[Shanetaylor95Participant]

Who’s do you think is the greatest center of all time , I think it was the skyhook himself kareem

[MJBrownParticipant]

If you go back and take a look at old threads during the lockout, we spent weeks rating the goat’s at each position. I’ve always had a strong appreciation for what Bill Russell did for his team 50 something years ago, but you could make an arguement for all of those guys. Picking the center goat is probably the toughest of all the positions.

[HaleParticipant]

Depends on your definition of greatest. Shaq in his prime was the most unstoppable, but his prime wasn’t that long. Kareem was the best for the longest time but had Magic and Oscar to help him out for a good amount of time. Wilt was the most statistically dominant, but wasn’t a great winner and was more obsessed with stats then titles. Russell was the best winner, but it’s hard to imagine a 6’9 215 lb guy who averaged 15 ppg on 44% shooting being the best ever. Hakeem was the most skilled. Off the top of my head I can’t think of a big knock on him. 

Personally I’d have to Kareem. For a guy his size, the fluidity and skill of him was incredible and he would definitely be able to be a legit superstar today. If I had to pick a guy for one season it’s Shaq, but for a career I’ll go Kareem.

[jmarg25Participant]

Many people say Bill Russell because of his rings, but how many rings would he have without Hall of Famers Bob Cousy, Sam Jones, John Havlicek, Tommy Heinsohn, Frank Ramsey, and Bill Sharman on his team? Wilt did not play with other stars; he had to do it all himself. 50 points per game in a season, all time leading rebounder, he’s my greatest center of all time, not to take anything away from Russell or Kareem.

[StF616Participant]

 Shaq was Unstoppable in his Prime? But Wilt wasn’t?
Come on now.. the dude averaged 50 points a game! in one season, now you can talk all you want how it was a different era, but even in that time, Wilt was the only one to do it! we’re talking 50 Points and over 20 reobunds a game consistently! Every night!
Wilt DOMINATED, he was Unstoppable. I mean come on, During Wilts first seven years his lowest point average was 33.5! He averaged as much as 27 rebounds a game (doing so twice) and averaged 22 rebounds a game for his whole career. The most all time. He scored the most points in a game and season, the most rebounds in a game and season.
Now lets compare that to his rival Russell. Russell has career averages of 22 rebounds a game also however his highest rebound average was 24.7 only doing so once, furthermore, his highest career points was 18.9
Kareems highest point average through his whole career was 34.8! and his highest rebound averaged was 16.9 also he "only" averaged 11 rebounds a game through his career, less than half of what Wilt did.
Wilt dominated basketball. And REMEMBER THIS wilt didn’t have cousy,havlicek,sam jones,heinsohn etc, he didn’t have aurbach as his coach, he didn’t have Magi Johnson, james worthy or Pat Riley, he didn’t have Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade or Penny Hardaway, Phil Jackson. He was alone! and you cannot win by yourself, of course he later played with the Lakers, but that was with an old Jerry West and an Old Elgin Baylor!
Wilt is the Greatest, the Best center of all time in NBA history.

[ShekiruBoomParticipant]

 yes please talk more as if you’ve seen wilt chamberlain play. he totally would’ve scored 100 points in a game today. wait wait let me get this straight. if you take a guy who averaged 50ppg in the d league and compare him to a 20ppg guy in the nba you would take the 50 ppg dleaguer? because unless you are dumb as a shhithole, you would clearly see that the NBA of then isn’t the Nba of now. same with bill russel, if you are the starter of a amazing team, do you become the goat? in my eyes, hes just a better, dfish, bowen kind of player on a really good team. mind you he played in the same time as wilt chamberlain. and if wilt dominated so easily, how come bill russell didn’t dominate so easily. Answer comes down to either 1. not as good as wilt or 2. didn’t need to. if you take the 2nd answer how come he only won 11 or whatever number of rings he won, why not win every single year of his career which i think is completely plausible if he wanted to win and put up even somewhere near chamberlain’s #s along with his defense

[Tongue-Out-Like-23Participant]

It’s impossible to say how well Wilt Chamberlain would do in our time.

It’s natural human nature that as the years go by, athletes become stronger, faster, bigger, and better.  You can’t say Wilt would do terrible in our time because he was a bad player but because of modern-age technology.  It’s just baseless to compare a player from 50 years ago and say he wouldn’t do much in the league, the game is different than it was then and now.  Player are stronger, faster, thicker, bigger, and better.

How would Babe Ruth do while going up against Randy Johnsons 105 MPH fast-balls?

How would Jim Brown dominate the NFL nowadays with all this new equipment that would slow him down and stronger players?

That argument is irrelevant because of the fact that modern-age technology and simple human evolution would make it difficult for Wilt to keep up with current NBA athletes.

[HaleParticipant]

"Shaq was Unstoppable in his Prime? But Wilt wasn’t? Come on now.. the dude averaged 50 points a game! in one season, now you can talk all you want how it was a different era, but even in that time, Wilt was the only one to do it! we’re talking 50 Points and over 20 reobunds a game consistently! Every night!"

Well first of all numbers were insanely inflated before 1973. Wilt definitely dominated his era, there is no denying that. He was most definitely unstoppable. But I think Shaq was more unguardable when you factor in that he won 3 titles in a row during his prime, compared Wilt winning 2 in his career and Shaq was unstoppable against people his own height. Wilt would always get handled by Russell, nobody handled 2000 Shaq. Not to mention Wilt was a pansy.

[jmarg25Participant]

“Wilt would get handled by Russell, nobody handled 2000 Shaq.”
Actually, Wilt scored 50 or more points against Russell seven times, and averaged 28 rebounds against him in 142 games. The Celtics did win the majority of the time, but like I said before, Russell played alongside four Hall of Famers.

[ShekiruBoomParticipant]

 please find me the line i said wilt chamberlain would do turrible in today’s NBA. i was trying to say it is ridicoulous for one to think he could maintain his ridic avgs if he played today. I think he would do okay but definitely not near Shaq, kareem or hakeem level good. i envision wilt as a good NBa center who dominated the Dleague level competition 

[HaleParticipant]

Fair enough. I’d have Wilt at #2, but you still have the whole thing about Wilt being a stat whore who didn’t really care about winning. I don’t think his attitude would really help him out much today.

[jmarg25Participant]

I agree, he was a bit selfish and his attitude was not the best. I read that he told his coach he did not like practicing before 10 in the morning and the coach changed schedules just because of Wilt’s laziness.

[HaleParticipant]

 He has done a lot of ridiculous things. Said he pitied Bill Russell for caring about winning so much, when he was told he wouldn’t be the #1 option in LA he made his goal to lead the NBA in assists, he stopped trying on defense at the end of games when he was in foul trouble because he was worried about losing his streak of never fouling out. As shocking as it sounds, his career could’ve been MUCH better considering his talent.

[ItsVictorOladipoParticipant]

Come on now.. the dude averaged 50 points a game! in one season, now you can talk all you want how it was a different era, but even in that time, Wilt was the only one to do it! we’re talking 50 Points and over 20 reobunds a game consistently! Every night!
Wilt DOMINATED, he was Unstoppable. I mean come on, During Wilts first seven years his lowest point average was 33.5! He averaged as much as 27 rebounds a game (doing so twice) and averaged 22 rebounds a game for his whole career. The most all time. He scored the most points in a game and season, the most rebounds in a game and season...

Wilt dominated basketball. And REMEMBER THIS wilt didn’t have cousy,havlicek,sam jones,heinsohn etc, he didn’t have aurbach as his coach, he didn’t have Magi Johnson, james worthy or Pat Riley, he didn’t have Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade or Penny Hardaway, Phil Jackson. He was alone!

———————————————————————————————————-

 

The one problem with this argument is that point A had alot to do with point B. One of the main reasons he put up such ridiculous stats was because his teammates weren’t that good and he played rather selfishly early on in his career. It’s not a coincidence that his seasons scoring well over 30 PPG were almost all on mediocre teams. By the time he was surrounded by talent (on the Sixers with Hal Greer and company) he averaged a more reasonable (but still terrific) 24-25 PPG on two occasions and 33 on one occasion. I really doubt he would have come anywhere near PPG on a good team (to be honest I highly doubt he would have ever hit 40 ppg on a good team).

As for his rebounding numbers. As impressive as they are, when adjusted for pace they aren’t anymore impressive than Moses Malone’s top years and aren’t as impressive as Rodmans’s crazy numbers. A matter of fact when adjusted for pace and per minute Kevin Love and Dwight Howard rebound at pretty much the same rate.

Don’t get me wrong Wilt was an amazing player and I certainly don’t see anything wrong with those that consider him the greatest center of All-Time but it’s unfair to applaud him for his record shattering stats while at the same time defending him for his inferior supporting casts. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

[PulseGlazerParticipant]

Wilt was incredible – Kareem owned him.  Kareem owned pretty much every major big he went against and did it for the longest time in an era with players of comprable skills to today.  His numbers, context adjusted, are as good as anyones. And he won 6 titles. The answer is Kareem,  the second best player ever.

[Author]

Posts