Better Scorer: LeBron James or Wilt Chamberlain?

[LAZERUSS]

50 to 34 is a GIGANTIC drop. He averaged 35 PPG in the 62 playoffs, but on 28.9 shots per game! Meanwhile, 09 LeBron averaged 35.3 PPG on just 22.3 shots!

BTW, Wilt took 39.5 (!) shots per game when he scored 50.4 PPG. I'm just saying.

Yet, how did Lebron's TEAM fare in that run?

Wilt gets blamed for "losing" in a post-season in which he put up 35.0 ppg, and "lost" a game seven in the EDF's by two points, in a series in which he averaged 34 ppg.

BTW, he "only" averaged 39.7 ppg against Russell in their 10 regular season H2H's...so his 34 ppg EDF's were not THAT big of a drop.

And again...using "efficiency" against Wilt is not a valid argument, when Chamberlain was ousthooting the post-season league averages by a FAR higher differential than Lebron has done in his post-season career.

[RRR3]

Yet, how did Lebron's TEAM fare in that run?

Wilt gets blamed for "losing" in a post-season in which he put up 35.0 ppg, and "lost" a game seven in the EDF's by two points, in a series in which he averaged 34 ppg.

BTW, he "only" averaged 39.7 ppg against Russell in their 10 regular season H2H's...so his 34 ppg EDF's were not THAT big of a drop.

And again...using "efficiency" against Wilt is not a valid argument, when Chamberlain was ousthooting the post-season league averages by a FAR higher differential than Lebron has done in his post-season career.

Where do you see ME blaming Wilt for anything? Dude gets disrespected on ISH, no doubt about it, but a lot of that is people trolling you, which is kind of what I'm doing rn to be honest. Well, not trolling, but I am trying to have an argument with you, and I think LeBron has a pretty good case here.

[tpols]

Wilt was unfortunate in that he had to see russell and his celtics dynasty every damn year, and a ton of the matchups were second rounders so wilt hardly had time to beat up on soft teams...

imagine if Lebron had to face Tim Duncan (prime) and the spurs his WHOLE career in the second round, only one round beforehand to beat up a scrub... his numbers would nosedive simply based on that context.

little kids trolling wilt dont understand that.. he had to face a GOAT team as his second playoff matchup almost every year.. imagine wilt getting to beat up on scrub teams for 3 rounds than seeing, dallas or okc or golden state with bogut out and dray suspended ... Wilt would be shattering records on his way to rings.

[RRR3]

Wilt was unfortunate in that he had to see russell and his celtics dynasty every damn year, and a ton of the matchups were second rounders so wilt hardly had time to beat up on soft teams...

imagine if Lebron had to face Tim Duncan (prime) and the spurs his WHOLE career in the second round, only one round beforehand to beat up a scrub... his numbers would nosedive simply based on that context.

little kids trolling wilt dont understand that.. he had to face a GOAT team as his second playoff matchup almost every year.. imagine wilt getting to beat up on scrub teams for 3 rounds than seeing, dallas or okc or golden state with bogut out and dray suspended ... Wilt would be shattering records on his way to rings.

Still melting down about the finals I see.

You're right about context needing to be applied to Wilt's playoffs, and he did face Russell in about 1/3 of his playoff games. Remove Wilt's stats from his games against Russell's Celtics if you want, would be interested in seeing what his stats would look like.

[LAZERUSS]

Where do you see ME blaming Wilt for anything? Dude gets disrespected on ISH, no doubt about it, but a lot of that is people trolling you, which is kind of what I'm doing rn to be honest. Well, not trolling, but I am trying to have an argument with you, and I think LeBron has a pretty good case here.

How about this...

Russell faced the Lakers in the Finals FIVE times in the 60's (actually six, but in the last one, he went up against Wilt and did nothing offensively.) He AVERAGED 21-25 on a .515 FG% in those FIVE series. He had a high ppg series of 23.6 ppg, and a high FG% of .702 against them, as well.

Wilt never faced the Lakers even ONCE in the decade of the 60's, but just destroyed them in his 86 regular season H2H's. He had 42 games of 40+, which included 19 of 50+, 7 of 60+, and even two of 70+. He had entire regular season series against LA, in which he averaged 41 ppg, 44 ppg, 48 ppg, and even 52 ppg.

Now be honest here...what do you think his post-season scoring and efficiecy marks might look like had he faced them in his prime? Especially if he would have faced them FIVE times?

[RRR3]

How about this...

Russell faced the Lakers in the Finals FIVE times in the 60's (actually six, but in the last one, he went up against Wilt and did nothing offensively.) He AVERAGED 21-25 on a .515 FG% in those FIVE series. He had a high ppg series of 23.6 ppg, and a high FG% of .702 against them, as well.

Wilt never faced the Lakers even ONCE in the decade of the 60's, but just destroyed them in his 86 regular season H2H's. He had 42 games of 40+, which included 19 of 50+, 7 of 60+, and even two of 70+. He had entire regular season series against LA, in which he averaged 41 ppg, 44 ppg, 48 ppg, and even 52 ppg.

Now be honest here...what do you think his post-season scoring and efficiecy marks might look like had he faced them in his prime? Especially if he would have faced them FIVE times?

Higher, obviously. The thing about Wilt's scoring is that he was such a rotten FT shooter, that could be exploited. Certainly some good answers in this thread on Wilt's behalf, that make this a good discussion LeBron is one of the greatest scorers who ever lived, though, so don't act like using him as a comparison is an insult. MJ is pretty clearly the GOAT scorer, no use in debating that.

[kuniva_dAMiGhTy]

Wilt was unfortunate in that he had to see russell and his celtics dynasty every damn year, and a ton of the matchups were second rounders so wilt hardly had time to beat up on soft teams...

imagine if Lebron had to face Tim Duncan (prime) and the spurs his WHOLE career in the second round, only one round beforehand to beat up a scrub... his numbers would nosedive simply based on that context.

little kids trolling wilt dont understand that.. he had to face a GOAT team as his second playoff matchup almost every year.. imagine wilt getting to beat up on scrub teams for 3 rounds than seeing, dallas or okc or golden state with bogut out and dray suspended ... Wilt would be shattering records on his way to rings.

Astute post.

I'm not a big fan of Wilt's because his play significantly dropped in the postseason, or at least from a scoring perspective, although the context you mentioned has a lot to do with that.

Its kinda like the Kobe and LeBron scoring debate. Bean played better comp, sacrificed playing alongside Shaq, and, for the most part, was in a structured offense for the vast majority of his career... one that didn't see his usage rate skyrocket like LeBron's who had the fortune of dominating the basketball both in FGA and all around possession.

I'd take Wilt as a scorer. Ditto with Kobe.

[LAZERUSS]

Higher, obviously. The thing about Wilt's scoring is that he was such a rotten FT shooter, that could be exploited. Certainly some good answers in this thread on Wilt's behalf, that make this a good discussion LeBron is one of the greatest scorers who ever lived, though, so don't act like using him as a comparison is an insult. MJ is pretty clearly the GOAT scorer, no use in debating that.

I don't mind having intelligent conversations here with quality posters.

BTW, and I'm sure you are well of it...I was one of the few here who DEFENDED Lebron's "failures." But what has irritated me, is that the Lebron family was nowhere to be found after game four of this year's Finals. Then, when he did engineer a remarkable comeback series win...ALL OF A SUDDEN they came crawling out of the woodwork. Feeble was the worst. He was claiming that Chokurry was the next all-time great. He even scoffed at the "branvestites."

I moved Lebron from #9 on my all-time list to anywhere between 6-8 (Shaq and Duncan.) But in no way am I going to move him higher, right now, based on three games.

[RRR3]

I don't mind having intelligent conversations here with quality posters.

BTW, and I'm sure you are well of it...I was one of the few here who DEFENDED Lebron's "failures." But what has irritated me, is that the Lebron family was nowhere to be found after game four of this year's Finals. Then, when he did engineer a remarkable comeback series win...ALL OF A SUDDEN they came crawling out of the woodwork. Feeble was the worst. He was claiming that Chokurry was the next all-time great. He even scoffed at the "branvestites."

I moved Lebron from #9 on my all-time list to anywhere between 6-8 (Shaq and Duncan.) But in no way am I going to move him higher, right now, based on three games.

Curry is an all-time great player, and I can't stand him. I'm not responsible for retards like silkktheshocker spamming LeBron is GOAT topics.

[Big164]

50 point games (Playoffs)
Michael Jordan 8
Wilt Chamberlain 4
Allen Iverson 3
Jerry West 2
Ray Allen 1
Lebron James 0




Its between MJ and Wilt, I dont even rank Leboon .

[feyki]

It's close . Probably both are out of top 10 as all time great scorer . But they are close too .

Let see ..

Jordan
Shaq
Mikan
Ivy
Gervin
Durant
Kobe
T-Mac ( maybe not , i'm not sure )
Dirk
And then multiple options for here .. last spot ; Wilkins,Melo,Kareem,Lebron,Wilt,Moses,Barkley,Thom pson,Maravich,V-Carter,Wade,West,Pettit,Elgin,Arizin,McDermott,Ler oy.

[RRR3]

It's close . Probably both are out of top 10 as all time great scorer . But they are close too .

Let see ..

Jordan
Shaq
Mikan
Ivy
Gervin
Durant
Kobe
T-Mac ( maybe not , i'm not sure )
Dirk
And then multiple options for here .. last spot ; Wilkins,Melo,Kareem,Lebron,Wilt,Moses,Barkley,Thom pson,Maravich,V-Carter,Wade,West,Pettit,Elgin,Arizin,McDermott,Ler oy.

Iverson and Mikan over Wilt and LeBron is laughable. Dirk's volume is pretty low compared to a lot of these guys. T-Mac is my guy, but he didn't sustain his best for very long. His 03 season is nuts though. Wilt and LeBron are easily top 10 scorers ever lol. GTFO with McDermott and Leroy, they didn't even play in the NBA ffs.

[Screamin A Smit]

30-22-18 in a faster paced era


27-28-27 in a slower paced era







Hmmm.. the answer is LeBron

[Mr Feeny]

LeBron has as many playoffs (4) scoring 30+ PPG as Wilt does. His 2008-09 playoff run is also significantly better than any of Wilt's, strictly going by scoring stats.

more than that, Lebron is a 28 ppg playoff scorer. Ilt was a 22 ppg playoff scorer

Lebron already at 31 has more playoff points than Ilt ever had.
In fact, an injury ridden Dwyane WADE already has more playoff points than Wilt ever had

[Mr Feeny]

It's close . Probably both are out of top 10 as all time great scorer . But they are close too .

Let see ..

Jordan
Shaq
Mikan
Ivy
Gervin
Durant
Kobe
T-Mac ( maybe not , i'm not sure )
Dirk
And then multiple options for here .. last spot ; Wilkins,Melo,Kareem,Lebron,Wilt,Moses,Barkley,Thom pson,Maravich,V-Carter,Wade,West,Pettit,Elgin,Arizin,McDermott,Ler oy.

On no planet is Kobe a better scorer than LeBron. Lebron had more 40 point finals games in 3 days than Kobrick had in 20 years!