NO-KG-AI wrote:His statistical case falls apart in the post season
Wilt failed to make the playoffs ONCE in his career and lost only to the champs in every playoffs but ONE. Wilt was never the main reason his team lost and many times there was legitimate reasons it was not his fault. Early in his career he had some pretty terrible coaches (and teams). If Wilt was able to stick with one of his good coaches for a stretch, I think he would have gotten more titles for sure. But he was also a hair away from multiple titles as it stands.
Wilt's Postseason career:
1960 - Warriors Lost in ECF to Celtics (eventual champs). Rookie coach Neil Johnston who was pretty useless
1961 - Warriors Lost in 1st round to Nationals. Last season with Neil.
1962 - Warriors Lost in ECF to Celtics (eventual champs). Wilt tied game 7 with a 3 point play in the waning seconds but a last second shot won it. Wilt had a decent coach that year (Frank McGuire) but he didn't stay. This is Wilt's 50ppg season
1963 - Warriors Missed Playoffs. New player-coach Dolph Schayes, who did not work out (too soft to handle an alpha personality like Wilt).
1964 - Warriors Lost in ECF to Celtics (eventual champs). Coached by Alex Hannum, who Wilt initially clashed with but ultimately respected. Unfortunately Wilt was traded at the beginning of next season
1965 - Sixers Lost in ECF to Celtics (eventual champs). Wilt put them up at the end of game 7 but his teammate threw the ball away on an inbound pass ("Havlicek stoke the ball"). Coached by Irv Kosloff who was another meh coach.
1966 - Sixers Lost in ECF to Celtics (eventual champs). Still coached by Irv.
1967 - Sixers Won Championship. Coached by Jack Ramsey who was a good coach.
1968 - Sixers Lost in ECF to Celtics (eventual champs). Coached by Jack. Teammates inexplicably did not pass the ball to Wilt in the deciding 4th quarter of game 7, where they lost by 4 points.
1969 - Lakers Lost Finals to Celtics. Wilt took a rest at the beginning of the 4th and his coach didn't put him back in, in the deciding minutes despite Wilt asking back in. His coach (Butch van Breda Kolff) was fired after for that blunder.
1970 - Lakers Lost in Finals to Knicks. Coached by Joe Mullaney (meh coach)
1971 - Lakers Lost Finals to Bucks (eventual champs). Coached by Joe Mullaney (meh coach)
1972 - Lakers Won Championship. Coached by Bill Sharman
1973 - Lakers Lost Finals to Knicks. Coached by Bill Sharman
Celtics not only had talent year after year due to drafting rules back then, but they also pioneered modern NBA defenses not just with Russ but legendary coach Red Auerbach, and John Havlicek I think played a big role as well.
Now I'm not saying you can't make the case that Wilt wasn't a great teammate or that he could have done more, but he didn't have much to work with earlier in his career, so several of his best years were more or less wasted. The Sixers/Lakers years you can argue he should have got more titles, but the Celtics did have 2 of the best 5 players at the time (Russ and Havlicek) and the later Knicks team was disgustingly talented as well.
So yeah Wilt is a bit light on titles for a GOAT candidate but he got real close many times and was on a contender pretty much every single team he played on regardless of talent. How many players can say that?