Did you know Wilt scored 100 points on a Knicks center named Darrall Imhoff. Imhoff was listed at 6'10" 220 pounds. For comparison, Matt Bullard was listed at 6'10" 215 pounds. Cue Debbie downer sound effect...
Here's something fun: http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200003060LAC.html 61 points is Shaq's career high in points for an individual game. Opposing centers and big men in that game - Michael Olowokandi, Pete Chilcutt, Anthony Avent, and Charles Jones. Wilt Chamberlain averaged over 50 ppg for an entire season, while regularly being over 30 ppg in his career. What would keep him for averaging at least 24 ppg and 12 rebounds, outside of being on star-studded team? Though, people often do not factor this in, some posters act as if Wilt would not be able to keep up with modern player in 80s, 90s, or 2000s, yet in those generations, there's roughly only about 7-10 Hall of fame centers in the league through those decades, while in 2000s, there's almost only 1 with 3 possibles ... Shaq (obvious choice) and the possibles are Yao, Dwight, and Ben Wallace. Two points here, how many teams actually had starting quality seven footers on their rosters from 80s through 2010s. Moreover, how many teams actually had hall of fame worthy players? Regardless of what era he played in, Wilt is not going to be up against Hall of Fame competition every night, especially in today's NBA. Also, you have to consider in a much smaller league, during his time, he played more against other opposing hall of fame centers more often than players who came after the expansion of the NBA. So we can say he played regularly against Russell, Thurmond, Jabbar (earlier days), Bellamy, Haywood, Reed, Lanier (earlier), and you could throw any center in from those time periods. Most of the great centers from that era said the toughest player to play against was hands down ... Wilt Chamberlain. It sort holds alot of weight coming from someone, like Jabbar who played across two decades.
Here's something fun - neither Avent, Jones nor Kandiman would have been on the Knicks in 1960 as they would have been well over the 2-3 negros per team limit at the time. Chilcutt would probably have been an HOFer back then given the pathetic shooting standards of the day. Arguing that the game 50 years ago wasn't worse is like saying Jesse Owens is faster than Usain bolt. He's not. And it was. I'll spare you the full r****d Walt Bellamy beat down this time kid...
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/L2U4JSrpO78" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> You realize Wilt in this video is near the end of his career going up against possibly the greatest center ever at his peak.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zukRbA3y0qo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Wilt will dominate today. A 7'1 big that really agile, can dribble a little, soft touch around the rim and great timing would be the best center in the league today, easily.
Jeez. Physically, it's sort of like Durant grew a couple inches and learned to jump higher. I was expecting to see a lot of blocks that would be goaltending nowadays, and I did, but I also saw a lot of blocks were it was like "Gah, that's not supposed to be part of your airspace!" I bet he could dunk on a 14 foot rim. Funky shot, but a guy that big, that fast, that fluid, with good hands? Plunk 1957 Wilt in 2014 and I think he takes the number 1 pick from Wiggins.
