The weight comparisons are sort of underwhelming, compared to the other attributes he had in his game. Of all the people in the world, you compared him to Brook Lopez, he is not very physical at all and probably not very strong. Warriors 76ers Brook Lopez I'll even throw in another question, who do you think is a better athlete in regards to speed, strength, leaping ability, and endurance?
Watching that video on Wilt, wow... For a finesse guy he sure did dunk a lot. His reach is incredible. I'm pretty sure if Wilt had today's training he would be the best center in the league today.
Compared his body to Lopez. He was wirey like Lopez when he was young. He eventually filled out and became more muscular as he aged. But Lopez' frame is more like Wilt's than any of Shaq, Javale, Deandre, or any other big I can think of right now. Athletically, Lopez doesn't compare. You'd have to stick with Javale or Deandre on that. I think Shaq when he was young was a better athlete. Just tremendous power, speed, strength, etc. A young Shaq was ridiculously off the charts. If you put a young Shaq and a young Wilt on the floor together, Shaq would have knocked him into next week. But it's different eras man. If Shaq had been born when Wilt was, I think Wilt would have dominated him because Wilt was the more skilled bballer. And if Wilt had been born when Shaq was, I'm sure he'd probably been filled out and muscled up like Shaq and would have dominated Shaq. In my humble opinion, Shaq is one of the most overrated big men of all time. His game was solely based on his physical dominance. Shaq made so many offensive fouls that the refs couldn't call them all and he individually warped the game to where the defenders attacked him to stop him from dunking. Shaq got away with several thousand chicken wings in his career and in my opinion chicken wings are chicken ... And I've already stated what I think about how he got his body. I am convinced he was a science experiment. I'll just leave it at that. But Shaq was very smart in using his body to his advantage. I consider him overrated because he had no skillset outside of 3 feet from the basket and he couldn't shoot free throws and once his body starting limiting him physically his dominance disappeared and for most of his career he was a liability down the stretch because he couldn't hit his freebies. He couldn't dominate with skillset after he aged. Unlike Hakeem and Wilt and Kareem and Russell who all dominated as they aged because of their tremendous skillsets. Wilt could never shoot his freebies. But he could finish in a different era when contact fouls on bigs were actually called. Shaq created so much contact that along with not calling his offensive fouls the refs had to eventually quit calling a lot of the physical defense that was played against him and other bigs. Shaq warped the whole league. What Russell had on Wilt was a mindset. That's it. For as great as Wilt was, he was an individualist. He couldn't make his team better. Guys like Russell Bird Magic and Michael had the ability to elevate their mates to championship level. Wilt didn't have it in the mindset department. The most physically gifted player ever. But average intelligence and average awareness of how to make his team perform as a team to a higher level than what they were all capable of performing individually. The matchups I would have really like to see would have been Hakeem against Wilt and Russell. I don't care which eras, I would have liked to have seen Hakeem in his prime against them in their prime. That would have been crazy.
Not only was Wilt long, he was extremely athletic. He was was an elite track and field athlete and could bench 500 pounds in his later years with his ridiculously long arms. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/438984-wilt-chamberlain-did-he-really-play-in-weak-era
the photo on the right looks like it was taken on a Twilight Zone set. What's up with nothing in the background. spookie.
Wilt would run circles around today's centers. He was a track champion in high school and college. Some people said track was actually his best sport. He used to lift with Arnold Schwarzenegger and could bench press at least 500 pounds. He could dunk from the free throw line, standing (which resulted in one of the many rule changes he inspired). In a faster paced era Wilt once averaged OVER 48 minutes per game (for comparison's sake, Dwight averaged just over 38 per game this season).
One thing about minutes.....they did not play at the pace they play today. Wilt couldn't have played 40 minutes in today's NBA, just too many athletes, too much speed, etc. Wilt played in a different era. Keep perspective.
anybody who say wilt wasnt da most dominant player of all time is crazy. anybody who say "lol @ averging 50 pts a game and scoring 100 pts in a game, he was playing against nothin but 4 foot tall white guys he couldnt do it in todays nba" wrong again. just look at a previous poster list of his big man competition. wilt chamberlain was probably the best basketball player of all time, all things consider. he was an athletic freak on the level of lebron but way taller. dude played pro volleyball man, i mean, dam rip wilt da stilt
Its a commonly known fact that NBA used to be a faster paced game I do think its a more GRUELING slower pace now. A more "athletically compacted" game. The faster pace a little more "loose" then. Though older era b-ball had like 15-20 extra possessions a game (to help Wilt pile up more of those stats). Still its more trips up and own the court he had, so its a credit to Wilt's conditioning. Wilt was a big minutes guy and he's 1st in MPG by a lot, though a lot of guys in his era were. Most of the top 20 MPG all time are guys from the 60's. (Honestly if I were comissioner then, I'd put out a mandate to KEEP the star attractions on the floor like that No one wants to pay to see Kobe sitting on the bench in foul trouble)
Also, it get me really agg when ppl talkin bout wilt always wanna say, "oh it was a different era" Ok, if it were so easy to score 100 pts in a game back then or avrg 50 pts a game, why wasnt everybody else doin it? not to mention, dudes playin back then had NONE of da training and accessory and p.e.d. advantage that today players have. wilt was playin da game wearing a pair of canvas chuck taylors. i mean, got damn, have you ever tried to hoop in a pair of CHUCKS? youd roll yo damn ankle tryna do anything fancy. no to mention, no shooting sleeves, finger bands, compression undershirts, gatorade, crazy diet, scienctifcal training regime, machines, steroids, and on and on and on. can you imagine wilt WITH ALL THAT STUFF??????!!!!! im jus sayin man, give respect were respect due
