Why Wilt Chamberlain would dominate in today's game ! Bruce Blitz

[senelcoolidge]

Most centers now are perimeter players?

Maybe more like most centers are not fundamentally sound and are projects in today's NBA. Great athletes, but not very good basketball players.

[32Dayz]

Eh.. I think when you account for
Possesions/level of competition/weaker defensive schemes
and the fact that Wilt probably had a much bigger size advantage over his "average" opponent then someone like Oneal had in the 90's and early 00's then it makes sense why he was so Dominant.

Put him in todays games where he probably wouldnt be on a team where their entire 0ffensive strategy was simply to dump him the ball on every possesion and where he would be getting consistently bodyed up by 2-3 defenders especially if he forced the issue on 0ffense and the fact that those 2-3 defender would be much bigger and stronger then the kind of average players you had back then and I doubt he would be the same player.

I see Wilt being like a slightly superior Version of Duncan on 0ffense. Maybe 25-32ppg at his Peak on around 50% shooting.

He wasn't very efficient back then on 0ffense despite him usually having an enormous athletic/size advantage if he had to face better athletes today and be doubled and triple "far" more often then he was back then it would be difficult for him to sustain such volume and efficiency even in comparison to what he did back then.

I think his game would be less scoring but more defense/rebounding much like Duncan.

[La Frescobaldi]

Like he was the second half of his career?

[jlauber]

I continue to read this here...

He wasn't very efficient back then on 0ffense despite him usually having an enormous athletic/size advantage if he had to face better athletes today and be doubled and triple "far" more often then he was back then it would be difficult for him to sustain such volume and efficiency even in comparison to what he did back then

And yet we have this...

http://biography.jrank.org/pages/233...lain-Wilt.html

Several of the rules of college basketball had to be changed as a result of Chamberlain's talents, which simply dwarfed those of previous players. Opposing players double-and triple-teamed him and played a slowed-down game rather than attempt to confront Chamberlain's offensive skills head-on. These techniques helped the University of North Carolina defeat Kansas 54-53 in triple overtime in the 1957 championship game.

Such tactics also frustrated the rapidly developing Chamberlain, who startled the basketball world by turning professional rather than returning to Kansas for his senior year. NBA rules forbade him from joining the league until the year in which he would have graduated from college, so Chamberlain played for the razzle-dazzle touring professional team the Harlem Globetrotters during the 1958-59 season. He joined the Philadelphia Warriors in 1959, having already collected a large bonus for signing.

Individual Triumphs in NBA
Chamberlain was an NBA star from the beginning, leading the league in scoring and rebounding, and taking home honors not only for Rookie of the Year but also for Most Valuable Player. Frustrated by defensive tactics similar to those he had faced in college, and by what he considered biased officiating, he threatened to leave the league and return to the Globetrotters in 1960. But he did not follow through on his threat, and soon learned to outmaneuver his tormentors through sheer size, speed, and skill.

and this...

In Chamberlain's first year, and for several years afterward, opposing teams simply didn't know how to handle him. Tom Heinsohn, the great Celtics forward who later became a coach and broadcaster, said Boston was one of the first clubs to apply a team-defense concept to stop Chamberlain. "We went for his weakness," Heinsohn told the Philadelphia Daily News in 1991, "tried to send him to the foul line, and in doing that he took the most brutal pounding of any player ever. I hear people today talk about hard fouls. Half the fouls against him were hard fouls."

and this...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...940232,00.html

He stood there, just to the right of the basket, a placid. 7-ft. 1 1/16-in, giant watching impassively as his teammates maneuvered the ball in backcourt. The New York Knickerbockers tried to box him in; they clutched at his jersey, leaned against his chest, stepped on his toes. Then Wilt Chamberlain came alive. With the aplomb of a cop palming an apple, he reached out one massive hand and plucked the basketball out of the air. Spinning violently, he ripped clear of the elbowing surge, took a step toward the basket and jumped. For an instant, he seemed suspended in midair, his head on a level with the 10-ft.-high basket. Slowly, gently, the ball dribbled off his fingertips, through the net, and the San Francisco Warriors went on to a 142-134 victory. New York Coach Ed Donovan sadly shook his head. "He's phenomenal." he sighed. "How does anyone stop Wilt Chamberlain?"

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...940232,00.html

[QUOTE]Most basketball stars have one great talent: Russell's is defense, Elgin Baylor's is shooting, Bob Cousy's is setting up plays and passing. Chamberlain does almost everything, better than anyone else. He is the pros' fiercest rebounder, and his shooting repertory includes such inimitable specialties as the "Dipper Dunk" (in which he simply stretches up and lays the ball in the basket), the "Stuff Shot" (in which he jumps up and rams the ball through the net from above), [B]and the "Fadeaway Jump"

[jlauber]

and this one...

http://samcelt.forumotion.net/t2803-...mmy-4000-words

[QUOTE]At 7

[32Dayz]

I am not saying Wilt didn't ever get doubled or tripled but from the majority of available footage I have seen from him I'd say 75+% he was guarded on M2M coverage.

Perhaps if the league would release all the available footage I would see that was simply just an anomaly and most cases he was not defended as such.

It's a shame Wilt didn't play in the media age so we could really see what he was made out of but instead we are forced to rely on often contradicting story's of him from the past from several writers that would be all but unknown by today's generation.

I dont deny Wilt's greatness only that I dont think he would easily be the best or even 2nd best player if you just magically dropped him into the 80's, 90's or 00's.

He'd "probably" be a Top 1-5 Player every year though in his Young and Prime dayz.

[305Baller]

I am not saying Wilt didn't ever get doubled or tripled but from the majority of available footage I have seen from him I'd say 75+% he was guarded on M2M coverage.

Perhaps if the league would release all the available footage I would see that was simply just an anomaly and most cases he was not defended as such.

It's a shame Wilt didn't play in the media age so we could really see what he was made out of but instead we are forced to rely on often contradicting story's of him from the past from several writers that would be all but unknown by today's generation.

I dont deny Wilt's greatness only that I dont think he would easily be the best or even 2nd best player if you just magically dropped him into the 80's, 90's or 00's.

He'd "probably" be a Top 1-5 Player every year though in his Young and Prime dayz.

I think it is possible he would be the best player, but he is not going to average 50ppg. That I is impossible today. But hey, he did do the "seemingly impossible" back in the day.

[jlauber]

I am not saying Wilt didn't ever get doubled or tripled but from the majority of available footage I have seen from him I'd say 75+% he was guarded on M2M coverage.Perhaps if the league would release all the available footage I would see that was simply just an anomaly and most cases he was not defended as such.

It's a shame Wilt didn't play in the media age so we could really see what he was made out of but instead we are forced to rely on often contradicting story's of him from the past from several writers that would be all but unknown by today's generation.

I dont deny Wilt's greatness only that I dont think he would easily be the best or even 2nd best player if you just magically dropped him into the 80's, 90's or 00's.

He'd "probably" be a Top 1-5 Player every year though in his Young and Prime dayz.

Another poster here made that claim, using YouTube footage of the second half of game four of the '64 Finals, which was broken into four parts. Of course, he only used the first part.

I then provided the link to the second part, and in it, Wilt was doubled, tripled, or swarmed on nearly every possession.

And the fact was/is...we only have a portions of a HANDFUL of Wilt's 1200 games. And, unfortunately, while those games show a remarkable athlete, they are among the WORST games of Chamberlain's career.

The best response that I can give anyone that attempts to use that extremely limited footage as some kind of example is this...

When we ever get footage of just a few of Wilt's 271 40+ point games, then maybe we can get a better idea of just how really good this guy was.

[32Dayz]

I am onboard with you man I dont attempt to judge Chamberlain in an "absolute" sort of sense as I dont have the footage or enough information about him to do so.

I can only judge him based on various story's from different people many who say very different things about him and from the limited footage that is available of him.

Still I think of him highly, rank him highly on my GOAT List and think he would easily be a Top 5 Player in this generation.

[Sarcastic]

I think it is possible he would be the best player, but he is not going to average 50ppg. That I is impossible today. But hey, he did do the "seemingly impossible" back in the day.

Scoring 50 ppg is "impossible" in every era, since no one else has ever done it in any other era as well.

[La Frescobaldi]

I think it is possible he would be the best player, but he is not going to average 50ppg. That I is impossible today. But hey, he did do the "seemingly impossible" back in the day.

Nobody ever did this either:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...9733/index.htm

Wilt had a quadruple double in the playoffs against the Celtics.

"Wilt Chamberlain had 24 points, 32 rebounds, 13 assists and blocked 12 shots."

[PHILA]

Wilt had a quadruple double in the playoffs against the Celtics.

"Wilt Chamberlain had 24 points, 32 rebounds, 13 assists and blocked 12 shots."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFrhKI63e80#t=6m30s

In the first game Hal Greer tossed in 39 points, while Wilt Chamberlain had 24 points, 32 rebounds, 13 assists and blocked 12 shots.

[jlauber]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFrhKI63e80#t=6m30s

In the first game Hal Greer tossed in 39 points, while Wilt Chamberlain had 24 points, 32 rebounds, 13 assists and blocked 12 shots.

BUT, Chamberlain only shot 6-10 from the line in that game (9-13 from the field.) Had he made all of ten of his FT's, his team would have won that game 131-113 instead of only 127-113.

That game probably cost Wilt 3-4 more rings.

[Pointguard]

Scoring 50 ppg is "impossible" in every era, since no one else has ever done it in any other era as well.

So true, when you think about it, 40ppg is impossible.

[Pointguard]

Nobody ever did this either:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...9733/index.htm

Wilt had a quadruple double in the playoffs against the Celtics.

"Wilt Chamberlain had 24 points, 32 rebounds, 13 assists and blocked 12 shots."

Against the greatest defender ever and a great defensive team.