I tend to agree with your posts in this thread. If Wilt (in his prime) were playing today, he'd be putting up 35+ PPG / 18 RPG kinds of numbers.
I'd add that it isn't true for all of the previous era players, just the truly greats, and even then not all of those. I won't mention names at this point.
yeah but if you watched the games in the early 90's when it was his team to lead, he gained the reputation of not being able to get this team over the hump because they often came up short in the playoffs, especially compared to their regular season record. The Spurs were one of the teams that fell victim to Nellie Ball in the first round (92 or 93 I believe). Of course in typical Nellie fashion they got bounced like a bad check in the 2nd round to a disciplined team. My point is Robinson put up pretty numbers, like Dominique Wilkins and had as about as much success too. There are players who have nice stats, but there are players who had something that didn't show up on the stat sheet, that made them great because they just did what it took to lead the team and delivered when a basket was needed. Like Magic Johnson, not the all time leader in assists, not the greatest shooter from 3pt land, but would you take any PG ahead of him? Hell no is the obvious answer because he made everyone around him better and he did whatever it took to win. Ditto Larry Bird. Some guys just have that it factor that makes them winners and therefore great. David Robinson is NOT one of those players IMO.
not sure I was the one who said it. but I would say there were quite a few players I would have taken ahead of D-Rob. But Barkley was a player who should have dropped even further IMO.
Is there some way you can validate that he did not play well in the clutch? Because various players get labeled like that incorrectly all the time.
If you watched the game then yes, plenty. Stats do not show when and how a player acheives his stats. Larry Bird is not the greatest 3PT shooter of all time % wise, but is there more than 1-2 players you'd choose to take a game winning/tying 3 point shot instead of Larry? and of those 1-2 they would considered on par, not ahead of him IMO. I watched Larry deliver over and over again hitting big shots, finding the open man, stealing the ball during an important possesion. I also saw that look of not being confident, being frustrated and saw David Robinson NOT deliver in the playoffs.
Wilt would struggle to play the amount of minutes he did with the way fouls are called. His rebound rate is lower than Rodman's anyway, so it is very unlikely he gets 18+ RPG. More like 13-15.
Look, next time just say Shaq is better, don't start questioning intangibles because if you can not compliment your point with at least some empirical information, it is speculation as far as I'm concerned. I don't trust any human to accurately follow someone's career in the clutch, and that is nothing against you personally.
He'd be in less foul trouble than Shaq ever was. His game was power, but he never had to knock people over to score.
but what about Wilt's pride? If someone challenged him, he'd rise to the task (like his 55 rebounds in one game vs Bill Russell and the Celtics) This man was an extraordinary athlete. I think his scoring would dip a lot because of the more athletic and bigger SF's who could double team him more aggressively than in the 60's but his rebounding would still be above average because he was big, strong and fast like a cross between Shaq and David Robinson.
It is unrealistic to expect him to average over 45 minutes a game. And Rodman was a better rebounder.
His patented move was the fingertip roll, not the dunk. He sucked as a FT shooter, worse than Shaq (form wise).
you can't follow the sport by looking up the stats, numbers lie, or more accurately can be adjusted to anyone's agenda.. anyone who has taken statistics can tell you that. Like this Pace concept.. purely in place to elevate today's players over previous era's. Partly because good offensive players are harder to find with so many great athletes who are not that skilled. It's easier to make them good defenders than skilled on offense.
well no, there was Dr.J, Andrew Toney, Moses Malone, Maurice Lucas and Bobby Jones to contend with, then the Bad Boys from Detroit just like the Celtics beat the Rockets twice
I think the Pace argument is overblown. There were fewer teams back then, so the teams were stocked with the best 150 players in the world on 8 teams instead of the best 500 players on 30 teams.
