Retro POY '65-66 (Voting Complete)

[Dr Positivity]

Btw, Russ' Game 7 in 69 is worse than Wilt's Game 7 in 68... easily. So while we give Wilt crap for losing those two years, it should be remembered how much luck and teammates played here in those two oh so close results

[Deus_DJ]

my point wasn't to compare Wilt to Iverson. I meant that Wilt's boxscore stats didn't translate into wins as evidenced by his teams not suffering whenever he missed time or after joining/leaving them. it's important to look at his stats within that context what most people just dismiss.

I don't care if you're a 100/50/20 player, when you're joining a team and you're considered a superstar, your team should benefit a lot because of your impact. that's not what happened in reality. Sixers and Lakers weren't a lot better/worse. every major holder of MVP Shares has had a significant impact when changing teams/going down for a year. everyone but Wilt.

and there's a big sample we're talking about here:

*65 when changing teams
*69 when changing teams
*70 going down for a year
*71 coming back

why weren't these changes affecting team W-L ?

come up with million excuse, but it happened too many times to flat out ignore it.

1965 he was in rough shape, as I've explained 5 or 6 times in the last few days...and it being the worst efficiency in his entire career is proof in the pudding. Who comes back from a heart attack? Oh that's right Wilt does.

1969 he was put in the worst possible position(though he may have wanted to play for the lakers) with a coach he hated. Something not mentioned is that he and Van Breda Koff almost got in a fistfight after a game with Seattle. It was at that point taht Van Breda Koff told Wilt he only wanted him to rebound and do nothing else. Thus, he really didn't care about contributing this year all that much(and his coach didn't want him to anyway) so this is actualy his worst year in his career.


Wait are you blaming Wilt for having knee surgery and coming back after only 4 months in 1970?


1971 Baylor was out all year(though he actually made the team worse at that point) and Wilt basically carried the Lakers in the playoffs to the conf finals vs Kareem and they did it without Jerry West either.

[Dipper 13]

3. Wilt Chamberlain - My problem with Wilt like usual is that his play dropped off significantly in the playoffs and again, he lost more than he was defeated (unlike West) .The reason Sixers went down 1-3 in the first place was because of Wilt's relative poorly play in those games (especially in comparison to the regular season).

Game 1:

Sixers hit with the flu + 2 week layoff = 19 turnovers in a 19 point loss.

Wilt Chamberlain did his work under the boards, taking 32 rebounds for the 76ers . But his mates couldn't get the ball into him often and he made only nine field goals in scoring 25 points.




Game 2:




Game 3:

Their defense was the barbed wire. Every time they needed a key basket, Wilt Chamberlain poured through the lane and got it for them. That was how the Philadelphia 76ers got back into contention in the Eastern Division playoffs with a 111-105 victory over the Boston Celtics Thursday night at Convention Hall




Game 4: Chamberlain had the clutch block at the end of regulation to force OT.

[Dipper 13]

Walker, Cunningham, Greer, Luke Jackson... this is league's best supporting cast and Wilt couldn't get it done.

Sixers only victory of the series came with Billy C on the bench. He was booed by the home fans for his poor shooting in Game 1. This was his rookie year, not '67 as liar Bill Simmons has said.


From The rivalry: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and the golden age of basketball:

[Dipper 13]

With that, Chamberlain, who stands 7-foot-1 and weighs about 275-pounds, charged McGinniss, a 6-2, 175 pounder. A couple of writers and 76ers scout Vince Miller intervened.
(“Wilt Loses Temper, Feuds With Writer.” April 14, 1966. Herald-Tribune.

Yeah, somehow I doubt that Chamberlain, who apparently was "charging" at this writer was "restrained" by a couple of writers and a scout.

Two teammates restrained him.


Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire who Lives Next Door - Wilt Chamberlain (1973)

..in the dressing room after the fifth game with Boston, I just glared at him and didn't answer. When he asked the question for the third time, I exploded. McGinniss became famous three years later when he wrote The Selling of the President, but if Chet and Billy hadn't restrained me that night, he wouldn't even have lived to write the story of that game. I really wanted to kill him — and I damn near did; Chet and Billy had to use all their strength to hold me back. That summer, just about six months after Ike Richman had died, another older man who'd been a good friend and advisor died — Abe Saperstein of the Globetrotters. I was in Europe at the time, and — through some intermediaries — I was offered an opportunity to buy a piece of the Globies and become president of the company. I considered it — and might even have taken it — but the 76ers had fired Dolph Schayes and hired Alex Hannum, and now I knew we were going to beat Boston for the championship in 1967, and I didn't want to miss that for anything.

Alex's decision to come to Philadelphia was gratifying to me on several counts. The most obvious, of course, was that I liked him as a man and respected him as a coach, and knew he'd take us to the championship. But the press was saying I'd been responsible for the 76ers' firing Dolph. They forgot that Dolph had been fighting with the other players on the 76ers before I even joined the team. They also forgot what we all knew — that Dolph Schayes was a piss-poor coach. On his next coaching job, in Buffalo, he had a 22 and 60 record his first year, and set a world record his second year — he was fired after one game! But it made better copy to say "Chamberlain Fires Schayes" than "Schayes Stinks," so that's what the papers said; they said I'd had five coaches in seven years and was "devouring them like aspirin tablets." So why did Alex come to Philadelphia if I was so tough on coaches? He'd coached me for two years in San Francisco; he knew what to expect. Surely, he wouldn't step into an impossible situation, just looking for trouble. It was a ridiculous charge against me, and Alex — as he had in San Francisco — told me so.