Wilt was the best ever. Athletically perhaps the most gifted NBA player ever. Destroyed his only significant competition, Russel, regularly. And everyone else. Only player to average more than 48 minutes per game over a season. Probably the strongest player to ever play in the NBA. From many published accounts (and unpublished including my father) he could cleanly pluck a quarter from the top of the backboard. Howard is a great leaper, but does he get within 6" of the top of the backboard?
He scored 20 ppg because he basically shot 20 fg per game, and was gifted ft's because of his stature. And since when did PPG become the only stat to decide impact?
I'm beginning to feel privileged that I actually saw some of Wilt's games live and in black and white on the tube in the living room. If nothing else, my post will give Sam another chance at coming up with a new and inventive negative thing to say about Wilt and/or professional basketball before he was born. ;-)- (you know I think you're the cat's PJ's, Sam!)
4 FTA per game in that year is being gifted FTs? What compared to Lebron at 7.5 per game and Durant at 10 per game this year? Give me a break. He shot at 18.5 fga per game....but you'r forgetting the fact that he was 40 years old. 40! Do you comprehend that?
Did you really get a chance to watch Wilt in his playing days? If so, if you ever get a chance would you mind letting us know if the video looks like an accurate representation of the way he liked to score based on what you recall?
Thanks for doing this. I had never seen most of this footage, and it confirms my opinion that Wilt was the best center ever. Arnold's comments on his strength were interesting too. How a poster felt he could make the claim that Dwight is definitively a better rebounder is funny. Yao beat Dwight heads up on the boards. Yao was one of the best team/area rebounders - good fundamentals, blocked his man out, and gave up some boards to his guards and wings as a result. Wilt had the strength and the size to do the same...and then the quickness to recover and grab the board. Dwight is more about the quickness. I was also impressed with the post moves...the Duncan, the finger roll, unstoppable with his length going under the basket. Only weakness was free throws. And for those who want to bring him into this era...how do you think the strongest, tallest, fastest center with the best post moves would do? We talk about the bigger size of players in this era, but Dwight is 6'9, Joakim Noah is 6'11 and 232. Heck, we had Chuck Hayes at 6'6 out there not so long ago.
The year before, he also averaged 22, and shot 22. Basically, he was a chucker. He shot fadeaway after fadeaway. He didn't sacrifice his body to get the ft's. It is the Dirk foul. Yes, I comprehend that he was 40 years old. But he also is the best perimeter player of all time. A good post game extends careers.
You do realise he came back to the game after 3 years off right? Hey who has a better FG% Jordan (even if we include his Washington years) or Lebron?
You do realise right that Lebron's career stats will be projected to go down as he ages? You know what MJ's FG was in his 10th season?
Friend, with the exhibition you're putting on today, you couldn't surpass a Fig Newton. Witnesseth mas: First off, I didn't start this, somebody else did by saying "I don't know why we have to consider Wilt's lousy opposition or the poor quality of the NBA in the 60's when considering his achievements" - I don't understand why anyone wouldn't - frankly it's mind boggling how you'd have to deliberately obscure the context of his achievements - which is mind bottling SEE WHAT I DID THERE!. Second, let's take the boring apples and oranges cliche - I have a shocking revelation for you - one CAN, in fact, compare the two. Witnesseth, again. APPLES Tend to be colored red/green/yellow when ripe Tend to have crispy texture (when ripe) Can be used in pies ORANGES Tend to be colored orange Tend to have a pulpy texture Contain citric acid Did I just blow your mind? I apologize. But it is in fact possible to compare two different things, including the game in the 60's and the one in the present day. Because he was one of the greatest players ever and very good at basketball.
Geez, you don't quit. You don't diminish his achievements because you think his era was inferior. You look at how dominant he was against his opponent in his own time. If what he did was so easy, then why wasn't everyone else in his time doing it? Comprehend? But which taste better? Apples or Oranges? Is it a fair assesment to compare which is better out of the two? Or do you think it's better to compare Apple A or Apple B?
adobo and SamFisher, I don't know why you guys are so worked up about your debate. 100 years later, people will say, these guys are so dumb. Everything they said about Wilt were so wrong. We now know exactly what Wilt could have done in very era of basketball by analyzing the genetic history of Wilt and all players of all times. There is really no point in arguing anything because we will all be proved wrong by later generations.
I'm not arguing what would be proved wrong in 2114, I'm saying what we know today, which is that the NBA is light years ahead of where it was 50 years ago in 1964 in terms of quality of play (and quality of player). This is not controversial.
But does that diminish Wilt's legacy as one of the greatest players in history? It's not like Wilt was born in today's era of basketball and have access to the current nutrition and basketball knowledge today and then went back in time and competed at that era of basketball. Everyone had equal playing fields at his time and he still dominated.
I think any discussions that try to imagine great players from different era's playing on the same league at the same year will always get the same arguments because it is virtually impossible with too many variants. The best way to assess how great someone is to see how much gap they have placed between themselves and the rest of there competition during there time.
i see so if you're a big fish in a small pond, you are greater than a shark in an ocean by your standard. That's nice. The shark would eat your fish though.
More Wilt talk? I really wish we could use a time machine to put prime Wilt in the NBA in the early 90's to see if he would be even a top 5 center in the league. He'd have a shot, but my money is on "no". Unfortunately we can't so I guess everyone will just go on posting about how he dominated back in the infancy of the league when it was relatively devoid of talent.
