 12 games, and the Lakers hobbled into the NBA finals again, losing to the Knicks in seven.
For the '70-'71 season, he was back as the league's leading rebounder (18.2 a game), but he lost to Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Milwaukee in the Western Conference finals.
The '71-'72 season brought a record 33-game win streak and an NBA title, where Chamberlain again led the league in rebounding.
Going out the next year, Chamberlain set an NBA record with a .727 field goal percentage as the team won 60 games, but lost four in a row to the Knicks for the title.
As for his 1991 biography "A View From Above," where he devoted an entire chapter to sex and his estimate of having 20,000 encounters, Chamberlain couldn't live that down.
"I'm not boasting," he wrote, "I don't see all this lovemaking as any kind of conquest; all I'm saying is that I like women, people are curious about my sex life, and to most people the number of women who have come and gone through my bedrooms (and various hotel rooms around the country) would boggle the mind."
For all the statistics that he etched into the record books, somehow 20,000 is what'll be first on many lists.

Runner-up:
==Kenny Washington, UCLA football ('37-'39), Rams ('46-'48) (number retired by UCLA)

Other No. 13s:
==Cotton Warburton, USC football ('32-'34)
==Todd Marinovich, USC football ('89-'90)
==Cobi Jones, Galaxy ('96- )
==Joe Ferguson, Dodgers ('70-'76, 78-'81), Angels ('81-'83)
==Steve Bono, UCLA football ('81-'84)
==Jay Schroeder, UCLA football ('80), Raiders (’88-'92)
==Mark Jackson, Clippers ('92-'94)
==Bobby Valentine, Angels ('73-'75)
==Charles O’Bannon, UCLA basketball ('93-'97)
==Mike Cammalleri, Kings ('05- )

Sports Illustrated's vote for the all-time No. 13: Chamberlain, over Dan Marino and Alex Rodgriguez.

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