Could Any Current NBA Center Handle Wilt Chamberlain?
Though that view appears to be in the huge minority these days, I humbly believe that Wilt Chamberlain was the best basketball player to ever step onto the court.
The Big Dipper was an NBA player that won two championship rings, was inducted into the Hall of Fame, and was named league MVP four times, regardless of where you place him in the pantheon.
Wilt had game.
The argument against his greatness is frequently made that he played in a previous period when defense was nonexistent and that this allowed him to take advantage of smaller players who couldn’t contain a seven-footer. I’ve discussed my thoughts on each of those asser
tions.
But if he wasn’t really anything special, does it not also follow that he’d struggle in the modern game? I’m convinced that would not be the case.
In fact, the question I’ve been pondering recently is whether there’s even one center in the NBA these days who could contain Chamberlain.
All stats derived from basketball-reference.com
About Wilt.
However, would it not also follow that he would struggle in the current game if he wasn’t really all that special? That would not be the case, in my opinion.
Actually, I’ve been wondering lately if there’s even a single NBA center that could contain Chamberlain these days.
The source of all statistics is basketball-reference.com.
Concerning Wilt.
A Hall of Famer, Wilt Chamberlain is ranked among the best 10 players of all time by the majority of experts. Therefore, I believe it would be pointless to compare him to players who are in the center of the pack in the current game. As a result, I will only be examining the top five centers that are currently operational.
The NBA record book is replete with Chamberlain’s name. Among his numerous accomplishments:
30.1 Career PPG; 22.9 Career RPG
APG for Careers: 4.4
Seven crowns with points
Eleven titles on the rebound
Six of the top 15 win-share seasons are among the eight win-share titles. (George Mikan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are tied for second place with three of the top 15)
The only center in NBA history to record the most assists (702 in 1967–68) in the league
50.4 PPG on average in 1961–1962.
48.5 MPG on average between 1961 and 1962
MVP four times
NBA MVP twice All-Defensive Initial Squad
The only NBA player in history to score 100 points in a game
Never lost a game during his career
Evaluating Chamberlain fairly versus contemporary players is one of the conceits I’ve been obliged to make, as many of the stats that contemporary players amass were not monitored in the 1960s. In an effort to create parity, I have limited my comparisons to the three main elements that have impacted us from the start: points, assists, and rebounds, which add up to PAR.
Granted, this is a crude method of contrasting one athlete with another, but.
Teams in the NBA took 101.5 shots per game on average during Chamberlain’s 14-year career; in the last 14 years, teams have taken 80.9 shots per game. In other words, the number of points (114.1 then, 97.4 now) and rebounds (63.2 then, 41.9 now) per game are lower. But shooting percentages are better now than they were when Wilt was around—.451 compared to.438 in his day. Therefore, even though players are shooting less, assists have decreased slightly—from 23.2 to 21.5 per game at that time.
When you combine all of it, a contemporary Wilt the Stilt’s numbers could resemble something like this:
25.7 PPM
15.2 RPG
4.1 APG
During the 2013–14 season, his career stats would place him #1 in
RPG and a decent forty-first in APG.
Now let’s see how that stacks up against the top five centers currently in use, as determined by PAR.
For the Chicago Bulls, Joakim Noah has been a reliable presence beneath the basket for a number of years. Although he doesn’t produce spectacular results, he is reliable. Throughout the season, the Bulls can rely on his 27.1 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game.
But Noah would be severely outmatched in this match. When facing Wilt, he’s giving up two inches and 20–80 pounds (Chamberlain started the NBA at 250 pounds and put on weight to reach over 300 by the end of his career). While Noah is a reliable passer who can locate the open man, The Big Dipper has a significant edge in scoring and rebounds.
The Minnesota Timberwolves’ Nikola Pekovic has put up a very respectable 28.6 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 1.0 assist per game on average thus far this season.
He is a key component of the Timberwolves’ future and one of the league’s rising stars going into his fourth season.
Pekovic’s all-around performance doesn’t seem to be close to Chamberlain’s. The Big Dipper would outshine Pekovic on the boards, grabbing 5.9 more rebounds per game, and his points per game are 7.6 less than Wilt’s. He also doesn’t pass the ball to open teammates as well, collecting 3.1 fewer assists per game.
