The GOAT Wilt Chamberlain, according to Walt Frazier.
There is more than one correct response to the question, “Who is the greatest basketball player of all time?” It’s a bit of a bar stool argument. It’s a matter of perspective, if you don’t say Craig Ehlo, that is. Although Michael Jordan is currently regarded by many as the best player of all time (Magic Johnson concurs), you are free to make the case for Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson, Magic, or a few other players.
When Walt Frazier, a former NBA player and current color analyst for the Knicks, was questioned about it on Bleacher Report, he took a different approach:
Wilt Chamberlain.
Wilt Chamberlain is the guy I would choose if I had to choose because his records are funny and no one will ever approach any of them. That means he’d be my type. He would have Bill Russell behind him. The greatest scorer in the history of the game, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, is a man who is constantly forgotten. Although the skyhook is the most deadly weapon the game has ever seen, he isn’t even considered one of the top five players when it comes to player greatness.
Regarding the last point, I concur with Fraizer: Abdul-Jabbar is much too often left out of this conversation. He is a six-time champion and MVP with figures that rival anyone’s.
Mark Heisler, a Hall of Fame basketball writer (previously of the Los Angeles Times and currently a blogger for Forbes), made a great argument when we were on a television show in Los Angeles. He believes that the discussion about the greatest players of all time should be divided into two categories: big men and guards/wings. He claimed that because Jordan and Kareem’s responsibilities and achievements on the court are so dissimilar, it is unfair to compare them. He believed these were different conversations. That makes some sense, in my opinion. The absence of the three-point shot and the evolution of defensive terminology (zone, no zone, hand checking on the perimeter) make it difficult to draw comparisons between different eras.
However, you can still.
