Great post MrLegend85, Welcome to our site.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>In 1988 (wilt was 52) The Cavs offered him reportedly 3 Million dollars to come out of retirement and play Center position for them for 15-20 mins a night. He declined it, but if a pro basketball team is feeling that Wilt could still play at 52, and were willing to give him 3 million dollars (a pretty large sum for the time) Yeah that says something to his greatness. I wonder if anyone would want Jordan right now at at 43? I SERIOUSLY doubt it based on his last comeback attempt.</div>That's one hell of a risk offering 3 mil for a 52 year old player. It's not like Brad Daugherty and Hot Rod Williams weren't performing at a high level. Larry Nance and Mark West were both capable of playing center as well.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>I wonder if anyone would want Jordan right now at at 43? I SERIOUSLY doubt it based on his last comeback attempt.</div>I don't see what was wrong with his come back attempt, He still averaged 22 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists as a 40 year old man. He led them to an 18 game turn around the first year he arrived. It's not like he got much help from his horrible supporting cast.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BALLAHOLLIC? @ Jan 2 2007, 02:02 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Great post MrLegend85, Welcome to our site.That's one hell of a risk offering 3 mil for a 52 year old player. It's not like Brad Daugherty and Hot Rod Williams weren't performing at a high level. Larry Nance and Mark West were both capable of playing center as well.I don't see what was wrong with his come back attempt, He still averaged 22 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists as a 40 year old man. He led them to an 18 game turn around the first year he arrived. It's not like he got much help from his horrible supporting cast.</div>is there any reason you posted this twice a couple days apart??
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Nitro1118 @ Oct 10 2006, 12:21 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>No he's not. Everyone will rank him at least top 5 all time.The grey area comes in if he played in today's NBA, where he'd have to play players larger, far more athletic, much more muscular, and of course the different defenses and new rules. He definately wouldn't be nearly as dominant as he wa sin the '50's/'60's.</div>No way was anyone more athletic than this guy, do you know how many minutes he averaged buddy? Im talking 45.8 MPG for his Career!, His team played like 3,890 minutes, he play 3 882, leaving an average of 6 minutes! What are you saying not athletic? This guy is probably the most athletic center you know.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (tHe_pEsTiLeNcE @ Jan 3 2007, 01:47 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>is there any reason you posted this twice a couple days apart??</div>I went to edit my last post and accidentally deleted it.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (RaptorFan#1 @ Jan 3 2007, 08:12 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>No way was anyone more athletic than this guy, do you know how many minutes he averaged buddy? Im talking 45.8 MPG for his Career!, His team played like 3,890 minutes, he play 3 882, leaving an average of 6 minutes! What are you saying not athletic? This guy is probably the most athletic center you know.</div>What he's saying is that wilt's opponents weren't athletic. Russell may have had hops, but the reality is that he had the bulk of predrag stojakovic and was getting 22 rebounds per game. There was a gargantuan drop off between wilt and the next most athletic big men. If lebron plays against a bunch of middle school kids, lebron is still athletic, but that doesn't change that he's playing easier competition.
It's laughable how arrogant younger fans are. I'll be the first to say that the game has changed, defenses are better, and the players now are on average stronger, faster, and generally more athletic. However, they are by no means any more skilled or better than the superstars of yesteryear. Wilt may not average 50 a game if he played today, but he'd easily be an All-Star. The center position sucks right now. You talk to any older coach or player and they'll tell you that the fundamentals and skills of players today of deteriorated because they rely too much on their athleticism. Also, anyone criticizing Bill Russel obviously hasn't watched him play much. The guy was an amazing rebounder, and unlike Wilt, didn't have a size advantage. He could do the same things in today's NBA.
Look, here's the reality. These guys were great players. but EVEN IF you think that the sixties was the level of the modern era (which it wasn't) you have to take into account that most of the inflated stats were due to pace inflation. Wilt's 27.2 rebound per game season translates to about 16 rebounds per game in today's pace. His 50 ppg season translates to about 30 ppg in today's pace. Now 30 ppg and 16 rpg is phenomenal in any era, but against the sixties competition (which factually was less athletic and had worse defense) that isn't GOAT level. Wilt is a top five player all time, no doubt about it, but that doesn't mean he's underrated as everybody agrees he's top five all time
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (tHe_pEsTiLeNcE @ Jan 3 2007, 02:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>What he's saying is that wilt's opponents weren't athletic. Russell may have had hops, but the reality is that he had the bulk of predrag stojakovic and was getting 22 rebounds per game. There was a gargantuan drop off between wilt and the next most athletic big men. If lebron plays against a bunch of middle school kids, lebron is still athletic, but that doesn't change that he's playing easier competition.</div>This guy was a 7 foot 275 lb NBA Basketball player, hes jsut 5 pounds lighter than Diop, 35 heavier than Ben Wallace. You guys have no proof of knowing the "bulk" of the players in the sixties. In the 1965 NBA Draft, their was some rookies coming out of college around 6'4"-8" and were heavier than players like Lebron, Anthony, Melo, Wade, and others, and obviously, no one ever questions them. Now obviously, you cant judge on a sample, but you cant say Wilt Chamberlain was playing against a bunch of sticks. He scored lots of points downlow, and its not all about being the biggest player on the court, theres lots of players in the league today who play more finesse and outsmart everyone, hence, Steve Nash. To say that Chamberlain, who scored 100 in a game for heaven sakes, (thats about 2 points a minute!) is and would only be a 20 and 10 player in todays NBA.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (RaptorFan#1 @ Jan 5 2007, 12:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>This guy was a 7 foot 275 lb NBA Basketball player, hes jsut 5 pounds lighter than Diop, 35 heavier than Ben Wallace. You guys have no proof of knowing the "bulk" of the players in the sixties. In the 1965 NBA Draft, their was some rookies coming out of college around 6'4"-8" and were heavier than players like Lebron, Anthony, Melo, Wade, and others, and obviously, no one ever questions them. Now obviously, you cant judge on a sample, but you cant say Wilt Chamberlain was playing against a bunch of sticks. He scored lots of points downlow, and its not all about being the biggest player on the court, theres lots of players in the league today who play more finesse and outsmart everyone, hence, Steve Nash. To say that Chamberlain, who scored 100 in a game for heaven sakes, (thats about 2 points a minute!) is and would only be a 20 and 10 player in todays NBA.</div>But to think that he'd do the same that he did back then is just naive. There are 11 NBA players who are heavier than him, there were none back then. There are 11 players as tall or taller than him right now. There were none back then. This clearly makes a huge difference. When Wilt entered the league, the heaviest regular was 240 lbs. He was suiting up against centers as light as 195 pounds and as short as 6'7 ten games a year. Now they may well have been as skilled, but Wilt Chamberlain had zero perimeter game, so obviously way shorter and smaller players helped him. Indicating players like nash, lebron, melo, wade, and others is stupid as Wilt was a thoroughly skill-less player (by skilless I mean that he had no shot or handles or what is generally defined as skills, not that he had no skills).Oh, and by the way, like most of your post, saying that there were many rookies coming out of college who were heavier than lebron is a lie. When Wilt entered the league, there wasn't a single regular besides wilt as heavy as lebron is.
I remember reading an article in Slam or one of those magazines, they had a simulator that said he would probably have around 28 and 12 today, which is amazing. You guys are disrespecting the greatest player to ever play the game of basketball not named Michael Jordan, that is unheard of.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (grizz101 @ Jan 9 2007, 08:56 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I remember reading an article in Slam or one of those magazines, they had a simulator that said he would probably have around 28 and 12 today, which is amazing. You guys are disrespecting the greatest player to ever play the game of basketball not named Michael Jordan, that is unheard of.</div>How are we disrespecting him? We said he'd be top five all time. We said he'd average almost the same numbers you just said. Etc.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (tHe_pEsTiLeNcE @ Nov 22 2006, 08:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Now you take into account that players were less athletic and muscular and tall back then (Walter Dukes and Mel Counts were the only players wilt's height for a while) and you got yourself a stew goin'...</div>An Arrested Development reference!(that was the funniest show ever made) Gotta love that Carl Weathers.Anyway, you guys are focusing too much on the time he played in, he couldn't help that. Nonetheless, he was still the most dominant and most versitile player the game has ever seen, believe me, I saw him (on a crappy 10 inch black and white tv but still). The legend is true. Wilt was brilliant at EVERYTHING except freethrows.You guys fail to realize that the 1960's were completely dominated by centers and competition in the paint was very keen. To put up the numbers that Wilt did is simply amazing. Every center since Wilt has faced less competition in the paint and has not put up anywere near Wilt's stats. The most ignorant thing to do is to assume that the game is much better today only because it's "modern". It isn't, and has a lot of problems. They didn't call the 1960's the NBA's golden age for nothing, C'MON! (A.D. reference)I'm not biased either.
