Wilt Chamberlain's Unstoppable Fadeaway

[plowking]

I'm going to hazard a guess and say he probably shot less than 30% on those. I'd hardly say it was unstoppable.

His drop step on the other hand, sure.

[Paul George 24]

The Hate On Wilt Is At Its Peak In ISH. Why?

2-7

[ClipperRevival]

The Hate On Wilt Is At Its Peak In ISH. Why?

Lazeruss and CavFTW forcing Wilt down our throats. If they would just be more objective instead of trying to give every excuse for his failures, it would be easier to like Wilt.

[4 Inches]

until the playoffs

[kshutts1]

Lazeruss and CavFTW forcing Wilt down our throats. If they would just be more objective instead of trying to give every excuse for his failures, it would be easier to like Wilt.

Pretty sure it's only Lazeruss now.

Cavs will certainly defend Wilt, but I have not seen him force him down our throats in a long time.

[riseagainst]

until the playoffs

[KendrickPerkins]

He looks laughably horrendous. So clumsy and uncoordinated.

The game has come so far since that retard played.

[Elosha]

I'm going to hazard a guess and say he probably shot less than 30% on those. I'd hardly say it was unstoppable.

His drop step on the other hand, sure.

That's the million dollar question, isn't it. We really have no idea how efficient he was at shooting the fadeaway shot. Just looking at his form and the fluidity of the shot in his video leads me to believe he as significantly better than 30% on such shots. But whether he shot it in the high thirties, low forties, high forties, or over fifty percent, we will probably never know since we only have highlight videos and very little unedited game footage. I do know there's several misses of the fadeaway floating around youtube, usually from unedited footage. Here's one.

https://youtu.be/TDK5VDdX-yo?t=304

As to the defense played against him on this video, it's a mixed bag. I disagree with those who have stated no one ever contests his shot, in the very first few shots of the video, you can see some very aggressive contests by Russell and others. However, there are many times throughout the video with fairly lackadaisical defense played, and with relatively little contest and often no double teams or relatively weak/late ones. However, we don't know the context of those games. Perhaps, defenders wanted to encourage Wilt to take such shots, if they were significantly less effective than dunks, putbacks, finger rolls, or baseline spins. Also, we don't know how accurate this sampling is, perhaps Wilt was aggressively double teamed on such shots far more than this limited footage suggests.

In short, I think all the evidence posted shows is that Wilt had a fadeaway upon which he fairly often relied, and in which he demonstrates good form and confidence. Whether it was truly unstoppable, or even efficient is another question entirely. Cavs, if you actually have unedited game footage from which you got all these various highlights, posting that would give us a much better idea of how good his fadeaway really was.

[CavaliersFTW]

For what it's worth players in the league and coaches called his fade away a high percentage shot. I could post articles of players and coaches saying they had to respect that shot and that it's hit at a high rate (though no numbers are given), and even specifically citing that despite whatever free throw woes he clearly had it did not reflect on his fall away shooting touch. That fade away is one of the biggest reasons his scoring was impossible to defend because you could over play him left or right and he'd just happily settle for falling back and hitting that shot over top of you. It's an option a Dwight Howard doesn't have, and an option Shaq would prefer to pass out of rather than take (though Shaq was obviously more willing to fight through or outmaneuver the overplaying to get deeper). Nate Thurmond said in an interview that (I'm guessing he's exclusively referring to post-up situations) Wilt would opt for that fadeaway 60% of the time if not more instead of the alternative of outfaking, outspinning, or out muscling opponents that overplayed the middle or baseline attempting to deny the finger roll and/or a dunk.

People suggesting "terrible defense" ...well, let's just understand that's the 3rd option shot they all probably wanted Wilt to take over a finger roll or dunk because it at least removes him from easy rebounds. He probably took 60% or more fade aways in the post because that's probably the poison the defense picked.

[LAZERUSS]

Are you fu uucking kidding me?

Instead of looking at Wilt doing the fadeaway why don't you look at the people defending him?

They're bearly jumping to defend that sh it..

You obviously didn't watch the video, did you?

A near 6-10 world-class leaper extending himself to within Wilt's fingertips, and then later, a 7-2 Kareem all over a past-his-prime Chamberlain...and yet Wilt still nails those shots.

Chamberlain faced Russell, Thurmond, and then a peak Kareem at his defensive best. Am I supposed to believe that DeAndre Jordan, who was no taller than Russell, and with a 31" vertical, would give that Wilt more problems? And after Jordan, who? Cousins...all 6-9 3/4 and with his 28" vertical? An injury-prone stumble-bum like the 6-11 Bogut? A broken down 6-10 1/2 Noah?

So he could shoot fadeaways but not freethrows

Wilt MADE 6057 FTs in his NBA career, which ranks 19th among NBA-ABA players all-time. How about this? Wilt played 14 seasons in his NBA career, and MADE over 2000 more FTs than Larry Bird, who played 13 seasons? Hell, he made 600 more than Hakeem, who played 18 seasons. Kareem? Sure Kareem made more, but he played 20 seasons. However, Wilt averaged 432 MADE per season...Kareem...335.

Or how about this? Chamberlain MADE 835 FTs in his 61-62 season...which is SECOND ALL-TIME, behind West's 840 in 65-66, and just ahead of MJ's 833 in 86-87.

Or how about this? In Wilt's 100 point game... 28-32. And in a span of four games, including that 100 point game...games of 17-22, 15-20, 13-17, and that 28-32...or 73-91... or .802.

Wilt was a 61% FT shooter coming out of college, and in his highest scoring season in the NBA, he shot over 61%.

Outside shooting ability?

http://wiltfan.tripod.com/quotes.html

Carl Braun said "He [Wilt] disorganizes you under the basket the same way [as Bill Russell, on defense]. With Wilt, of course, there's that offense on top of it, which is better than Russell's. He hit on all those jumpers."
"Yes, Wilt hit on those jumpers...Wilt did come into the league with a good touch from the outside, which made his early scoring that much more significant. He wasn't just dunking the ball then."

--Red Holzman. A View from the Bench. P.70

Finally, Wilt led the league in FG% NINE times in his 14 seasons (and it likely would have been 10 had he not blown out his knee in game nine of the 69-70 season...when he was averaging 32.2 ppg on a .579 FG%.)

And we have the FOOTAGE which CLEARLY shows Wilt with a deadly turn-around fall-away bank shot.

[LAZERUSS]

No, you are kidding us. Instead of doing this crap with Wilt, why don't you do it with everyone else? How many jump to defend Dirk's fadeaways? How many jumped to defend Kareem's skyhook? And even among the ones who did, who managed anything substantial?

We KNOW that a 33+ year old Wilt (actually 27 of the 28 H2H's at 34+), on a surgically repaired knee, and past-his-prime, was knocking a peak Kareem's sky hook all over the gym. And yet a 38-39 year old was reigning skyhooks on a helpless Hakeem.

Furthermore, the little known Nate Thurmond turned a peak Kareem into a putrid brick-layer, and yet an old Kareem could hang 40+ point games on not only Hakeem (hell, ROUTINE 40+), but Patrick Ewing, as well.

[Millslapped]

Ah. So now Lazzerus is arguing that Wilt was actually a good freethrow shooter. Okay.

[LAZERUSS]

Ah. So now Lazzerus is arguing that Wilt was actually a good freethrow shooter. Okay.

An early Wilt, from his two years in college to '62-63, was a 60% FT shooter. No one would claim that as good. But then again, Hakeem and Kareem were around 70%... and neither were MAKING the number of FTs that a 60-63 Wilt was (not even close.)

Of course, shooting turn-around bank shots from 10-12 feet, is not quite the same as shooting FTs, either.

[KG215]

Wilt MADE 6057 FTs in his NBA career, which ranks 19th among NBA-ABA players all-time. How about this? Wilt played 14 seasons in his NBA career, and MADE over 2000 more FTs than Larry Bird, who played 13 seasons? Hell, he made 600 more than Hakeem, who played 18 seasons. Kareem? Sure Kareem made more, but he played 20 seasons. However, Wilt averaged 432 MADE per season...Kareem...335.

Or how about this? Chamberlain MADE 835 FTs in his 61-62 season...which is SECOND ALL-TIME, behind West's 840 in 65-66, and just ahead of MJ's 833 in 86-87.

Or how about this? In Wilt's 100 point game... 28-32. And in a span of four games, including that 100 point game...games of 17-22, 15-20, 13-17, and that 28-32...or 73-91... or .802.

Wilt was a 61% FT shooter coming out of college, and in his highest scoring season in the NBA, he shot over 61%.

Are you actually trying to argue that Wilt was a good FT shooter? You do a lot of reaching, cherry-picking, excuse making, goalpost moving, etc. when defending Wilt, but this may be your most "blinded-by-love" argument ever if you're actually attempting to argue Wilt was a good FT shooter.

He was a career 51% FT shooter. That's really bad. The last 10 seasons of his career he shot 47% from the FT line. That's terrible. He got even worse in the playoffs, and shot 46.5% from the FT line for his playoff career. He had playoff runs of 39% (15 G), 38% (13 G), 39% (18 G), and 41% (18 G) shooting from the FT line. And he averaged 167 FTA per playoff run, or 10.4 FTA/game. That's a big enough sample size to tell us he sucked as a FT shooter. I'll give it to him for his playoff run in 1962 (12 G) where he shot 64%, but that's not enough to overshadow his otherwise terrible FT shooting.

Making a ton of FTs =/= being a good FT shooter.

[LAZERUSS]

Are you actually trying to argue that Wilt was a good FT shooter? You do a lot of reaching, cherry-picking, excuse making, goalpost moving, etc. when defending Wilt, but this may be your most "blinded-by-love" argument ever if you're actually attempting to argue Wilt was a good FT shooter.

He was a career 51% FT shooter. That's really bad. The last 10 seasons of his career he shot 47% from the FT line. That's terrible. He got even worse in the playoffs, and shot 46.5% from the FT line for his playoff career. He had playoff runs of 39% (15 G), 38% (13 G), 39% (18 G), and 41% (18 G) shooting from the FT line. And he averaged 167 FTA per playoff run, or 10.4 FTA/game. That's a big enough sample size to tell us he sucked as a FT shooter. I'll give it to him for his playoff run in 1962 (12 G) where he shot 64%, but that's not enough to overshadow his otherwise terrible FT shooting.

Making a ton of FTs =/= being a good FT shooter.

Do you see anything in my post which claimed that Wilt was a "good" FT shooter?

I merely pointed out that a college to early 60's Wilt was about a 60% FT shooter. Certainly not good, BUT, most "good" FT shooting centers have been around 70%.

And again...Wilt was MAKING FTs. FAR more than Larry Bird for example.

Of course, taking 10-12+ turn-around bank shots, is not the same as taking a FT, either.

Chamberlain's Fadeaway was one of the deadliest shots in NBA history, and we have footage which proves it...as well as first hand accounts of his "outside" shooting.