You had to be there to appreciate it . . . the way Hal Greer and Wally Jones ran and shot on battered knees; the way Wilt Chamberlain played the middle with a volcano in his stomach and an injured toe shot full of needles; the way Johnny Green kept hustling although long past the point of exhaustion; the way Luke Jackson, Chet Walker and Matt Goukas played their guts out despite assorted injuries.
Pollack ticked off some of the cases, which read like a medical diary:
-Wilt Chamberlain (partial tear of the calf muscle in his right leg, a strain in his right thigh and an injured right toe):
-Wally Jones (injured knee cartilage):
-Luke Jackson (pulled hamstring muscle):
-Hal Greer (bursitus in his right knee):
-And, Billy Cunningham (broken right wrist).
"That's not mentioning (rookie) Jim Reid who had a knee operation after injuring it the first game of the season," said Pollack, "and Larry Costello," the veteran guard who tore an ankle tendon after one-third of the season was gone.
The most recent injury was to Chamberlain in Friday night's Eastern Division playoff contest with the Celtics. The dipper was given whirlpool treatments for the calf muscle tear, but Pollack wasn't sure how he'd respond.
This kinda thing causes chemistry/team synergy problems, simply put. It sounds almost like a Clipper or Blazer bad luck on injuries. Wilt still seemed to have GOAT type of impact this year, though, mainly because his D was better. It's odd. I see Wilt being capable of playing out of the world defense, offense, everything, but he never really does it all at once despite having monstrous levels of stamina.
That assist post makes me frown, though. Some would argue that he's being a great competitor by chasing it, but it really makes me wonder if he didn't maximize his offensive value at times because he was looking to rack up his assist totals. This has been somewhat of an issue with him for his entire career... much like the scoring title chase or the 50+ point games or the play all 48 minutes game chase he had in his career. You have to wonder at times how much that really benefited/hurt the team he played for.
Vote: Michael Jordan '91
I just feel safer going with MJ as GOAT for the moment. Wilt might be #2 or #3, but it doesn't really matter, since the exact number he's at is irrelevant... the fact that we extensively discussed his peak in the #1 thread says enough about his peak greatness.
