Not that they are athletic equivilents but I'm gonna go ahead and rattle off how "tall" his opposition is to give an idea what you guys are looking at. In the first game the tallest player that starts is only as tall as Tristan Thompson. However, someone comes in at the 2nd half (a sophomore) that is as tall as Kevin Love. In the 2nd game the opposing center is Kevin Love's height - the team isn't particularly tall so they try to seal Wilt in the early moments of the game with a wall of 3 players. Thus Wilt just passes the ball to his man that is inevitably open that sneaks inside so this strategy fails immediately. Wilt than proceeds to be guarded with simple double teams and collapsing triple teams and such and scores 36 with 22 reb In the 3rd game the entire team is actually tall, it was the tallest lineup in college basketball at that time and the opposing center is Hakeem Olajuwon's height (6-10)... In the 4th game the center Art Day (the only black center Wilt faces in the highlights) is Blake Griffin's height and the PF of that team is Tristan Thompsons height. In the 5th game the tallest player is only Ben Wallace's height, but they used a box and 1 defense and froze the ball the entire game against Wilt. Wilt looks so tall not necessarily because his competition is pipsqueaks but rather hardly anyone who has ever played could really stack up to him. He's a very rare type of "big". His shoulders sit really high on his body thus creating the illusion of even more height. Wilt made Kareem and Shaq look like average size players. Go back up the thread and look at Wilt standing next to Shaq, his upper body and shoulder height is immense even compared to young Shaq's.
You're pointing out a bunch of power forwards and a center in Hakeem that while undersized at center is probably the most skilled and athletic big man ever. Kevin Love, Ben Wallace, and Blake Griffin would get shredded by any elite center. Dream, Shaq, Kareem, even David Robinson could not be guarded by these guys much less every game for a full season. Wilt is impressive but he could not play like that against elite centers not only in style but in production. Wilt is this dominant superman in a game where the best player in basketball tends to win titles and Wilt dominated but didn't and that's significant.
55 rebounds against Bill Russell... 63 points against Bill Russell... 78 points against Walt Bellamy... He did fine against elite centers. And come on your missing the point I was making, I was merely pointing out that the players in those games are not as small as they might initially seem because Wilt is actually a very very large person - he makes virtually anyone look small even if they aren't small. Put Wilt in a game against Tyler Zeller and you think he wouldn't merk him to the exact same degree he did those poor guys in the 50's NCAA highlights? And any beating he gave to Bill Russell I project he could give the same relative beating to any other HOF center.
well this is embarrassing. I seem to have posted in the wrong thread. Supposed to be in the Lin thread.
Bill Russell was 6'9" which is the same as Ben Wallace a four time DPOY winner. Ben Wallace couldn't stop Shaq, why would Russell do any better? The rebounding numbers are just a function of the shooting percentages, style, and the rules in that time. Wilt was this dominant superman, avg 30.1 points per game on 54% shooting for his career. Shaq avg 58.5% for his career. To think Wilt is going to drop 60 points in this era against Olajuwon or Shaq? That's nuts. 1959-60, Wilt Chamberlain's rookie year, saw the league shoot above 40% for the first time and never look back; Wilt would be the first significant NBA player to shoot 50% the following year. The 1960s were the golden age of up-tempo basketball, which combined with stars who played more than 40 minutes a night is what gave us all those eye-popping individual stats - in 1961-62 alone, you had Wilt scoring 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds per game http://baseballcrank.com/archives2/2004/08/basketball_shoo.php Wilt was a beast, you can tell his quickness, speed, and skills are great but he wouldn't have some cake walk against elite seven foot centers of the 80's and 90's. I think he would have a lot of success especially against someone like Shaq who didn't have much of an arsenal offensively and was lazy defenively but against guys like Dream or David Robinson... I don't know about that. Of course in this league now Wilt would crush people. Dwight Howard couldn't do **** with someone like Wilt, I'd say that's pretty obvious. You don't think Wilt's lack of playoff success is important? A 4 time MVP and 7 time scoring champ only has two rings? He'd get murdered in today's press. Even his playoff stats are off. Reg season: 30.1 pts on 54% Playoffs: 22.5 pts on 52%
The only conclusion I got from the video is that he would still be bigger, more athletic and faster than every C in the league today and arguably every C that I have seen play. So with modern technology I have no doubt he would still dominate. Not the crazy numbers he out up then but he's a better physical prospect (assume someone is being drafted) than anyone but who?
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Actually Russell was 6-9 and 5/8ths barefoot. He also had a 7-4 wingspan. Ben Wallace on the other hand was about 6-7 barefoot, maybe 6-7 and 1/2. There's a pic of them standing next to each other during one of the Pistons title season where Bill's eyes are basically at Ben's fro. Here's "6-9" Bill next to "7-0" Ewing... Ewing was about 6-10 w/o shoes, so he's actually much closer to Russell's size than Wallace is. List info is usually bogus especially if you try to compare that era to this era.
Oh god, not this stupid sh-t again. SHoes and exaggerated heights - 2 things that did not exist in the 50's and 60's! The Universal Barefoot Measurement Standard was phased out I believe as part of Bretton Woods.
Also, keep in mind when watching the vids that Wilt, Oscar, and all those guys were doing it in canvas hightops for most of their career. Just getting some modern shoes would likely make a difference for them. So yes, count me in the Wilt would be dominant today camp. I don't think there is any question about that.
Tell me, is Oscar wearing shoes here? What was he listed in the NBA? I'll help, and here's some more: Oscar Robertson 6-4 and 3/4 w/o shoes Listed 6-5 Elgin Baylor 6-5 w/o shoes Listed 6-5 Wilt Chamberlain 7-1 and 1/16th w/o shoes Listed 7-1 Bill Russell 6-9 and 5/8ths w/o shoes Listed 6-9 Jerry West 6-2 and 3/4 w/o shoes Listed 6-3 Lew Alcindor 7-1 and 7/8ths w/o shoes Listed 7-2 Elvin Hayes 6-9.5 w/o shoes listed 6-9 Dave Cowens 6-8.5 w/o shoes listed 6-9 Bob Pettit 6-8 and 1/4 w/o shoes Listed 6-9 I've spent years tracking down photos, articles, draft data etc that reveal player measurements from that period of time. The pattern is ALWAYS the same. Their list info is much more closely linked to their precise biological height than modern players. No, it isn't exact, because they used rounded numbers for list info, and no not every player chose to round appropriately (Bill rounded down when he should have rounded up... Bob Pettit rounded up instead of rounding down) etc. Meanwhile: www.draftexpress.com/measurements Tell me I'm wrong.
Why would I have to tell you taht you're wrong? Read your own post - You just posted a picture of Robinson (in socks, btw, note "barefoot" as you've claimed 10,000 goddamned times, but that's beside the point) that proved that Oscar Robertson was shorter than his 6-5 listed height, proving the point that the players of his (mediocre) era were routinely listed as taller than they actually were. You just proved yourself full of complete 100% genuine black angus grand champion steer bullsh-t.
I know the guy who uploads these videos. He is known for speeding up footage to make players like Wilt look more impressive. I don't know if he did in this particular instance, but I'm always skeptical when I watch his videos.
