Laimbeer wrote:Russell seemed to have a career on the floor filled with joy, while Wilt was frustrated most of the time.
The only thing that might make it a conversation is the racial stuff Russ had to put up with - I'm not sure it was as bad for Wilt, can't say.
What are you talking about? Russell was the surly guy off court who refused to interact with fans, especially white ones, while Wilt was the outgoing guy who was friendly and helpful regardless of skin color. Not saying Russell was a racist, he just handled the present racism differently than Wilt. On court I see no difference between the two.
The only thing that comes to mind where Wilt was not enjoying basketball was probably early on, when the refs swallowed their whistles while opponents elbowed and kneed the crap out of him. Wilt was in fact considering leaving the league because he was fed up with that.
mrsocko wrote:Ron Swanson wrote:Full stop. The '67 Sixers were not "more stacked than any team Russell ever played for". They weren't even any more stacked then the Celtics were that same year....
I've always maintained that Wilt was the better player in a vacuum than Russell, not because of the statistical production, but because like the poster above explained, we actually got to see Wilt in different roles throughout his career (dominant scorer, play-maker/distributor and offensive anchor, lower usage defensive anchor) and be dominant in every single facet. To me, no player in history (not Jordan or Lebron) so seamlessly transitioned between such varying roles on his teams and excelled to the extent that Wilt did.
We got to see Wilt in different roles because there was only one role that brought 11 championships in 13 years. That was Bill Russell. He didn’t have to change anything. He knew that if he let Wilt play hero ball that his team would win. It is a proven fact that the more one player dominates a team the less Efficient that team becomes. Finding the open man is the best play in basketball. It a team sport and if Wilt had figured that out earlier he would have won many more championships
Except when Wilt played a similar role he easily eclipsed Russell. Not only did he put up better stats in terms of assists and scoring at a much better volume and efficiency he also led his team to an all time great winning record unprecedented at the time. Russell was lucky that a team of the 76ers had not come together earlier or he would have lost more than once to them and was also lucky that the entire starting five was injured in the finals in 68 or they would have repeated.
mrsocko wrote:mrsocko wrote:mrsocko wrote:
Scoreboard 11-2
How about 5-4 mvp awards
How about they named the finals MVP award after Russell
How about the Celts won nothing until Russell arrived and the dynasty ended when he retired.
How about he averaged 44 minutes a night while the next closest Celt(Havelcek) averaged 32.
How’s that for superficial nonsense. Your a hater. Russell did what it took to win. Wilt did what soothed his ego. Best player on the losing team is the greatest player of all time in your mind.
Rings are a team award, useless for direct player comparisons
1 more MvP means nothing. Steve Nash has two MvPs, I guess Nash is better than Kobe then.
How about the entire league scrambling to change rules to limit your dominance like widening the lane or offensive goal tending?
Wilt went to a bottom of the barrel team and almost beat the Celtics in his third year with just one all star level team mate who shat the bed.
Wilt averaged 48.5 minutes for a season and 46 for career. What does it matter how much others average? Not one bit does it matter.
Yeah right, Wilt did what soothed his ego, that is why he played 3 very different roles all of which were not demanded by him but asked for by his coaches.
No one here hates Russell. You are just a Wilt hater who cannot concede that Wilt was at the very least equal to Russell and you can make an easy argument that he was better on scoring alone, because there is not just a difference there it is a cliff so vast that you cannot see the other side. Wilt was more than twice the scorer than Russell was as evident that despite role changes Wilt averaged 33 ppg for career on vastly superior efficiency and when he was scoring at Russell's volume he set new efficiency records which last to this day. In fact the the highest single season efficiency record to this day is held by Wilt which he set in his last year. He holds 78 official records and would probably have around 100 if blocks had been counted.