Wilt's Last Fully Healthy Game

[LAZERUSS]

In game #9 on the 69-70 schedule, at the 5 minute mark of the third period, and on a play without contact, Wilt shredded his knee. At that moment he had scored 33 points in 28 minutes, and on 13-14 from the field (to go along with 15 rebounds.) In a close game he was certainly on his way to yet another 40+ point game, and perhaps even a 50 point game.

As it was, with those numbers in limited minutes, he was leading the league in scoring, at 32.2 ppg, to go along with 20 rpg and a .579 FG%.

His new coach, Joe Mullaney, was essentially hired to re-energize a Wilt, whose previous coach, Butch "the Butcher" Van Breda Kolff, had completely mis-handled. Mullaney's first order of business was to make Wilt the focal point of the Laker offense. And Chamberlain enthusiastically responded by leading the league in scoring in those first nine games.

And that scoring was not inflated by one huge game, either. Wilt had put up games of 33, 35, 37, 38, 42, and 43 points. Oh, and in his first H2H with rookie Lew Alcindor, he easily outplayed him, outscoring him, 25-23; outrebounding him, 25-20; outassisting him, 5-2; outblocking him, 3-2; and outshooting him from the field, 9-14 to 9-21.

Included in those games were a 37 point game against 7-0 270 Tom Boerwinkle; a 38 point game (on 16-26 shooting) against reigning MVP Wes Unseld; a 42 point game against a peak Bob Rule (go ahead, look him up); and a 43 point game against Connie Dierking.

In the game against Rule, Wilt outscored him, 43-19. This in perhaps Rule's greatest season (24.6 ppg, although he would start out the 70-71 season averaging 29.8 ppg before suffering an injury that would ultimately end his career a couple of years later.) It was not Wilt's highest scoring game against Rule, though. In the 67-68 season Chamberlain hung games of 47, 52, and 53 points on rookie Rule (who averaged 18.1 ppg on a .489 FG%.) In the 47 point game, Wilt outscored Rule, 47-20, grabbed 26 rebounds, and shot 19-24 from the field. In his 52 point game, Chamberlain outscored Rule, 52-29, grabbed 37 rebounds, and shot 22-29 from the floor. And in his 53 point game, he outscored Rule, 53-16, grabbed 38 rebounds, and shot 20-23 from the field. Keep in mind that in Wilt's 67-68 season, he was no longer looking to put up huge games, either. This was a Chamberlain who would "only" average 24.3 ppg.

It is worth noting that Kareem also had two 50+ games against Rule, albeit, one was after Rule's injury, and in which he was just a shell (a 53 point game with 13 rebounds on 18-28 shooting.) In the one game against a prime Rule, Kareem outscored him, 51-33, with 8 rebounds, and on 18-25 shooting.


As noted earlier, Wilt's high game in his short-lived 69-70 season, was 43 points, and against Connie Dierking. Of course, Wilt had many 40+ point games against Dierking in his career, including games in which he outscored Dierking by 59-4 60-35, and 63-11. In fact, just the year before (68-69), Chamberlain hung that 60 point game.

Again, it is worth noting that Kareem would face Dierking multiple times in his career (in fact, a fading Dierking), and he had one 40+ point game against him (41 to be exact.)

None of this is meant to disparage Kareem, either, but rather to provide some concrete evidence as to just how dominant Wilt was in his career...even as late as his 11th season in the league. Here was a Wilt that was certainly no longer in his prime (62-68), but still capable of leading the league in scoring (and again, in his '69 season, at age 32, he hung games of 60 and 66 points.)

Chamberlain's 69-70 season is a huge "what if" question mark in his career. His new coach had focused the Laker offense around Wilt (BTW, West was averaging 30.8 ppg when Wilt blew out his knee...and would lead the league in scoring at 31.2), and it is certainly a possibility that Wilt would have won a scoring title, as well as yet another rebounding and FG% title. He was not only leading the league in scoring, but he was averaging 20.0 rpg, in a season in which Elvin Hayes would lead the league at 16.9 rpg; and Wilt was shooting .579 from the field, in a year in which Johnny Green would lead the league at .559. BTW, rookie Kareem averaged 28.8 ppg, 14.5 rpg, and shot .518 from the field (albeit, in his post-season he put up a career high 35.2 ppg, and with 16.8 rpg, and on a .568 FG%.

In any case, for those that always reference Wilt's 50.4 ppg, it is fascinating that in his 11th year in the league, he was still capable of winning a scoring title, and in a league which had West, Oscar, Hayes, Cunningham, Havlicek, and Kareem.

Of course we will never know how that season would have played out, but if his very last game on a healthy knee was any indication, it would likely have been a season in which few, if any, aside from himself, have ever had.

[Soundwave]

Is there any video from this game?

[LAZERUSS]

Is there any video from this game?

Not that I am aware of, but here were a couple of interesting posts on the topic...

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...7&postcount=25

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...3&postcount=26

[Soundwave]

Not that I am aware of, but here were a couple of interesting posts on the topic...

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...7&postcount=25

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...3&postcount=26

No offense but how many games of Wilt have you actually seen? From start to finish?

[Asukal]

Wilt's next excuse, injuries...

"Oh he got injured so let's give him a pass and crown him the GOAT because my gawd can you imagine the devastation an uninjured Wilt will unleash? My gawd!"

[LAZERUSS]

No offense but how many games of Wilt have you actually seen? From start to finish?

Quite a few, including many of the Russell-Wilt H2H's.

[Asukal]

Quite a few, including many of the Russell-Wilt H2H's.

Serious question, why did you go from saying the 60s sucked a couple years back to proclaiming Wilt as the GOAT? What made you change your mind?

[Jameerthefear]

Stop trolling. I'm the Wilt expert here and I know that this was NOT his last fully healthy game.

[Soundwave]

Quite a few, including many of the Russell-Wilt H2H's.

Can you link to any of these games?

[LAZERUSS]

Serious question, why did you go from saying the 60s sucked a couple years back to proclaiming Wilt as the GOAT? What made you change your mind?

Reality and perspective. And it wasn't a couple of years ago, either, but nearly 10.

Kareem played in the 60's. He also played four years in the Wilt-era. Never came close to putting up Wilt's numbers, and in fact, never approached Wilt's domination of the very same centers that a prime Wilt had faced.

And yet a 39 year old Kareem was wiping the floor with a 24 year old Hakeem, and in the same week in which he plastered Hakeem with a 46 point game, he murdered Patrick Ewing, outscoring him 40-9, and outshooting him 15-22 to 3-17.

You can also argue that the best players of the 60's, like Barry, Thurmond, West, Hayes, Kareem, and yes, Wilt, were still dominating in the 70's...in leagues that had Walton, McAdoo, Lanier, Gilmore, Dr. J, Moses, and other's...and some of those players, including Kareem, would go on to be the best players of the 80's. You can carry that argument right into the current NBA.

[LAZERUSS]

Can you link to any of these games?

Many from '63-64 on...

Quite a few of them were televised on Sundays, as well as some of their playoff H2H's.

I never came away thinking that Russell had outplayed him, either. Granted, I didn't see nearly all of their H2H's, but in the one's that I did, Wilt either outplayed Russell, or downright demolished him.

[navy]

So Kareem is basically your barometer for the NBA big men? Makes sense considering his longevity.

Did he change his game much in the span though?

[Asukal]

Reality and perspective. And it wasn't a couple of years ago, either, but nearly 10.

Kareem played in the 60's. He also played four years in the Wilt-era. Never came close to putting up Wilt's numbers, and in fact, never approached Wilt's domination of the very same centers that a prime Wilt had faced.

And yet a 39 year old Kareem was wiping the floor with a 24 year old Hakeem, and in the same week in which he plastered Hakeem with a 46 point game, he murdered Patrick Ewing, outscoring him 40-9, and outshooting him 15-22 to 3-17.

You can also argue that the best players of the 60's, like Barry, Thurmond, West, Hayes, Kareem, and yes, Wilt, were still dominating in the 70's...in leagues that had Walton, McAdoo, Lanier, Gilmore, Dr. J, Moses, and other's...and some of those players, including Kareem, would go on to be the best players of the 80's. You can carry that argument right into the current NBA.

Ok fair enough, valid points all around. Yet still a lot of factors to be considered. Wilt put up those numbers in the early 60's, never came close to replicating them in the 70's (I know different role, still why did they ask him to take a back seat? you can also consider the all around competition was better in the 70's). And Wilt didn't school young Kareem, the stats suggest it was a close match with Kareem getting the upper hand yet stats can be very deceiving. Nor did old Kareem school young Hakeem, it wasn't even a domination. And we also have the biggest knock on Wilt's almighty statistic domination, 18 ppg finals career average? 22 ppg playoffs career average? Although we cannot prove it with such a simple analysis, these stats imply that Wilt cannot dominate when the pressure is on, when the defense tightens up, when he is needed most to score he couldn't. But yeah blame it on his team and the coach, it was never Wilt's fault.

[SexSymbol]

nobody gives a shit.

[LAZERUSS]

A post-injury Wilt was still setting records, even into his last season, and at age 36. He again easily led the league in rebounding, at 18.6 rpg. In fact, Nate Thurmond was second at 17.1 rpg, but in their playoff series H2H, Wilt outrebounded him, 23.6 rpg to 17.2 rpg. Furthermore, Chamberlain would average 22.5 rpg in his 17 post-season games, in a post-season NBA that averaged 50.6 rpg...which was the last time any player would ever average 20+ rpg in the post-season (thee next best post-season was KAJ's 76-77 and in his 11 games he averaged 17.3 rpg.)

He also set a FG% record of .727 that likely will never be broken.

In his 71-72 season, he had TWO 30-30 games, one of which came against 6-11 HOFer Bob Lanier. In fact, in his last two seasons, he faced a Lanier (who had his peak season in 71-72 BTW) in 11 straight games. True, Lanier had some big games against Wilt, but in those 11 games, Chamberlain averaged 23.9 ppg on...get this... a .784 FG%!

Chamberlain also faced a peak Kareem in six H2H's in his last season, and held KAJ to a .450 FG%. In fact, if you go back to their last four H2H's from the '72 WCF's, Wilt held Kareem to a .434 FG% over the course of ten straight games.

And in his last two seasons, Chamberlain finsihed 3rd and 4th in the MVP voting, and won a FMVP (and a ring) in 71-72.