 The rookie Chamberlain then shocked Warriors ' fans by saying he was thinking of retiring . He was tired of being double- and triple @-@ teamed , and of teams coming down on him with hard fouls . Chamberlain feared he might lose his cool one day . Celtics forward Heinsohn said : " Half the fouls against him were hard fouls ... he took the most brutal pounding of any player ever " . In addition , Chamberlain was seen as a freak of nature , jeered at by the fans and scorned by the media . As Chamberlain often said , quoting coach Alex Hannum 's explanation of his situation , " Nobody loves Goliath . " Eddie Gottlieb coaxed Chamberlain back into the NBA , sweetening his return with a salary raise to $ 65 @,@ 000 ( equal to about $ 520 @,@ 000 today ) . 
