The year he was asked to shoot much less, pass more and focus on defense (basically, play more likely Russell), his team set a record for most wins ever.
I think the general consensus is that most people ARE looking at it the same way as you. With team wins being the #1 factor. If people were overly focused on numbers, Russell wouldn't even be in the top 10 conversation. I believe most lists actually have Russell ranked above Chamberlain.
A 35 year old Wilt with some of the best teammates he ever played with? It's a good point, and you can't argue with the results. However, I think it's simplistic to say that would have worked in the myriad of other completely different situations Wilt had throughout his career. The fact remains that for MOST (not all) of his prime years he played with less talented teams than Russell. I'm fairly confident that "playing like Russell" and focusing on defense while shooting 44% from the field and scoring 15 points per game would have made many of those teams worse.
I was actually referring to his 76ers team, where he dramatically reduced his shot attempts in the middle of his prime. Perhaps his finest season in terms of overall impact on winning. His PPG dipped to 24, well below any prior season, and his team’s wins jumped from 55 to 68.
Not team wins being the #1 factor. Defense and team play vs an individual doing so much leading to team wins. What’s led to more titles is a team built around a guy dominating on D and sharing offensively, compared to a guy scoring a lot.
That’s not true. Russell had better teams in the early 60’s. Wilt had better teams in the latter 60’s. Wilt had better teams when Russell beat him in 68 and 69.
IIRC, adjusted for pace and possessions to Wilts 50ppg 100 pt season, MJ's 69 would =100pts, Robinsons 71 was over 100. Kobes 81 was 112 pts. T-Macs 60+ was like 90 or something. No idea what the recent Mitchell and Lillard 70 pt games would be, probably not over 100 b/c the pace and possessions is already higher than all those previously listed? Wilts numbers are still insane adjusted for todays pace, but you see guys per 100 possessions per 48mpg(not that anyone could play 48mpg+ like Wilt did that season) pretty close to Wilts 50ppg. Harden's best season at 48.2ppg and a near quad-dub in turnovers. Embiid 47.4ppg. MJ 46.4, Kobe 45.6ppg etc The biggest knock on Wilt outside of being selfish and caring all about records? Dude shrunk big time in the playoffs vs reg season performance. Most NBA stars do take dips in performance, only the very best maintain or even improve slightly from reg season to playoff performance. It looks pretty bad for Wilt. Want to make Wilt look mortal? Look at per36. His stats are still insane in rebounding, but points are all very normal superstar numbers. Around 28 to 30ppg with his peak 50ppg season being 37.4ppg(dropped down to 26 on 46% in playoffs). Consider guys like Giannis and Joker do their damage in 32-33mpg. It's fun looking at per 100, for example, while Bron was the better 38 year old(Bron was 37 and 38, MJ 38 and 39 so Bron still younger) and MJ clearly was coming off 3 years retirement, broken ribs, severed nerve in shooting finger, fluid being drained from his knees on top of already having been out of shape, MJ was at 35.7ppg 8.8rpg, 8apg to Brons 38.6/11.1/9.1 and what Bron had advantage in on O, MJ was a far better defender at 38 in drtg with better stocks. I imagine a fully seasoned MJ looks even more impressive, considering he was playing himself into really good shape b4 his injury and the subsequent games he played after the injury with limited minutes that brought his numbers way down. Leading up to the injury, his last 10 and 20 games were going up to his normal efficiency and 25-30ppg(dreadfully slow early 2k era) so he's well over 40ppg adjusted per 100 during that time frame pre injury.
Wilt Chamberlain was the first player to receive $100,000 in the 1965-66 season. The next day, Bill Russell demanded that he receive $100,001 and it was granted that same season.
