“LeBron James vs. Wilt Chamberlain: Who Truly Dominates the Court?”
A remarkable athlete from a young age who could have excelled in many different settings and who has finally withstood the test of time while consistently existing in a statistical stratosphere that most people can only imagine. An annual competitor questioned early on for postseason deficiencies before finally breaking through and vanquishing a long-time rival. After winning a championship and leading his home team to victory, the four-time MVP, who is larger than life and constantly competitive, decided to play for the Lakers in an attempt to experience everything Los Angeles has to offer. One of the all-time great basketball players, he has a wide range of interests and a fierce drive to achieve off the court. His accomplishments include acting, producing, and political activity in addition to his substantial charitable efforts.
Michael Jordan and LeBron James are not comparable It’s nearly impossible to believe that a player who was once nicknamed “more Magic, than Michael” will suddenly have more points as an NBA player than the great who once scored over 50 points per game for a whole season. LeBron James is currently fifth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. And yet, here we are. For a number of years now, Michael Jordan has been the easy target when it comes to player comparisons for LeBron James. The “white and gold dress” debate among NBA fans has grown commonplace due to James’s admission that he is chasing the ghost of Michael Jordan and the never-ending discussion about who is the greatest player on all platforms. It makes sense in certain ways.
Before James—the most anticipated NBA talent in history—actually exceeded expectations and beyond expectations based on his huge promise, Jordan was the unquestionably greatest player of all time. James did not genuinely enter the discourse with the legend until his heroics in recent years against a team regarded as the best since Jordan’s Bulls, despite being vastly outmatched. For this reason, we have been naively looking for a “next man up” for all these years without ever really reaching that point. However, James isn’t actually Jordan. That also doesn’t mean taking sides because, in a similar vein, Jordan isn’t actually LeBron. Over time, Jordan’s style of play changed from being centered on explosive above-the-rim agility to perfect footwork and mid-range jumpers. Linked by a fierce sense of competition and a never-ending quest to protect.
Not that James isn’t talented or driven. He is both. But if you had to sum up his hold on the NBA universe to someone who had never watched a single game, you probably would say that he is a powerful and intelligent player who is physically capable of doing whatever he wants while also being keenly aware of every other player on the court. And he’s a lot more Wilt than Michael in that regard.
Absurd athletic prowess Wilt Chamberlain is the most physically dominant player to have ever played basketball. Yes, he played during a time when a lot of centers were 6’9″. However, he also played during a time when players like Walt Bellamy, Bob Lanier, Nate Thurmond, Bill Russell, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were all there. It also meant playing against those Hall of Fame bigs significantly more frequently because there were fewer clubs. When comparing the two to four times a year that stars face their hardest marks today to the staggering twelve times that Chamberlain and Russell faced each other during the 1960–61 season, the difference is striking. Chamberlain’s garish statistics are self-explanatory. The stories and anecdotes weave a much fuller picture.
Details of Chamberlain’s weightlifting prowess, including the assertion that he could deadlift 625 pounds, may be found in Gary Pomerantz’s book “Wilt, 1962.” In contrast, Arnold Schwarzenegger lifted 550 pounds to win first place at the 1966 International Powerlifting Championships. (Silly enough, Schwarzenegger was present when LeBron overtook Wilt). Pomerantz continues in that same book to claim that he could shoot 53 feet and complete the 440-meter dash in 49 seconds. While the latter would have been a world record far into the 1930s, the former was only one second slower than the mark set in 1912. Not to mention that she is a multi-award winning high jumper.
Similar to how James is today, Chamberlain’s mix of strength, quickness, and explosiveness was unfathomable in his day. If you Google “LeBron James best athlete,” you’ll find articles from almost every major outlet asking coaches and former teammates if he’s the greatest athlete of all time. Really, not much hasn’t been said about the subject. GMs selected James as the league’s most athletic player when they were first asked to do so in the 2008–09 NBA.com survey. They continued to do so for the next seven seasons, giving up the title to Russell Westbrook in 2015–16, capping a dominant run of seven years that lasted into his 30s.
James is an athletic marvel that stands alone in an era with nutritionists, personal trainers, and sleep physicians, where almost everyone is more knowledgeable about how to take the best possible care of their bodies. With the punishing size of Karl Malone and the blazing quickness of Russell Westbrook.
Overcoming Father Time “As a player, I was improving in certain aspects.” When discussing the end of his career, Wilt Chamberlain stated as much to People Magazine in a 1984 profile. Chamberlain had announced his retirement at the age of 36 after the 1972–73 season. In addition to becoming the oldest player in league history to lead the NBA in rebounds in his 14th season, Chamberlain also set a record by making 72.7 percent of his attempts. These records are still in use today.
Even though he was clearly no longer the same scorer, Chamberlain continued to set records well into the future, long after even the greatest players eventually fade into statistical oblivion. Despite being more than ten years older than the three players who came before him, he placed fourth in the MVP voting that season. It has a similar storyline to LeBron James’s current one. “I’ve never felt better in my career than I do now.” That was James in November of last year, following a victory over the Wizards with 57 points. “I think I’m playing at my best ever right now.” James had just finished a tight victory over the Nuggets in March when he made four shots in the closing two minutes.
As he demonstrated in the postseason, James wasn’t just giving in to exaggeration; he was in his fifteenth season and well past the age at which any sane mortal would have begun to fade away. He led the Cavaliers to a seven-game series victory over the Pacers in the first round of the playoffs, a stretch during which no teammate scored 20 points in any of the games. He averaged 54.4 points per game, either as the player or an assist. In the Conference Semifinals, James easily defeated Toronto over the Raptors. His game-winning shot at the buzzer in Game 3 served as a memorable moment.
After the Cavs were down 3-2 against the Celtics in the Conference Finals, James averaged 40.5 points, 13.0 rebounds, and 9.0 assists in the following two games to advance to the eighth consecutive Finals. In Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Warriors, James went off for 51-8-8, maybe the best game in a losing effort in Finals history. In other words, James appeared to be a guy who was nearing the end of his fifteenth season and had more experience than any other player in the league at that point in his career. James is following in the footsteps of the player he just overtook in terms of overwhelming late-career dominance.
