Dipper 13 wrote:As far as I know there is no full game of Wilt that still exists from the 60's. Certainly not to the public.
This is the biggest problem Dipper13 to me when trying to evaluate Wilt. No disrespect to you or the Wilt supporters but the perception I get for Wilt is as follows: The articles posted around Wilt's career, match the highlight videos so the conclusion is that Wilt played this way his entire career??
This is why I appreciate ThaRegul8tr's & Fatal9's posts because they also provide the other side of the context that isn't so readily made available.
A couple of points:
Reg, supplied an article detailing how in his 50 ppg season Wilt's teammates made it a goal to ensure not only did he get enough touches to make this happen but championed the idea for the good of the game at that time.
I have never seen a Wilt supporter respond to this claim and provide insight about this. I believe in this case Reg was making the point about how teammates can influences one ability on the court for the good or bad and thus the article was shared. No direct link but I believe it is early in the top peak project.
2nd point: Fatal9, one of my fav poster's, provides video evidence of a more normal Wilt like game, more of what we would expect to see and you can clearly see in Wilt much of the opposite to what people claim as truth in his abilities. Wilt vs Duncan thread. He certainly appears to be much more mortal in this 2:15 clip then in any other I have watched. And to confirm, any evidence you provide or videos shown, I watch/read in full detail.
I mean, someone has to own this footage of earlier nba and it needs to get released for proper evaluation. However, I am not so sure that this will benefit Wilt and what he brought to the game should this ever happen. Let me give you an analogy here:
We have all seen the Shaq highlight video's, where he is dunking on everyone, breaking the entire basketball net, not just the rim, etc. Now the reason one can critize Shaq is because almost every game, quote, etc is made public and more easily found. In reality, I know Shaq took plays off, didn't score everytime time down the court, hell he has been blocked, badly at times. Case and point I take the good with the bad but I still rank his overall basketball ability to what he did very high and I can back that up with statistical and video evidence if needbe.
With Wilt, I feel dependant on who the poster is determines what picture will be painted. Articles have been posted on this site citing no fg's taken, needing to be trashed talked to get motivated etc but I find none of the tenured Wilt supporters (I hold you here because you are a very informative poster regarding him) respond to this and just let it go.
The point I am trying to make is it's almost like because we know right now there is very little footage some poster's use this as a means to paint this indestructable picture of Wilt and use selected articles to back it up as fact. In today's world, most written opinion is easily disregarded as bias, uneducated or just plain ridiculous especially when in Wilt's time playing and in his 100 point documentary Russell himself states that he & Wilt were trying to get this sport on the map.
So to me, it makes sense then why the articles never really match up to the video eye test, right? Not to take anything away from Wilt but only to evaluate him on a proper level instead of the hype that I am sure was strategic to the times and critical to the game. I mean can you imagine what would happen when/if footage of his 50ppg season get released and posters see how his teammate's spoonfed Wilt? What will be the rebuttal then? How will people justify his impact etc? (BTW, none of that was directed at you, as you are a much more mature Wilt poster.) But the question remains. The playoff game(s) where he doesn't take a shot, look at what happened with Kobe in a somewhat like regard, right.
Again, it just doesn't add up to me. Sure he played on the Globetrotter's but all of the footage has him dunking (easy for him) haven't seen him utilized for his dribbling. Then you see him dribble in the post and you then know why. But poster's want to credit him as if he was part of the And1 tour. I think Wilt happened to be the circus attraction for a growing sport and certainly put the nba on the map. I think many of the articles, stroies that followed Wilt helped provoke the curiousity of non fans and like in his 50ppg season they utilized him like the big top feature. He was still a remarkable athlete and it takes nothing away with what he has done but it appears the legend of Wilt is off only by what people can read and see which happens to be tailored to promote Wilt rather then show full detail.
I just think there are other articles out there where people are hesitant to share because it may take away from this perception. And if the day full video evidence of Wilt comes out, I'll be one of the first in line to watch every single game available from start to finish.
. For comparison, I believe Wilt only played 13 years pro, Russell around the same and more modern off the top of my head KAJ/Hakeem are the only other 2 players at center to play as long as be as productive (someone correct me if my dates are off).