Heard a discussion on the radio and wanted to see what everyone thinks. Who is the greatest center all time Hakeem or Wilt? Please post why. I say Hakeem because look at the competition during his career. You had Ewing,Mutumbo,Shaquille,Mourning,Parrish, Rick Smiths and that is just the Centers you also throw in the PF like Barkley and Malone and he was was the best on the floor most nights.
Wilt, and it really isn't even that close. Not that Hakeem isn't great, he is certainly one of the top 5-6 centers of all time, but Wilt is the greatest player of all time. No one else has come close to the kind of things Wilt did. He had a whole season averaging what would be a career game for most people.
Never saw Wilt play so therefore I cannot comment. Too many people here like to talk about the level of competition between different eras but the fact of the matter is that you cannot in any way make an honest and unbiased answer unless you have actually watched each of the two players play. Just because one person had weaker competition doesn't say anything about whether their skills would translate or not.
Shaq has to be pretty close to the top. Wilt was ahead of this time. If he played against Hakeem or Shaq, his numbers wouldn't have been as good but they would have still been pretty high, say, 30ppg.
Was Steph Curry impressive tonight? Imagine seeing that EVERY FRIGGIN' NIGHT. Hakeem was amazing but damn, Wilt was something else.
Eras, folks, eras. Wilt was a true freak of nature and by more measurables than 'just' height. I was privileged to see Wilt v Thurmond in MSG (double headers in those days in MSG with 2nd game Knicks v ____) first game after Wilt was traded and Nate replaced him in GSW. Absolutely titanic. Think The Dream v Sampson except Thurmond was very competitive with Chamberlain. The match-up that was grand was Wilt v Alcindor. They played summer ball v each other but in the NBA it was age v youth. The match-up I wish could have seen would have been Wilt v Shaq at the height of their careers. Dream is in the pantheon of GCOAT and even in the discussion of greatest players of all time, but with a style that was unWilt-like.
Having seen both play, I'd give the edge to Hakeem. I agree with a previous post that Wilt's greatness was due in part to lesser competition. My top ten centers of all time would be: 1 Hakeem 2 Wilt 3 Jabbar 4 Ewing 5 Shaq 6 Robinson 7 Malone 8 Artis Gilmore 9 Willis Reed 10 D Howard??
I saw Wilt play, and I saw Hakeem play. When the Rockets first came to Houston my Dad would take my brother and me to the Rocket games. All three of us could go to the game for about $10. I saw Wilt play on a couple of occasions. By this time he was already in his mid 30's and past his prime, but he was still an awesome player. He was more than just huge, he had moves and was just a great basketball player. What's interesting is to look at the head to head battles between Wilt and Jabbar. Wilt was well into his 30's by the time the two players played against each other, but Wilt and Jabbar were about equals at that time. Over time Jabbar did get the upper hand as Wilt grew older, but Wilt had some huge games going up against the young Jabbar. I would pick Wilt over Hakeem, but I would pick Wilt over any player that has ever played.
Wilt and it's not close and I love dream!! After all, he was 7'1", ran the 40 yard dash in 4.4 seconds [for comparison, Dion Sanders did it in 4.27] and had a 50" vertical leap [a high jump and broad jump champion at the University of Kansas]. Not one rule was ever changed to prevent Dream from scoring. Relaxing of the rules (Jordan Rules) occurred so MJ, Bird and Magic could score more!! These are just a few of the rules they changed because of this physical freak..... They widened the lane to keep Wilt further away from the rim. Outlawed the dunk to make it harder for him to score. (Later reinstated) Some of you youngsters make a big deal about MJ running from the other end of the gym and dunking from the free throw line. Everyone knows Wilt was an atrocious free throw shooter but few understand why? He never shot them. He shot 100% from the line as he used to broad jump and vertical dunk his free throws until they put in the rule where you cannot cross the free throw line until the ball leaves your hand to make him shoot the ball. Yes, he took one step back and tomahawked from the free throw line. Most of the time, he finger-rolled it to conserve energy. The ball cannot cross the plane over the top of the backboard so the in-bounds pass under the backboard or from either side could not be thrown over the top to Wilt (where only the 7 footer with the 50" vertical would be the only one up there waiting). These are just a few. You kids should check the bio below. http://www.nba.com/history/players/chamberlain_bio.html
I didn't even read the thread but I can tell you it's Dream. Wilt didn't have the skill set of Dream and Dream would have did what Wilt did and more if he played in Wilt's era.
7 foot 3 inches! 290 lbs.! long arms! mobile, agile, runs the floor powerful, strong, tough, passionate on the floor, highly competitive, nasty, bullies in the paint deft low post moves, sky hook, finishes strong elite passing skills 3 point shooter obviously a defensive monster who changes shots and blocks a whole bunch GOOD FREE THROW SHOOTER (who else can claim this? no points wasted from the stripe, no hack-a-shaq tactics would have been used against him ever) Shaq was lucky he faced the old man. David Robinson wasn't so lucky in the Olympics. Too bad the Cold War denied us of what could've been. He could have been the game changer in the Michael Jordan era.
Couldn't agree more. Wilt was also the greatest athlete this game has ever seen. People keep saying it's LeBron, but they forget that Wilt was 7'1" with a 9'6" standing reach and a 40 inch vertical. I doubt anybody will ever top that combination of length and athleticism. Wilt should get the same level of righteous respect in the NBA that Babe Ruth does in baseball. I'm not sure why he doesn't.
