Why Wilt Chamberlain is the GOAT
1. The airing of ESPN’s docuseries “The Last Dance” has once again stirred up the debate of who’s the best basketball player of all time. Most people argue over this prestigious title being given to Michael Jordan or LeBron James, and I understand that. They are both unstoppable freaks of nature on the court and have earned a ton of accolades and publicity.
Here’s the thing, though. The debate over MJ vs. LeBron is really a battle for second and third best player of all time. The actual best player grew up right here in Philly and fans had the privilege to watch him play professionally in the city for seven years.
The basketball GOAT is undeniably Wilton Norman Chamberlain.
The Stats
It’s well known that Wilt The Stilt put up 100 points in a game vs. the Knicks in 1962, but that was also during the season where he averaged 50.4 PPG and 25.4 RPG. How insane is that?? Those were game AVERAGES. If Joel Embiid put up 49-24 in ONE GAME this city would go crazy. For Chamberlain in the 1961-62 season, that would’ve been considered an off night. Oh…and he played over 48 minutes per game that year. He played every minute of every game, including overtime, and still brought the intensity every night.
The numbers don’t just stop there. Wilt to this day holds 72 NBA records, 68 individually. Out of the top 41 single-game scoring records he currently holds 23 of them, and 49 of the top 100.
Because of how unfair he was, Chamberlain led the NBA to institute rule changes, such as widening the lane, creating offensive goaltending and not allowing players to jump in front of the line while attempting free throws – because Wilt could dunk the ball from the free throw line in one leap.
The Stories
Tales of Wilt showing off his physical ability sound too crazy to be true. It’s as if the stories are old Chuck Norris jokes but for the star basketball player instead.
My personal favorite is him playing against a rookie center named Walt Bellamy, who later made the hall of fame, for the first time. Before tipoff, Bellamy introduced himself to Chamberlain, where Chamberlain replied claiming Bellamy wouldn’t get a shot off in the first half. Sure enough, Chamberlain blocked all nine of Bellamy’s shots in the first half. At halftime Chamberlain went up to him and said, “Okay, Walter. Now you can play.”
If you’re wondering if Bellamy was at a hall-of-fame level yet in his first season, he dropped 31.6 PPG that year. That’s second in NBA history by a rookie, only trailing…you guessed it…Wilt Chamberlain.
Another jaw-dropping memory was shared by Larry Brown on NBA TV. Wilt, in his mid-40s, joined a pick-up session at UCLA, where it was Wilt and the UCLA freshmen vs. a squad that included future hall of famers in Magic Johnson, Bernard King and James Worthy. According to Brown, things started to get a bit chippy so the older Chamberlain stated the other team wouldn’t be able to put up a single shot the next game. He was able to keep that promise by blocking every shot.
Not every incredible story is just of Wilt blocking shots. After getting tired of being labeled a ball hog, Chamberlain led the league in assists in 1967-68 with 702. He’s still the only center in NBA history to lead the NBA in assists in one season.
Then there are others showing off his athleticism, like being able to grab quarters off backboards, lifting up multiple grown men at once with ease and supposedly beating Jim Brown in a race.
If you’re interested in more, just search around on the internet for them. There are so many it’s too much to include all of them in one section of a blog.
Now there are three main arguments for why he isn’t the GOAT, here’s why each of them are wrong.
“He didn’t have the championships like Bill Russell”
Bill Russell deserves to be one of the most respected players of all time for what he’s done on and off the court, but saying Russell was a better player than Wilt because of rings is an uneducated argument. It’s like saying Steph Curry and Kevin Durant are better than LeBron because their team beat him in the finals.
It would’ve taken an all-star team to have a chance of stopping the Celtics dynasty during that time. Most of their teams had six-seven hall of famers each year. Boston’s 1962-63 team had nine hall of famers. Try to actually fathom that – the fourth guy off the bench made the hall of fame. How unfair is that??
Per Sports Reference, in 94 career regular season matchups, Wilt averaged 29.9 PPG and 28.1 RPG with 48.8 FG% compared to 14.2-22.9 with 37 FG% for Russell. In 49 career playoff matchups, Wilt averaged 25.7-28 with 50.8 FG% while Russell had 14.9-24.7 on 41.7 FG%. Seems like Chamberlain easily had the advantage to me.
“He played in the 60s when players were shorter back then”
The average height for NBA centers in the 60s was 6’10” compared to 6’11” today, which it has been every year since 1983. Centers have almost always been the same height.
If you’re not sure how he would’ve done in the “Bully Ball” era during the 80s-90s, or even be able to guard guys like Shaq, Wilt was recorded to have bench pressed 500 pounds, do tricep extensions up to 170 pounds and deadlift 625 pounds. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on “The B.S. Report” that even he couldn’t believe how much Wilt could lift, and that Wilt for fun would practice lifting up the famous bodybuilder with one hand like it was nothing. Wilt would have been able to bully anyone in any era.
“He couldn’t play in today’s game”
It’s hard for traditional centers to play in the revolutionized, fast-paced basketball today, but Chamberlain wouldn’t have a problem. Yes, he couldn’t shoot much outside of the paint, but he is maybe the most athletic player of all time. In addition to playing basketball in college at Kansas, Chamberlain was also a nationally recognized star in track and field, dominating events like sprints and high jumps…at 7’1”, remember.
He was the ORIGINAL unicorn. Size, strength, speed, athleticism. He’d be just fine in today’s NBA.
Wilt Chamberlain was a one-in-a-lifetime talent who blessed the NBA with his gifted abilities. There seemed to be nothing the Overbrook native couldn’t do. Players like MJ and LeBron get the rightful credit they deserve as basketball players, but not even they are as good as Wilt. No matter what era with any players or any style of basketball, Chamberlain would have dominated anyone.
Wilt Chamberlain is the true GOAT. Period.
