Wilt Chamberlain, Bobby Fischer and Dick Schaap walk into a room. That may sound like the start of a joke--but it really almost happened. Dick Schaap was a frequent houseguest of Chamberlain's and Schaap mentioned in his autobiography Flashing Before my Eyes that on one occasion Chamberlain called up Fischer and asked him to join them. Schaap had known Fischer for many years and had even taken the young chess champion to some Knicks games, introducing him to Dave DeBusschere. Fischer once said, "I'd compare chess to basketball. Basketball players pass the ball around until they get an opening. Like chess, like the mating attack."
Schaap said that Fischer considered coming to Chamberlain's house but then told Schaap that he wasn't seeing people at the time. What if Fischer had accepted the invitation? I thought about that--and wrote this story:
Wilt and Bobby: Not a Random Encounter
Wilt Chamberlain, Bobby Fischer and Dick Schaap
