Wilt Chamberlain averaged 37 and 27 as a Rookie

[GettinitDone]

He would be my pick for ROY that season

[DavidStern]

Wilt played Russell in 142 games. He averaged 28.7 pts and 28.7 rebounds.


Praise be to the most high.

Thats intresting. What about in playoffs?

As a rookie Wilt scored 42 pts in one playoff game vs Bill Russell

[Darain]

Bill Russel plan was to let Wilt be dominant and shut down the rest of his teammates, it was effective since he was 7-1 in playoff series vs Wilt

[G35]

Bill Russel plan was to let Wilt be dominant and shut down the rest of his teammates, it was effective since he was 7-1 in playoff series vs Wilt

Which is not Wilts fault since he was a rookie. If a coach doesn't have a better gameplan other than to give the ball to his best player and see what happens then what do you expect.

Put Russell on the Sixers and Wilt on the Celtics and I doubt if Russell uses that strategy.....

[JoeypopsNY]

Waaay Faster pace, all centers were less then 7 feet tall, most of the other players werewhite, no charging line, less athletic, no advance defensive gameplans,

Way to be a dam racist... So then can we say now that the nba is full of less iq players and not to mention there black. Now a day its all about getting ur own...



ITS FUNNY BE RACIST TO WHITE PEOPLE BUT WHEN A WHITE PERSON SAYS SOMETHING YOU'LL CRY ABOUT IT!!

[Ignitowsky]

Wilt shot Under 50% in several seasons....


I think his Era is overrated.

Axxording to NBA.com he only shot under .500 in his rookie season.

Wilt was so dominating when he was near the rim, and so sensitive to critcism, that he actually starting shooting a mid range fall away jumper that was impossible to stop. He made that shot regularly.

th battles between Chamberlain and Russell were literally epic btw.

[old rem]

Wilt played Russell in 142 games. He averaged 28.7 pts and 28.7 rebounds.


Praise be to the most high.

I only saw Wilt in person once, but saw him a lot on TV...back in the day. It was a somewhat different game but the guy had MAJOR talents. A lot of what became "textbook skills" for a big....Wilt invented.
Later in his career...Wilt DID face more talented bigs,like Walt Bellamy,a young Kareem, and the overall level of the NBA, the tactics...improved, so the numbers were less extreme. Check out the first 5 yr of Oscar Robertson's career. While the Big O did average a Triple Double one year...if you combine the stats...he actually averaged a triple double his first 5 years. Defenders got away with fewer bumps,grabs,hand checks etc. There was just "man on man". While there were some VERY good players...the talent wasn't as deep or as athletic.

[TheKingOfVa360]

Wilt was the best individual player in NBA history. A god among mortals

[Deathray]

Wilt was the same age as a rookie as Durant was last year. Imagine Durant's ppg if he played as a 23 year old rookie in 1959, especially considering the fact that there were more possessions back then. He could have averaged 50+ a game.

[DusterBuster]

How many games were in a NBA season back then. Doubt it was the 82 game schedule they have now.

http://www.nba.com/history/players/cham ... stats.html

72

Still pretty impressive.

[HakeemKnicks]

Wilt was the best individual player in NBA history. A god among mortals

[og15]

The whiteness of opponents has little to do with anything, and there being no size isn't really an issue. Little observation helps to know why he put those numbers up. Super high pace = many more available rebounds, lower FG% also gives more rebound opportunities, pace again helps with the scoring, and so does playing almost every minute of every game. He played about a quarter more of basketball than the average starter does today

There wasn't as much though of resting players back then. In terms of low FG%, the game wasn't as advanced, people didn't really maximize posessions, so a lot of bad shots were taken. Also, yes, defensive schemes were not the same as they are today. Wilt is a great player in any era. One thing I do wonder is how many turnovers he would have committed if those were tallied. He did play almost all game, and did a lot, so what, 5-6? More? Just seems like a crazy number, anyone ever paid attention in some older games?

[Doctor MJ]

He was the League MVP as a rookie.

I think we should all just take a moment to reflect

Also good to note that his presence barely improved his team's offense that year. They were still a team that was easy to stop on the offensive end, and would roughly remain so until 7 years later when Wilt stopped shooting so much.

[TheMidnightSun]

wilt and wes unseld are the only players that won the mvp in their rookie season

wilt's cardio was incredible to be able to run up and down and still grab that many boards and score that many points per game, he led the league in minutes 9 times, he does have inflated stats because of the time period, but when i watch the few games of wilt that are available i see a guy who could get 25-30 points, grab 12-15 rebounds, and block 3 shots/alter even more shots, he had great big man skills and he was a great passer out of the post, no matter how you look at it wilt was built to play basketball,

[90sAllDecade]

All time great. But yes, as other posters have mentioned, those numbers and his impact are also overrated when comparing him all time.

(Very PC board material, which is good btw.)