Number of times Kareem Abdul-Jabbar / Wilt Chamberlain scored 45 or more points:

[24-Inch_Chrome]

Thanks for the info. I was just curious.

[dankok8]

A couple of points...

One, and you know it as well, was that Wilt's EFFECTIVE FT%, was higher than his ACTUAL FT%. Which was confirmed by Fpliii. Now, Fpliii believes that it raised Wilt's ACTUAL TS%'s about 1 percent. I would argue that it was probably closer to 2%.

So, if we use the average...that would have raised Chamberlain's TS%'s in this 65-66 season to around .560.

Then, Kareem's '72 NBA shot .455, while Wilt's '66 NBA shot .433.

So, as you can see, that narrows the gap considerably.

We could also compare KAJ's 79-80 season with Wilt's 66-67 season.

KAJ at 24.8 ppg on a .639 TS%
Wilt at 24.1 ppg on a .637 TS%.

Again, though, Wilt's EFFECTIVE TS% rate would have been around .650.

Then, KAJ's .604 eFG% came in a league that shot an eFG% of .486, while Chamberlain's .683 came in a league that shot .441.


On top of all of that, Chamberlain was overwhelming his peers on the glass, and was a considerably better defender, rim protector, and shot blocker.

Well effective FT% discussion had to do with the 3 to make 2 rule which essentially reduced the impact of missing free throws. Don't forget though that Kareem himself played with this rule as well which was abolished in 1979. It's a moot point because both Wilt and Kareem's efficiency would be corrected.

And even if we correct for the difference in league-wide FG%, Kareem still has a solid edge in overall efficiency.

I will give you that 1967 Wilt was remarkably efficient but generally when you compare them Kareem was the more efficient player even relative to his own era if you wanna go there (roughly a 2% gap).

[LAZERUSS]

Well effective FT% discussion had to do with the 3 to make 2 rule which essentially reduced the impact of missing free throws. Don't forget though that Kareem himself played with this rule as well which was abolished in 1979. It's a moot point because both Wilt and Kareem's efficiency would be corrected.

And even if we correct for the difference in league-wide FG%, Kareem still has a solid edge in overall efficiency.

I will give you that 1967 Wilt was remarkably efficient but generally when you compare them Kareem was the more efficient player even relative to his own era if you wanna go there (roughly a 2% gap).

It didn't really affect KAJ much at all. Why?

Because, one, Wilt was a much poorer FT shooter. And even more importantly, Chamberlain took far more FTs.

Incidently, to correct another point.

KAJ was nowhere near the rebounder Chamberlain was from '70 thru '73. Note even remotely close. Wilt ran away with rpg titles, and then in the post-season, he destroyed his peers. You mentioned KAJ outrebounding Thurmond, (whom Wilt routinely shelled), but in their '73 first round, while KAJ was outrebounding Nate, Clyde Lee on the Warriors was outrebounding Kareem. In the next round Wilt wiped the floor with BOTH of them.

And, in their 28 H2H's, Wilt outrebounded Kareem by about 2 rpg. Not a huge margin, to be sure, but then again...how many rpg was a 35-36 year old KAJ getting?

[jongib369]

It didn't really affect KAJ much at all. Why?

Because, one, Wilt was a much poorer FT shooter. And even more importantly, Chamberlain took far more FTs.

Incidently, to correct another point.

KAJ was nowhere near the rebounder Chamberlain was from '70 thru '73. Note even remotely close. Wilt ran away with rpg titles, and then in the post-season, he destroyed his peers. You mentioned KAJ outrebounding Thurmond, (whom Wilt routinely shelled), but in their '73 first round, while KAJ was outrebounding Nate, Clyde Lee on the Warriors was outrebounding Kareem. In the next round Wilt wiped the floor with BOTH of them.

And, in their 28 H2H's, Wilt outrebounded Kareem by about 2 rpg. Not a huge margin, to be sure, but then again...how many rpg was a 35-36 year old KAJ getting?

How do you think Wilts injury impacted his rebounding, if at all? I can't look up atm, but if you can point this out along with his minutes played it might be valuable to the discussion. I'll never want to take away anything from Kareem since he's so high on my list...And even though Wilt was a lot stronger, and heavier he himself admitted Kareem was strong. A young guy should be able to out hussle an old guy, but I suspect when chamberlain was in peak form their rebounding difference against eachother would be more prominent.

It's a damn shame he got injured, that first head2head, with Wilts new role could of gave us some interesting stats. ...Which was again? Against Kareem and some other numbers from that short 12 game season

[jongib369]

Kareems rebound drop was quite startling to say the least, what's the general thought as to why this happened? I'm sure it was his role, aging etc but I don't recall seeing other 4s and 5s drop off like that. What did other centers who started playing around Kareems early 70's years, average once they reached the 80s? Guys like Golmore, or whoever

[dankok8]

It didn't really affect KAJ much at all. Why?

Because, one, Wilt was a much poorer FT shooter. And even more importantly, Chamberlain took far more FTs.

Incidently, to correct another point.

KAJ was nowhere near the rebounder Chamberlain was from '70 thru '73. Note even remotely close. Wilt ran away with rpg titles, and then in the post-season, he destroyed his peers. You mentioned KAJ outrebounding Thurmond, (whom Wilt routinely shelled), but in their '73 first round, while KAJ was outrebounding Nate, Clyde Lee on the Warriors was outrebounding Kareem. In the next round Wilt wiped the floor with BOTH of them.

And, in their 28 H2H's, Wilt outrebounded Kareem by about 2 rpg. Not a huge margin, to be sure, but then again...how many rpg was a 35-36 year old KAJ getting?

Think of effective FT% this way... There is 8 outcomes:

miss-miss-miss (0/3)
miss-miss-make (1/3)
miss-make-miss (1/3)
make-miss-miss (1/3)
miss-make-make (2/3)
make-miss-make (2/3)
make-make (2/3)
make-make (2/3)

(notice you didn't get a third free throw is you made the first two)

With Wilt the calculation is very simple. It's basically a coin toss when he shoots free throws so each of the 8 outcomes is 50%^3 = 12.5% likely to happen.


Wilt shot 50%:

1 outcome = 12.5% of the time he makes 0/3 ==> effectively 0/2
3 outcomes = 37.5% of the time he makes 1/3 ==> effectively 1/2
4 outcomes = 50.0% of the time he makes 2/3 ==> effectively 2/2

12.5% * 0/2 + 37.5% * 1/2 + 50.0% * 2/2 = 68.8% effective FT%


With Kareem the calculation is more complicated because the 8 outcomes don't all have the same probability. It's not a simple coin toss because Kareem makes 70% of the time and misses 30% of the time.


Kareem shot 70%:

1 outcome = 2.7% of the time he makes 0/3 ==> effectively 0/2
3 outcomes = 18.9% of the time he makes 1/3 ==> effectively 1/2
4 outcomes = 78.4% of the time he makes 2/3 ==> effectively 2/2

2.7% * 0/2 + 18.9% * 1/2 + 78.4% * 2/2 = 87.9% effective FT%


It would have pretty great impact on Kareem as well. If he was an 88% free throw shooter his TS% would be quite a bit higher too.




You are wrong about rebounding. In their 28 H2H's, they went 14-14 against each other. And Kareem was better on the glass in his H2H's against Thurmond, Cowens, Unseld, and Hayes than Wilt was against those guys.

Wilt was a slightly better rebounder. He was out of his prime in the early 70's but he also had a massive strength advantage and played at 300+ lbs.


Kareem never went all out to pass the ball like Wilt in 1967 and 1968. I'm hesitant to give Wilt an edge just because he got more assists. For the record I think Walton is a greater passer than both.

[LAZERUSS]

How do you think Wilts injury impacted his rebounding, if at all? I can't look up atm, but if you can point this out along with his minutes played it might be valuable to the discussion. I'll never want to take away anything from Kareem since he's so high on my list...And even though Wilt was a lot stronger, and heavier he himself admitted Kareem was strong. A young guy should be able to out hussle an old guy, but I suspect when chamberlain was in peak form their rebounding difference against eachother would be more prominent.

It's a damn sha me he got injured, that first head2head, with Wilts new role could of gave us some interesting stats. ...Which was again?

He easily outplayed KAJ (admittedly rookie KAJ), in their first and only H2H meeting before Wilt's injury. Of course, this was not a mid-60's Wilt, with explosive speed and quickness, and range of up to 15 ft, either.

But what was interesting, was that rookie KAJ would go on to average 28.8 ppg, 14.5 rpg, and shoot .518. At his peak, KAJ was 34.8 ppg, 16.6 rpg, and on a .574 FG%.

In Wilt's first nine games of that '69-70 season, he was averaging 32.2 ppg, 20.6 rpg, and on a .579 FG%. Furthermore, he shredded his knee in that ninth game, ...a game in which he played 28 minutes, and scored 33 points on 13-14 from the field. He was most certainly on his way to a 40 point game, and likely even a 50 point game (he had scored 66 against that same team just the year before BTW.) Think about that. Had he scored 50 points in that game...he would have been at 34.0 ppg in those nine games.

Now, I know that nine games is a small sample, but given the fact that his coach asked him to become the focal point of the offense...and, the fact that he put up games of 33, 35, 37, 38, 42, and 43 points...as well as that 25 point game on Kareem (Alcindor)...well, you see the pattern.


As a side-note, after Wilt's injury, his offense was never the same. And yet, he played in 62 of his 160 playoff games following that injury. If we discount those playoff games, he was at 26 ppg in his first ten seasons. If we discount the fact that his incompetent coach reduced him to a bystander on offense in the '69 post-season...he was at 29-27-5 .520 player in his prime post-season career. All while dramatically reducing his opposing centers efficiencies, and crushing them on the glass.

[LAZERUSS]

Think of effective FT% this way... There is 8 outcomes:

miss-miss-miss (0/3)
miss-miss-make (1/3)
miss-make-miss (1/3)
make-miss-miss (1/3)
miss-make-make (2/3)
make-miss-make (2/3)
make-make (2/3)
make-make (2/3)

(notice you didn't get a third free throw is you made the first two)

With Wilt the calculation is very simple. It's basically a coin toss when he shoots free throws so each of the 8 outcomes is 50%^3 = 12.5% likely to happen.


Wilt shot 50%:

1 outcome = 12.5% of the time he makes 0/3 ==> effectively 0/2
3 outcomes = 37.5% of the time he makes 1/3 ==> effectively 1/2
4 outcomes = 50.0% of the time he makes 2/3 ==> effectively 2/2

12.5% * 0/2 + 37.5% * 1/2 + 50.0% * 2/2 = 68.8% effective FT%


With Kareem the calculation is more complicated because the 8 outcomes don't all have the same probability. It's not a simple coin toss because Kareem makes 70% of the time and misses 30% of the time.


Kareem shot 70%:

1 outcome = 2.7% of the time he makes 0/3 ==> effectively 0/2
3 outcomes = 18.9% of the time he makes 1/3 ==> effectively 1/2
4 outcomes = 78.4% of the time he makes 2/3 ==> effectively 2/2

2.7% * 0/2 + 18.9% * 1/2 + 78.4% * 2/2 = 87.9% effective FT%


It would have pretty great impact on Kareem as well. If he was an 88% free throw shooter his TS% would be quite a bit higher too.




You are wrong about rebounding. In their 28 H2H's, they went 14-14 against each other. And Kareem was better on the glass in his H2H's against Thurmond, Cowens, Unseld, and Hayes than Wilt was against those guys.

Wilt was a slightly better rebounder. He was out of his prime in the early 70's but he also had a massive strength advantage and played at 300+ lbs.


Kareem never went all out to pass the ball like Wilt in 1967 and 1968. I'm hesitant to give Wilt an edge just because he got more assists. For the record I think Walton is a greater passer than both.

Your calculations are way off. First of all, Wilt (and Kareem in the 70's) played in an era of 1 FTA, 2-to-make-1, 2-to-make-2, and 3-to-make-2. Extra FTs were not awarded until 5 team fouls.

There were times when Chamberlain was only getting ONE FT. Also, it is almost a 100% probability that Wilt had FAR more "and-1's" than Kareem did. This is reflected in his much higher FTAs in his career. Hell, in Wilt's 66 season, he made as many FTs as KAJ did in his '72 season. And that '72 season was an aberration for Kareem. He would never come close to that again. And we know that Wilt had seasons of MAKING 8-10 FTs per game.

Fpliii's research credited Wilt with somewhere around a 1% TS% benefit, and perhaps up to 2%. Not a dramatic rise, but clearly it makes Wilt's career TS% considerably higher, especially with his supposed post-season decline.

As for rebounding. Nope, KAJ was well behind Wilt all four seasons in the league together. And Wilt was crushing guys like Thurmond in his post-seasons, (as well as outrebounding KAJ by TWO per game.) And a peak Wilt could score 30-40 ppg, and still pull down 25+ rpg...all while crushing his peers offensively and defensively.

Hell, in his LAST post-season, Chamberlain averaged 22.5 rpg in his 17 games...in a post-season that averaged 50.6 rpg per team. KAJ's PEAK post-season was 18.2 rpg, (and in that same post-season, Wilt averaged 21.0 rpg (and outrebounded KAJ H2H.)

[LAZERUSS]

I have gotten a reputation as a bit of a Kareem fan although I don't see myself as such. I don't think there is a GOAT, just a few guys with a better case than anyone else.

Anyways I do think Wilt's edge in those other areas of the game are overblown... Wilt has the edge in areas other than scoring but it's a small edge.

Wilt met Kareem in 28 games and the rebounding battles went 14-14. Dead even. Kareem also rebounded better against other great rebounders like Thurmond, Hayes, Unseld, and Cowens from 1970-1973 than Wilt did. Now Wilt was out of his prime but he was also at his strongest and heaviest in his Laker days and could really use his massive edge in strength over Kareem, something he would not be able to do as much 10 years earlier as a young player. At the end Wilt is slightly better.

Defensively I would say a peak Wilt is better but overall across their entire careers it's pretty close. Kareem was very consistently great on defense throughout his prime. Wilt as more up and down in his effort. Better at his best but worse at his worst.

Passing is hard to gauge considering Wilt specifically focused on passing in 1967 and 1968. Kareem never really ever played like that. Based on watching them I don't think either guy had an edge in court vision or ball handling or any other aspect related to passing...

At the end how you decide to rank them overall as players will depends on what grades you assign to intangibles. Many people feel that Kareem was a much better winner, leader, clutch performer etc. than Kareem and I'm on of them. Others don't feel that way.

Wilt, in his LAST TWO seasons, and in a league with a PEAK Kareem...was voted First Team All-Defense (and had DPOY existed, most likely '72...and in reality, he was even better in '73.)

Wilt was DOMINANT defensively his very first game in the NBA. I don't know where this claim that he became better in the middle of his career came from. For example, in his rookie season, he reduced Russell, who had a shot a career high .467 against the NBA, to a .393 shooter in their 11 H2H's.

How about his first game against Walt Bellamy? Bellamy came into that game averaging 30 ppg. Wilt told him at the opening tip that he wouldn't score a point. And in the first half, we have DOCUMENTATION that Wilt blocked his first NINE shots. He finally "let" Bellamy play in the second half, and outscored him by a 51-14 margin. He would hold Bellamy to WAY below his normal FG% the rest of their career.

Same with Thurmond, Lanier, and even KAJ.

And with the research that thaRegul8r did, he had Wilt with 5.42 bpg in his LAST season (which is only 12 years removed from Eaton's record of 5.56...all achieved by a 36 year old Wilt.) KAJ never approached that figure (and in fact, the very next season he was at 3.5 bpg.)

And a prime Wilt, cica '65-68, just slaughtered his peers on the defensive end. I am always amazed that Wilt has the two highest non-Russell DWS seasons, but neither one were in '67, when he just absolutely shut everyone down. Murdered them. GOAT defensive one-on-one season in NBA history.

Wilt was, BY FAR, the greatest shot-blocker in NBA history,...and that includes just routing Russell in their known H2H's.

[dankok8]

Your calculations are way off. First of all, Wilt (and Kareem in the 70's) played in an era of 1 FTA, 2-to-make-1, 2-to-make-2, and 3-to-make-2. Extra FTs were not awarded until 5 team fouls.

There were times when Chamberlain was only getting ONE FT. Also, it is almost a 100% probability that Wilt had FAR more "and-1's" than Kareem did. This is reflected in his much higher FTAs in his career. Hell, in Wilt's 66 season, he made as many FTs as KAJ did in his '72 season. And that '72 season was an aberration for Kareem. He would never come close to that again. And we know that Wilt had seasons of MAKING 8-10 FTs per game.

Fpliii's research credited Wilt with somewhere around a 1% TS% benefit, and perhaps up to 2%. Not a dramatic rise, but clearly it makes Wilt's career TS% considerably higher, especially with his supposed post-season decline.

As for rebounding. Nope, KAJ was well behind Wilt all four seasons in the league together. And Wilt was crushing guys like Thurmond in his post-seasons, (as well as outrebounding KAJ by TWO per game.) And a peak Wilt could score 30-40 ppg, and still pull down 25+ rpg...all while crushing his peers offensively and defensively.

Hell, in his LAST post-season, Chamberlain averaged 22.5 rpg in his 17 games...in a post-season that averaged 50.6 rpg per team. KAJ's PEAK post-season was 18.2 rpg, (and in that same post-season, Wilt averaged 21.0 rpg (and outrebounded KAJ H2H.)

I'm well aware that bonus free throws weren't always given. Basically they were there to discourage intentional and/or excessive fouling and did a pretty good job of it. To be honest I don't know why you brought it up. 1% in TS is peanuts and Kareem benefited a bit from this rule as well.

I did the calculation to give us an idea of how a 3 for 2 calculation changes things. The math is correct. Let's drop it now.

As for rebounding I conceded that Wilt was a better rebounder. It's just that almost 1.8 more rebounds per game (and at higher minutes) don't constitute a major edge in rebounding. And Kareem was rebounding better against the other great rebounders like Thurmond, Cowens, Unseld, and Hayes from 1969-1973...

[La Frescobaldi]

Thanks for the info. I was just curious.

no problem my friend..... in those days hoops was a pretty small community in a way. Chamberlain going down, that was like Tom Brady here a few years back, just huge enormous news. And for it to happen in the Finals like that too. Russell's last game. Sam Jones too. The whole basketball world mourned.

Little did anybody know he was going to come back and re-invent himself under Bill Sharman as a Russell style defensive center par excellence !!

[LAZERUSS]

It's not clear cut that Wilt is a better scorer than Kareem. Again what Wilt did in 1962 is a testament to his stamina more than anything. He averaged 40 shots a game and Kareem never put up 40 shots in any game.

When they took about the same number of shots, Kareem was usually quite a bit more efficient.

64-65 Wilt: 34.7 ppg on 51.0 %FG (28.5 attempts), 46.4 %FT (12.1 attempts) ==> 51.3 %TS

65-66 Wilt: 33.5 ppg on 54.0 %FG (25.2 attempts), 51.3 %FT (12.4 attempts) ==> 54.7 %TS

71-72 Kareem: 34.8 ppg on 57.4 %FG (24.9 attempts), 68.9 %FT (9.0 attempts) ==> 60.3 %TS



And while it's nowhere near enough sample size we do have a 19-game sample in 71-72 where Kareem took a lot of shots. Oscar was DNP in eighteen of those games and played sparingly in the remaining one.

Kareem put up 39.4 ppg on 59.2 %FG (27.0 attempts), 73.1 %FT (10.0 attempts) ==> 62.4 %TS

Impressive to be sure.

How about a 19 game streak in Wilt's '62 season of...

53.5 ppg on a .546 FG% (395-724) and a .647 FT% (231-357), with a TS% of .560...to go along with 27.3 rpg, and in a league that shot an eFG% of .426 overall (KAJ's '72 shot .455.)

BTW, how about this five game streak in that same season... 70.2 ppg, on an eFG% of .580 (134-281), and a .776 FT% (83-107), for a TS% of .620, to go along with 26.4 rpg, and in a league that shot an eFG% of .426.

And in his '66 season, Wilt hung a 19 game streak of 35.2 ppg, on a .610 (278-456) FG% and a .489 FT% (108-221) , and a .590 TS%, to go along with 22.9 rpg. In a league that shot an eFG% of .433.

Then, in his '67 season, a run of 19 games in which he averaged 27.2 ppg, on a .744 eFG% (203-273), and a .469 FT% (112-239) for a TS% of .665, as well as a 23.3 rpg, and a 7.4 apg...in a league that shot an eFG% of .441.

And, another run of 20 straight games in his '67 season of 27.3 ppg, on a .727 eFG% (229-315), and a .432 FT% (88-209) for a TS% of .615, as well as 24.7 rpg, and 8.6 apg, again in a league that shot an eFG% of .441.

And a run of 15 straight games in his '68 season, in which he averaged 34.8 ppg, on a .625 eFG% (218-349), and a (horrific) .410 FT% (86-210), for a TS% of .580, to go along with 25.2 rpg, and 6.1 apg, in a league that shot .446.

And finally, one of my favorites...a 17 game streak in his '69 season, which immediately followed an article by SI which claimed that Wilt could no longer score (BTW, his first game of that string was a 60 point game), in which he averaged 30.8 ppg, on an eFG% of .580, and a FT% of .509, for a TS% of .565, to go along with 22.8 rpg, and in a league that shot an eFG% of .441.

I'm sure I could find some more impressive Wilt runs, but unfortunately, there is some FGA data missing in some of them.

[CavaliersFTW]

Wilt averaged 40 shots a game over his entire 1961-1962 season. Kareem never took 40 shots in any game in his career.

I'm not saying that Kareem could ever volume score the way Wilt did. He most probably couldn't... But Wilt's scoring is as much a tribute to his stamina as his skill and dominance.

I did look into this dankok8, In games where a criteria of 25-39 field goals were attempted:

Wilt Chamberlain averaged in 334 games sample (31.4 FGA avg)
39.9ppg (52FG%, 53FT%)
25.5rpg, 3.2apg

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar averaged in 304 games sample (28.2 FGA avg)
34.3ppg (52FG%, 70FT%)
15.9rpg, 4.2apg

We can further handicap Wilt by giving him a ceiling of 25-32 field goal attempts to bring their cumulative average to a roughly equal FGA avg.

So in that scenario Wilt Chamberlain in 196 games sample (28.4 FGA avg)
36.4ppg (52FG%, 52FT%)
25.1rpg, 3.4apg

What this indicates is that Wilt did not have literally any drop off in field goal accuracy even if you remove several field goal attempts from his average. Further, the fact that despite Wilt and Kareem shooting the same accuracy from the field when their average FG's are matched in high volume (28.x yet Wilt averages 2 more points a game) means Wilt is getting fouled more and despite being a poorer free throw shooter is a greater threat to get the other team in foul trouble and still ultimately bring his team more points than Jabbar. When Wilt is totally green lit to score and force fed the ball (25FGA - no limit) his numbers are absolutely insane and look like this:

Wilt Chamberlain in 439 games (34.7 FGA avg)
43.4ppg (51FG%, 54FT%)
25.7rpg, 3.1apg

[dankok8]

Wilt, in his LAST TWO seasons, and in a league with a PEAK Kareem...was voted First Team All-Defense (and had DPOY existed, most likely '72...and in reality, he was even better in '73.)

Wilt was DOMINANT defensively his very first game in the NBA. I don't know where this claim that he became better in the middle of his career came from. For example, in his rookie season, he reduced Russell, who had a shot a career high .467 against the NBA, to a .393 shooter in their 11 H2H's.

How about his first game against Walt Bellamy? Bellamy came into that game averaging 30 ppg. Wilt told him at the opening tip that he wouldn't score a point. And in the first half, we have DOCUMENTATION that Wilt blocked his first NINE shots. He finally "let" Bellamy play in the second half, and outscored him by a 51-14 margin. He would hold Bellamy to WAY below his normal FG% the rest of their career.

Same with Thurmond, Lanier, and even KAJ.

And with the research that thaRegul8r did, he had Wilt with 5.42 bpg in his LAST season (which is only 12 years removed from Eaton's record of 5.56...all achieved by a 36 year old Wilt.) KAJ never approached that figure (and in fact, the very next season he was at 3.5 bpg.)

And a prime Wilt, cica '65-68, just slaughtered his peers on the defensive end. I am always amazed that Wilt has the two highest non-Russell DWS seasons, but neither one were in '67, when he just absolutely shut everyone down. Murdered them. GOAT defensive one-on-one season in NBA history.

Wilt was, BY FAR, the greatest shot-blocker in NBA history,...and that includes just routing Russell in their known H2H's.

Talking about all time level, Wilt played very good defense in 1960 and 1964 and then great defense in 1967, 1968, 1972, and 1973. The rest of his career, he gave inconsistent effort on the defensive end. It's telling in that Wilt didn't make any All-Defensive team in 1969 and 1971 despite playing the full seasons.

And numerous sources PRAISED him for his exceptional defense in 1972, the kind he didn't play in preceding years.

[LAZERUSS]

Talking about all time level, Wilt played very good defense in 1960 and 1964 and then great defense in 1967, 1968, 1972, and 1973. The rest of his career, he gave inconsistent effort on the defensive end. It's telling in that Wilt didn't make any All-Defensive team in 1969 and 1971 despite playing the full seasons.

And numerous sources PRAISED him for his exceptional defense in 1972, the kind he didn't play in preceding years.

Wilt not making First Team All-Defense in '69 was a joke. Just as was the MVP voting. He BADLY outplayed Russell, Reed, and Unseld in his H2H's, and blew away Bellamy in their H2H's as well. Only Thurmond gave him a run for his money, and in the playoffs, after the first two games, Wilt took over and dismantled him.

'71 was the worst season of his career. Obviously it was the after effects of the horrific injury and surgery he had the previous season, but his numbers were down across the board. STILL, he outplayed a PEAK Kareem in the majority of the 10 total H2H's, and at worst, played him to a draw. This, in Kareem's greatest all-around season, including post-season (and in only 40 mpg BTW), while it was easily the worst of Wilt's career.

Oh, and Wilt was even more dominant defensively in his last season, '73, than he was in his '72 season, when by all accounts he would have won DPOY had the award existed.