Wilt Chamberlain's choking resume

[TheBigVeto]

Wilt = choker

[b1imtf]

Give me a list of the players who had THREE 50+ point games, in the "absolute limit" games of a post-season series. Or games of 56-35, 53-22, 50-35, 46-34, and 45-27 in "must-win" post-season games.

Give me another superstar who drops basically 8 ppg in the playoffs

[Punpun]

So, I take it Wilt was a system baby unable to carry the load up to the very end huh ?

[Asukal]

Just drop it guys, jlauber is a stan and will never admit that Wilt has a weakness and that is free throw shooting.

Inb4 storm of text.....

[dunksby]

jlauber does not like to talk about play offs.

[ThaRegul8r]

It's getting old and boring

People keep doing this because it's guaranteed to work. It's Pavlovian. The inevitable response reinforces the behavior, making it more likely to recur. Not responding = no reinforcement = extinguishment of behavior. This is basic stuff.

[Yung D-Will]

jluabar is like batman. One day ISH won't need someone to defend Wilt and they'll defend him themselves, but until that day jluabar must be an everlasting symbol of Wilt fans.


To much Dark knight?

[Legends66NBA7]

jluabar is like batman. One day ISH won't need someone to defend Wilt and they'll defend him themselves, but until that day jluabar must be an everlasting symbol of Wilt fans.


To much Dark knight?

Funny thing is, Wilt isn't even a choker and he doesn't need much defending.

If anybody wanted to look at this whole playoff resume and realize the context of his numbers, he was one of the best playoff performers. Pointing out the one's he "failed", doesn't he wasn't one of the best playoff performers overall. Anybody can point out horrible playoff failures, but that doesn't make them terrible or "chokers".

Dude was the anchor for 2 of the greatest teams of all-time. I think that alone, deserves for a guy to be recognized as one of the greatest ever, all-time wise/playoff wise.

[kennethgriffin]

It's late, so I am going to take my time, and deal with this nonsense...one-by-one...

61-62 ECF's

Chamberlain not only managed to have TWO games of 40+, in one of them he outscored Russell, 42-9, and outrebounded him in that same game, 37-20, while outshooting Russell from the floor, 16-31 to 4-14.. With all of that, his TEAM won the game by a 113-106 margin.

Chamberlain took what had been the core of the same basic LAST PLACE roster he inherited in his rookie season, to a 49-31 record that season. Meanwhile, Russell and his SIX other HOF teammates went 60-20.

During the regular season, Chamberlain averaged 39.7 ppg on .471 against Russell in ten H2H games, in an NBA season in which the league averaged 118.8 ppg and on .426 shooting.

In the ECF's, Wilt "declined" all the way down to 33.6 ppg on .468 shooting. Meanwhile, he held Russell, who had shot .457 against the NBA during the regular season, to .399 shooting in that series. Oh, and BTW, the NBA averaged 112.6 ppg on .411 shooting in the '62 playoffs. Chamberlain was WAY over the league average in FG% against Russell in BOTH the regular season, AND the post-season. Meanwhile, and as was almost ALWAYS the case, Chamberlain held Russell BELOW the league average.

Overall, Wilt's teammates shot .354 in that post-season. His two "HOF' teammates, Arizin and Gola shot .375 and .271 respectively.

With all of that, Wilt carried that putrid roster to a game seven, two point loss against the HOF-laden Celtics.

Wilt's teammate, Tom Meschery summed it up best, "The Boston players, man-for-man, were better players than the Warriors. To go as far as we did was WILT's doing. We came within two points of the championship."

BTW, Chamberlain shot 58-92 from the line. Russell was at 36-51. So, as always, Wilt nearly DOUBLED Russell's scoring just from the FT line.

FT's matter kids...and Wilt AND his TEAM almost always SCORED more than their opponents. In MANY cases by HUGE margins.

i remember watching an interview with wilt and russell... and even wilt himself admited he was a choker


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=173M7ApCNKw

i think its this one


costas - "do you lack killer instinct"

wilt - "it could be said..... it could be said"

[Deuce Bigalow]

Funny thing is, Wilt isn't even a choker and he doesn't need much defending.

If anybody wanted to look at this whole playoff resume and realize the context of his numbers, he was one of the best playoff performers. Pointing out the one's he "failed", doesn't he wasn't one of the best playoff performers overall. Anybody can point out horrible playoff failures, but that doesn't make them terrible or "chokers".

Dude was the anchor for 2 of the greatest teams of all-time. I think that alone, deserves for a guy to be recognized as one of the greatest ever, all-time wise/playoff wise.

How is he not? His whole Playoff resume shows a huge drop in production and failures series after series.

[Heavincent]

Wow those are astonishingly bad FT numbers. Somewhere around 60% from the line would be fine for a big man I guess, but under 40%?

[kennethgriffin]

Wow those are astonishingly bad FT numbers. Somewhere around 60% for the line would be fine for a big man I guess, but under 40%?

the year wilt averaged 50 and dropped 100 they let players jump over the free throw line for free throws... he regularly got almost layups instead of having to shoot them... this is probably why for his 100 pt game he shot 30 of 32 ft's or something

whenever there was untelevised games... players did it. but on tv i think they were too scared of being caught on tape

[Horatio33]

the year wilt averaged 50 and dropped 100 they let players jump over the free throw line for free throws... he regularly got almost layups instead of having to shoot them... this is probably why for his 100 pt game he shot 30 of 32 ft's or something

whenever there was untelevised games... players did it. but on tv i think they were too scared of being caught on tape

No they didn't let players jump over the line. Never existed in NBA history. He just sucked at free throws.

[Deuce Bigalow]

the year wilt averaged 50 and dropped 100 they let players jump over the free throw line for free throws... he regularly got almost layups instead of having to shoot them... this is probably why for his 100 pt game he shot 30 of 32 ft's or something

whenever there was untelevised games... players did it. but on tv i think they were too scared of being caught on tape

griff

[Deuce Bigalow]

A guy who averaged 50.4 PPG for the season, then in the Playoffs in a Game 7 loss he was the 4th leading scorer with 22 points.

You are going to tell me that is not choking? That is just one example.