Wilt's 100 point game vs Ohtani's 3 HR, 10 K, 0 runs allowed game

[Wolveswin]

I mean, at the end of the day, you can only play against the people/teams that you play against. Wilt doesnt have control over that. Its like saying a team should have an asterisk on their ring if the other team had injuries during their run or something. You can only play the players/teams put in front of you.

Beyond that, people like to make a big deal about the small size of the league/talent pool, but realize that goes both ways. Yes, there werent as many teams. And yes, some of the guys on the bottom rungs wouldnt play in today's NBA. On the other hand, because of the small size of the league, you ended up playing the elite guys *way* more often too. Wilt played Russell 12 times in the regular season in 61-62 for example -- thats 1 in every 6.5 games basically.

An abbreviated list of some of the big men Wilt played vs: Russell, Walt Bellamy, Bob Pettit, Red Kerr, Dolph Schayes, Jerry Lucas, Nate Thurmond, Wes Unseld, Connie Hawkins, Kareem, Dave Cowens, Willis Reed, Spencer Haywood, Elvin Hayes, and more. And those are just the HOFers.

Like say you graded every player 1-10. Wilt might play some of his games against guys that are 5's, whereas a modern player plays all of his games against a 7-8 or better. But Wilt also played more games against guys that were 10s than a modern player has to. And just as an example, the modern height of today's NBA is about the same as it was when Wilt played -- it was about 6'6 when he played, it's 6'7 today. Average height of a center was 6'10 when he played, today it's 6'11. He wasnt playing against 6'4 centers or something, and its not remotely comparable to Babe Ruth, who was playing in a genuinely different game against guys that werent modern athletes. Nobody threw 90 in Ruths day, let alone 100.

Also, people like to say Wilt's numbers were padded because of era, or pace of play, or lack of competition, and wouldnt have translated. His rebounding is the thing most often cited for this, because he simply owns all the records for rebounding. Whereas other than 62/63, his scoring isnt quite *so* out-of-reach or insane seeming. We've had ~35ppg scoring seasons from guys like Jordan, Kobe, etc. We've never really seen anyone else come close to touching Wilt's rebounding, other than Russell.

But take Kareem for example, generally considered one of the GOAT candidates, played against Magic/Bird, Jordan, etc -- well into the "modern" NBA. Kareem never once had a season with a higher rebounding average than Wilt. Wilt, at 36, was still out-rebounding an in his prime 25 year old Kareem. And Wilt finished 4th in MVP voting that year while playing 43mpg at 36 years old -- while they were in the league together at the same time. By the time Kareem was 36, he was playing 32mpg and averaging 7rpg. Wilt averaged 43mpg and 18rpg at 36.

If Kareem played against the modern NBA and is considered a GOAT candidate, and a washed up 36 year old Wilt was still outrebounding him, still playing more minutes -- can you really say Wilt's rebounding stats were padded, or just a result of lack of competition, or pace of play?

I think people get way too caught up in trying to discredit Wilt's competition, personally. Its not like he played in the 40s or 50s when the game was unrecognizable, by the 60s/70s, it was more or less the modern game, along with modern-level athletes. Not quite the same depth, but the elite guys were every bit as good as the elite guys today.

Also, while people love to take away or discredit Wilt for things he had no control over, they dont give him nearly enough credit for putting up with stuff he had to put up with that no modern player would ever dream of having to go through. Playing as many minutes as he did, playing every game and basically never being injured at his size, or the type of hurdles he had to overcome.

When Wilt played, he was playing in Converse, and there was no such thing as personal chefs, or private planes, personal trainers.. even weight training wasnt really a thing. They rode on buses to their games. Wilt famously loved to eat and drink all sorts of crazy stuff -- tons of beer and fried chicken. Yet somehow, despite being 7'1, was basically only injured once in his career but otherwise played basically every game and had otherworldly stamina. His minutes played records will *never* be broken.

Beyond that though, remember that Wilt literally wasnt allowed to eat at some restaurants or stay at some hotels when he came into the league. Segregation was still legal. Can you imagine the pressure on Wilt, being the most famous black athlete in the world? While constantly being compared to the "perfect" black player/teammate in Russell? What that had to do to him mentally? No matter how much he tried, or what he did, it was always something he was doing wasnt good enough. Even though he won 2 rings and 4 MVPs, its yeah, but he didnt win more, so he's a "loser". Probably no player in history is as unfairly viewed as Wilt.

Thank you for the level headed response.

I think the top end of Wilts era was amazing. Just as much wow and pure athleticism as today. Including Wilt.

But Wilt’s numbers are highly inflated due to lack of competition.

Another gem. I thought you did some research.

When will you respond to my research. How do you explain NBA today having over 125 foreign players - and Wilt having a handful? I mean, even someone trying to be ignorant could try and respond to facts.

[druggas]

Thank you for the level headed response.

I think the top end of Wilts era was amazing. Just as much wow and pure athleticism as today. Including Wilt.

But Wilt’s numbers are highly inflated due to lack of competition.

Another gem. I thought you did some research.

When will you respond to my research. How do you explain NBA today having over 125 foreign players - and Wilt having a handful? I mean, even someone trying to be ignorant could try and respond to facts.

When you list the centers that Wilt played against, then maybe we can talk. And if you're discrediting Wilt, then you'll have to lump in Russell, Kareem, and Shaq.

[sikma42]

Curious, to put things in perspective, how has Ohtanis overall postseason performance been this year?

want to see how dominant he has been.

Btw, it all really just depends on level of argumentation. Ontanis one game may or may not be better. I’d ask what a basketball player would have to do to win this discussion?

But there have certainly been guys more dominant basketball players than Ohtani over series. You can only pitch so many games…

So it’s really just an argument about the structure of the respective sports..not even really about the performances

[Wolveswin]

Another gem. I thought you did some research.

When will you respond to my research. How do you explain NBA today having over 125 foreign players - and Wilt having a handful? I mean, even someone trying to be ignorant could try and respond to facts.

When you list the centers that Wilt played against, then maybe we can talk. And if you're discrediting Wilt, then you'll have to lump in Russell, Kareem, and Shaq.

Maybe you can try and open your mind to the fact top end talent was just fine in his era BUT not top to bottom - not even close. Trying to say the random stud centers that were also in the league as your exhibit A is laughable. Those other centers have inflated stats too.

And you are not addressing this lack of foreign players. Sorry facts don’t fit your narrative. I mean, imagine 125+ better players infused into Wilt’s time period - his stats (and other centers re: your exhibit A) would be affected (diminished) tremendously.

[druggas]

When will you respond to my research. How do you explain NBA today having over 125 foreign players - and Wilt having a handful? I mean, even someone trying to be ignorant could try and respond to facts.

When you list the centers that Wilt played against, then maybe we can talk. And if you're discrediting Wilt, then you'll have to lump in Russell, Kareem, and Shaq.

Maybe you can try and open your mind to the fact top end talent was just fine in his era BUT not top to bottom - not even close. Trying to say the random stud centers that were also in the league as your exhibit A is laughable. Those other centers have inflated stats too.

And you are not addressing this lack of foreign players. Sorry facts don’t fit your narrative. I mean, imagine 125+ better players infused into Wilt’s time period - his stats (and other centers re: your exhibit A) would be affected (diminished) tremendously.

The only thing inflated here, are your posts. Maybe you should open your mind. Please don't respond.

[Wolveswin]

When you list the centers that Wilt played against, then maybe we can talk. And if you're discrediting Wilt, then you'll have to lump in Russell, Kareem, and Shaq.

Maybe you can try and open your mind to the fact top end talent was just fine in his era BUT not top to bottom - not even close. Trying to say the random stud centers that were also in the league as your exhibit A is laughable. Those other centers have inflated stats too.

And you are not addressing this lack of foreign players. Sorry facts don’t fit your narrative. I mean, imagine 125+ better players infused into Wilt’s time period - his stats (and other centers re: your exhibit A) would be affected (diminished) tremendously.

The only thing inflated here, are your posts. Maybe you should open your mind. Please don't respond.

Word to the wise, when having a debate with someone and you are using emotion and they are using facts - this is when you lost the debate. Again, find a different hobby more suited for your emotional needs.

[Harry Palmer]

Put it this way: there have been other players who could have scored 100 points if their team made a commitment to it. Maybe not on the first or second try, and it would kind of make a joke out of the games, but given enough opportunities it would become inevitable. A team decided to get David Robinson…was it 70 points?..in the last game of the season to secure the scoring title. 100 is just a further extension of the same idea.

No one could just decide to do what Ohtani did.

[runtmc]

When will you respond to my research. How do you explain NBA today having over 125 foreign players - and Wilt having a handful? I mean, even someone trying to be ignorant could try and respond to facts.

When you list the centers that Wilt played against, then maybe we can talk. And if you're discrediting Wilt, then you'll have to lump in Russell, Kareem, and Shaq.

Maybe you can try and open your mind to the fact top end talent was just fine in his era BUT not top to bottom - not even close. Trying to say the random stud centers that were also in the league as your exhibit A is laughable. Those other centers have inflated stats too.

And you are not addressing this lack of foreign players. Sorry facts don’t fit your narrative. I mean, imagine 125+ better players infused into Wilt’s time period - his stats (and other centers re: your exhibit A) would be affected (diminished) tremendously.

You're not comparing apples to apples. 125 players is more than the number of players that existed in the league in Wilt's day. About a quarter of the league is foreign born in MLB, so an equivalent would be something like 20-25 players in Wilt's time.

Second, the pool has also shrunk in many ways: MLB isnt the marquee sport in America anymore, so it isnt actually getting the best athletes from the pool, those guys are going into football and basketball. There's a reason there are 100 dominican players from a country of 11 million people -- because its the national sport there, and all the best athletes play it. If the US was getting the same talent from its pool as the DR was getting from its, there should only be about 2-3% DR players, or about 10-15 players, not 100. So you could make the same argument in reverse, that actually, if the top athletes actually played baseball, Ohtani's feats would be diminished or reproduced by someone else.

And if you're saying the other centers like Kareem have inflated stats, then where does it stop? Kareem played with Magic/Bird/Jordan. Are their stats all inflated then too? And if their stats are inflated, then whose stats arent inflated?

And you seem to agree there were other stud centers in Wilt's time, but dismiss the point that Wilt played stud centers more often than a modern player has to play stud centers while focusing only on the games he played against sub-par centers -- thats not being unbiased.

[Ben-N1ce]

Wilt claiming he slept with 20K women is more impressive than his 100 pt game.

[firedavidkahn]

Ohtani's game actually happened though.

[Harry Palmer]

When you list the centers that Wilt played against, then maybe we can talk. And if you're discrediting Wilt, then you'll have to lump in Russell, Kareem, and Shaq.

Maybe you can try and open your mind to the fact top end talent was just fine in his era BUT not top to bottom - not even close. Trying to say the random stud centers that were also in the league as your exhibit A is laughable. Those other centers have inflated stats too.

And you are not addressing this lack of foreign players. Sorry facts don’t fit your narrative. I mean, imagine 125+ better players infused into Wilt’s time period - his stats (and other centers re: your exhibit A) would be affected (diminished) tremendously.

You're not comparing apples to apples. 125 players is more than the number of players that existed in the league in Wilt's day. About a quarter of the league is foreign born in MLB, so an equivalent would be something like 20-25 players in Wilt's time.

Second, the pool has also shrunk in many ways: MLB isnt the marquee sport in America anymore, so it isnt actually getting the best athletes from the pool, those guys are going into football and basketball. There's a reason there are 100 dominican players from a country of 11 million people -- because its the national sport there, and all the best athletes play it. If the US was getting the same talent from its pool as the DR was getting from its, there should only be about 2-3% DR players, or about 10-15 players, not 100. So you could make the same argument in reverse, that actually, if the top athletes actually played baseball, Ohtani's feats would be diminished or reproduced by someone else.

And if you're saying the other centers like Kareem have inflated stats, then where does it stop? Kareem played with Magic/Bird/Jordan. Are their stats all inflated then too? And if their stats are inflated, then whose stats arent inflated?

And you seem to agree there were other stud centers in Wilt's time, but dismiss the point that Wilt played stud centers more often than a modern player has to play stud centers while focusing only on the games he played against sub-par centers -- thats not being unbiased.

Globally, baseball is at over 500 million fans, and American football under 400 million. Basketball is harder to gauge, likely higher than both, but doesn’t possess the massive cross-over sports like cricket and rugby.

Of course ‘soccer’ has more than those three combined, in fact at over 3.5 billion fans it’s in an entirely different stratosphere.

[Wolveswin]

When you list the centers that Wilt played against, then maybe we can talk. And if you're discrediting Wilt, then you'll have to lump in Russell, Kareem, and Shaq.

Maybe you can try and open your mind to the fact top end talent was just fine in his era BUT not top to bottom - not even close. Trying to say the random stud centers that were also in the league as your exhibit A is laughable. Those other centers have inflated stats too.

And you are not addressing this lack of foreign players. Sorry facts don’t fit your narrative. I mean, imagine 125+ better players infused into Wilt’s time period - his stats (and other centers re: your exhibit A) would be affected (diminished) tremendously.

You're not comparing apples to apples. 125 players is more than the number of players that existed in the league in Wilt's day. About a quarter of the league is foreign born in MLB, so an equivalent would be something like 20-25 players in Wilt's time.

Second, the pool has also shrunk in many ways: MLB isnt the marquee sport in America anymore, so it isnt actually getting the best athletes from the pool, those guys are going into football and basketball. There's a reason there are 100 dominican players from a country of 11 million people -- because its the national sport there, and all the best athletes play it. If the US was getting the same talent from its pool as the DR was getting from its, there should only be about 2-3% DR players, or about 10-15 players, not 100. So you could make the same argument in reverse, that actually, if the top athletes actually played baseball, Ohtani's feats would be diminished or reproduced by someone else.

And if you're saying the other centers like Kareem have inflated stats, then where does it stop? Kareem played with Magic/Bird/Jordan. Are their stats all inflated then too? And if their stats are inflated, then whose stats arent inflated?

And you seem to agree there were other stud centers in Wilt's time, but dismiss the point that Wilt played stud centers more often than a modern player has to play stud centers while focusing only on the games he played against sub-par centers -- thats not being unbiased.

It doesn’t matter the number of foreign players that would need to be infused in Wilt’s time to scale today’s NBA - because basically zero existed back then. Any infusion would be a huge impact. The talent pool was much smaller and less as skilled in that era. And not just foreign infusion talent pool, the American born talent too.

All players in Wilts timeframe stats are inflated due to this lack of overall talent pool. Which means those stud centers everyone claims makes Wilt so great weren’t quite as stud as inflated stats support.

I mean, I think for a nice round number we can say Wilt and his era’s stats are inflated by 20%. His 100 point game would be 80. His overall stats and those he played would be reduced by equal amount.

Which BTW your numbers are off. If about 100 players on 9 teams in 61/62 - that is 35 foreign players should have been infused. More as the league expanded teams during Wilt’s era. You can’t think that IF Wilt’s NBA dropped out the bottom 35 players for 35 better foreign players infused - Wilt’s stats wouldn’t be affected and prove inflated. And that isn’t even considering the American born talent pool not as deep or talented back then.

[runtmc]

Maybe you can try and open your mind to the fact top end talent was just fine in his era BUT not top to bottom - not even close. Trying to say the random stud centers that were also in the league as your exhibit A is laughable. Those other centers have inflated stats too.

And you are not addressing this lack of foreign players. Sorry facts don’t fit your narrative. I mean, imagine 125+ better players infused into Wilt’s time period - his stats (and other centers re: your exhibit A) would be affected (diminished) tremendously.

You're not comparing apples to apples. 125 players is more than the number of players that existed in the league in Wilt's day. About a quarter of the league is foreign born in MLB, so an equivalent would be something like 20-25 players in Wilt's time.

Second, the pool has also shrunk in many ways: MLB isnt the marquee sport in America anymore, so it isnt actually getting the best athletes from the pool, those guys are going into football and basketball. There's a reason there are 100 dominican players from a country of 11 million people -- because its the national sport there, and all the best athletes play it. If the US was getting the same talent from its pool as the DR was getting from its, there should only be about 2-3% DR players, or about 10-15 players, not 100. So you could make the same argument in reverse, that actually, if the top athletes actually played baseball, Ohtani's feats would be diminished or reproduced by someone else.

And if you're saying the other centers like Kareem have inflated stats, then where does it stop? Kareem played with Magic/Bird/Jordan. Are their stats all inflated then too? And if their stats are inflated, then whose stats arent inflated?

And you seem to agree there were other stud centers in Wilt's time, but dismiss the point that Wilt played stud centers more often than a modern player has to play stud centers while focusing only on the games he played against sub-par centers -- thats not being unbiased.

Globally, baseball is at over 500 million fans, and American football under 400 million. Basketball is harder to gauge, likely higher than both, but doesn’t possess the massive cross-over sports like cricket and rugby.

Of course ‘soccer’ has more than those three combined, in fact at over 3.5 billion fans it’s in an entirely different stratosphere.

First, Im highly skeptical of those numbers, not to mention, it fails to consider to what degree a person is a "fan" of something. If there were more MLB fans than football fans, MLB teams would be worth more than football teams, the MLB would have more revenue than football, viewing stats would be in favor of the MLB, etc. Football smashes MLB across the board.

Second, number of fans is not proportional to number of athletes in the talent pool. A person could be a "fan" of MLB while also being more of a fan of some other sport like football or basketball, and choose to play that instead. Again, the DR has 11 million people, about 2-3% of the US population, but makes up ~20% of MLB rosters. Not all "fans" are equal and translate to equal numbers of athletes in the athlete pool.

[ball_takes23]

The better comp is LBJ game 6

least delusional Lebron fan

[PushDaRock]

Wilt claiming he slept with 20K women is more impressive than his 100 pt game.

Doesn't that technically make his 100 point game more impressive?

[runtmc]

Maybe you can try and open your mind to the fact top end talent was just fine in his era BUT not top to bottom - not even close. Trying to say the random stud centers that were also in the league as your exhibit A is laughable. Those other centers have inflated stats too.

And you are not addressing this lack of foreign players. Sorry facts don’t fit your narrative. I mean, imagine 125+ better players infused into Wilt’s time period - his stats (and other centers re: your exhibit A) would be affected (diminished) tremendously.

You're not comparing apples to apples. 125 players is more than the number of players that existed in the league in Wilt's day. About a quarter of the league is foreign born in MLB, so an equivalent would be something like 20-25 players in Wilt's time.

Second, the pool has also shrunk in many ways: MLB isnt the marquee sport in America anymore, so it isnt actually getting the best athletes from the pool, those guys are going into football and basketball. There's a reason there are 100 dominican players from a country of 11 million people -- because its the national sport there, and all the best athletes play it. If the US was getting the same talent from its pool as the DR was getting from its, there should only be about 2-3% DR players, or about 10-15 players, not 100. So you could make the same argument in reverse, that actually, if the top athletes actually played baseball, Ohtani's feats would be diminished or reproduced by someone else.

And if you're saying the other centers like Kareem have inflated stats, then where does it stop? Kareem played with Magic/Bird/Jordan. Are their stats all inflated then too? And if their stats are inflated, then whose stats arent inflated?

And you seem to agree there were other stud centers in Wilt's time, but dismiss the point that Wilt played stud centers more often than a modern player has to play stud centers while focusing only on the games he played against sub-par centers -- thats not being unbiased.

It doesn’t matter the number of foreign players that would need to be infused in Wilt’s time to scale today’s NBA - because basically zero existed back then. And infusion would be a huge impact. The talent pool was much smaller and less as skilled in that era. And not just foreign infusion talent pool, the American born talent too.

All players in Wilts timeframe stats are inflated due to this lack of overall talent pool. Which means those stud centers everyone claims makes Wilt so great weren’t quite as stud as inflated stats support.

I mean, I think for a nice round number we can say Wilt and his era’s stats are inflated by 20%. His 100 point game would be 80. His overall stats and those he played would be reduced by equal amount.

It matters when you say "imagine 125+ players infused in Wilts time", thats the point -- its not an apples to apples comparison. And foreign born or not foreign born doesnt matter, what matters is how big the talent pool being drawn from is. The Dominican makes up the *vast* majority of foreign born players in the MLB, but only adds a relatively small number of potential athletes to the talent pool. The implication of "125+ foreign born players" is that it has massively increased the available talent pool, when in reality, it hasnt. Again, there are multiple factors at work. The overall population has grown, which increases the pool, but there are far fewer marquee athletes going to MLB than previously, which decreases the pool. If anything, Id argue the existence of such a high proportion of foreign born players is evidence that the American talent pool for MLB has shrunk, not increased.

Lastly, the population of the US was ~180 million in 1960. Today its about double that, but the size of the league has grown 4x. So you could certainly make an argument that while the overall talent pool has grown, the average quality of athlete has been diluted as its being spread across more teams.

And I mean again, look at the average height of centers then vs now, its basically identical. And its not like there are a lot of dudes 7 foot walking around in the world. I dunno if you recently saw the JxmyHighroller video about it, but a huge percentage of 7 footers play professional basketball as it is, the majority of selection is based on injury/availability rather than purely athletic ability. So if you double the number of 7 footers available by doubling the talent pool, while increasing the league 4x, youre not really getting better athletes.

Im simplifying a situation thats extremely complex with lots of factors/variables, but Im trying to make the point that you're way oversimplifying the situation to discredit Wilt. And I do actually think the overall quality of athlete is higher today. But my point is its not nearly as straight forward as you think it is.

[sikma42]

Put it this way: there have been other players who could have scored 100 points if their team made a commitment to it. Maybe not on the first or second try, and it would kind of make a joke out of the games, but given enough opportunities it would become inevitable. A team decided to get David Robinson…was it 70 points?..in the last game of the season to secure the scoring title. 100 is just a further extension of the same idea.

No one could just decide to do what Ohtani did.

I don’t think there have been players who could decide to score 100 points and 25 rebounds on those splits and win the game. What kind of wild assumption is this ?

people just get to caught up in the moment. It’s a dominant game that ensured a win. I’m sure everytime someone scores 100/25 and some ridiculous number of blocks it will be a win too.

Bc of the way baseball is structured Ohtani can have a huge impact on games he also pitches. But he can only pitch a couple times a series (correct me with the actual number). Wilt could play 48 mins a game. It’s just apples to oranges.

[Wolveswin]

You're not comparing apples to apples. 125 players is more than the number of players that existed in the league in Wilt's day. About a quarter of the league is foreign born in MLB, so an equivalent would be something like 20-25 players in Wilt's time.

Second, the pool has also shrunk in many ways: MLB isnt the marquee sport in America anymore, so it isnt actually getting the best athletes from the pool, those guys are going into football and basketball. There's a reason there are 100 dominican players from a country of 11 million people -- because its the national sport there, and all the best athletes play it. If the US was getting the same talent from its pool as the DR was getting from its, there should only be about 2-3% DR players, or about 10-15 players, not 100. So you could make the same argument in reverse, that actually, if the top athletes actually played baseball, Ohtani's feats would be diminished or reproduced by someone else.

And if you're saying the other centers like Kareem have inflated stats, then where does it stop? Kareem played with Magic/Bird/Jordan. Are their stats all inflated then too? And if their stats are inflated, then whose stats arent inflated?

And you seem to agree there were other stud centers in Wilt's time, but dismiss the point that Wilt played stud centers more often than a modern player has to play stud centers while focusing only on the games he played against sub-par centers -- thats not being unbiased.

It doesn’t matter the number of foreign players that would need to be infused in Wilt’s time to scale today’s NBA - because basically zero existed back then. And infusion would be a huge impact. The talent pool was much smaller and less as skilled in that era. And not just foreign infusion talent pool, the American born talent too.

All players in Wilts timeframe stats are inflated due to this lack of overall talent pool. Which means those stud centers everyone claims makes Wilt so great weren’t quite as stud as inflated stats support.

I mean, I think for a nice round number we can say Wilt and his era’s stats are inflated by 20%. His 100 point game would be 80. His overall stats and those he played would be reduced by equal amount.

It matters when you say "imagine 125+ players infused in Wilts time", thats the point -- its not an apples to apples comparison. And foreign born or not foreign born doesnt matter, what matters is how big the talent pool being drawn from is. The Dominican makes up the *vast* majority of foreign born players in the MLB, but only adds a relatively small number of potential athletes to the talent pool. The implication of "125+ foreign born players" is that it has massively increased the available talent pool, when in reality, it hasnt. Again, there are multiple factors at work. The overall population has grown, which increases the pool, but there are far fewer marquee athletes going to MLB than previously, which decreases the pool. If anything, Id argue the existence of such a high proportion of foreign born players is evidence that the American talent pool for MLB has shrunk, not increased.

Lastly, the population of the US was ~180 million in 1960. Today its about double that, but the size of the league has grown 4x. So you could certainly make an argument that while the overall talent pool has grown, the average quality of athlete has been diluted as its being spread across more teams.

And I mean again, look at the average height of centers then vs now, its basically identical. And its not like there are a lot of dudes 7 foot walking around in the world. I dunno if you recently saw the JxmyHighroller video about it, but a huge percentage of 7 footers play professional basketball as it is, the majority of selection is based on injury/availability rather than purely athletic ability. So if you double the number of 7 footers available by doubling the talent pool, while increasing the league 4x, youre not really getting better athletes.

Im simplifying a situation thats extremely complex with lots of factors/variables, but Im trying to make the point that you're way oversimplifying the situation to discredit Wilt. And I do actually think the overall quality of athlete is higher today. But my point is its not nearly as straight forward as you think it is.

It is NOT extremely complex. Very simple to understand that Wilt and his era had a highly reduced talent pool - overall. The most obvious and easiest to comprehend is lack of foreign players. That is beyond easy and obvious to understand.

The complicated part is what you are trying to bring into conversation - to muddy the waters. Trying to figure the delta in talent of athletes from yesteryear to now has a ton of variables. But don’t do that - no need.

Add 35% more talent into the games vs Wilt and we can all admit his stats take a huge impact.

Say the big guy who dominates at the local YMCA. Bring in 35% more players from next town over who are better than current local competition and that dominate player doesn’t dominate as much. Simple.

[Iwasawitness]

Another dumb post.

But yet you are the one not saying why. You can’t even answer my question.

Maybe you need to find another hobby.

It's not my job to educate you. You obviously have access to the internet, do some research before you make an ignorant post.

I think you're the one needing educating here.

[Chokic]

That is unreal. You cant even do that in a video game. The most freakish talent in all of professional sports.