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Wilt’s infamous failure to win as frequently as Russell has a solid excuse: his supporting casts were almost never as good as the ones Russell had in Boston. When they were good — like in 1967 in Philadelphia (with Hal Greer, Chet Walker and Billy Cunningham) and 1972 in Los Angeles (Jerry West, Gail Goodrich) — they were incredible. Both teams won the title, and each set the record for most wins in a season. The ’72 Lakers’ record wouldn’t be beaten until the 1996 Bulls, and hasn’t been topped other than that one time. As it stands, Wilt’s two best seasons are among the top five of all-time in terms of wins. Russell’s teams gobbled up all the gold they could find, but never won more than 62 games in the regular season.
This is all meant as a defense of the common attacks against Wilt. He was really freaking good, one of the five most important players ever and the second best player of the 1960s. But Russell topped him. He was the star and leader of nine of the decade’s championship teams. He was an All-Star every season of the decade, a good scorer, a rather adept passer and an incredible rebounder. He raised his game even higher in the playoffs where he averaged 20-20 in the postseason twice and was one rebound away from averaging 30 boards per game in the ’61 postseason. (Tommy Gun Heinsohn couldn’t fire up one more brick for Russell? Come on, man!)
SB Nation – Bill Russell changed basketball: Meet the NBA All-1960s team
Noted NBA writers Tom Ziller and Paul Flannery are publishing a fascinating series to choose the best players by decade. In the ’60s (the era when I became a Celtics fan and got hooked on the NBA), nothing was more dramatic than the Russell-Chamberlain head-to-head battles. The unstoppable scorer versus the unbreakable defender. The irresistible force versus the immovable object.
Wilt entered the league amid predictions he would destroy all competition, yet Russell prevailed in seven of the eight playoffs that they faced each other. While Russ led Boston to 11 rings in his 13 seasons, Wilt won just twice in 14 years (with one coming after Russell had retired). If you’re a Celtics fan today who’s proud of the franchise’s winning history, you can thank Bill Russell.
Ziller and Flannery rightly placed Russ as starting center of their all-decade team. But while clearly preferring No. 6, they still allowed Wilt the standard excuse: Boston had better teams. Ziller said that above, as did Flannery below:
That supporting cast is particularly important to the Russell-Wilt debate. I’ve spent most of my post-college life in Philadelphia and Boston, and I’ve heard this argued passionately from both sides. (You haven’t lived until you’ve heard the great Sonny Hill hold forth on the subject.) The argument boils down to the idea that Russell had better teams, but Wilt was the better individual player. The counter, of course, is that Russell simply got the better of Chamberlain so many times that any objection is invalid. It’s the ultimate stats vs. rings debate, only the rings need more than two hands to count.
It’s true that Wilt lacked the consistent environment that Russell had in Boston. In 13 seasons, Russell was coached only by Red Auerbach and himself (three seasons as player-coach), while Wilt played for seven head coaches in 14 seasons.
I’d always believed Wilt brought that on himself, and a book by John Taylor confirmed it for me. “The Rivalry: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and the Golden Age of Basketball” tells the year-by-year story of both men’s careers. Over and over, the book shows that Russell was singularly focused on how he could help his teammates, while Wilt was all about helping himself.
Wilt was sensitive and difficult to coach, concentrating on his stats to the detriment of wins. He often threatened to retire due to contract issues or because he felt opponents played too rough against him. Wilt also did a lot of finger-pointing. Despite his enormous talent, these divisive traits led to him being traded twice. “Nobody roots for Goliath,” Wilt is known to have stated.
So Russell had a philosophical advantage, but did he also have better teammates? Not really. When the NBA celebrated its 50th season by naming the 50 Greatest Players, Wilt had played with six of them, Russell with just four. Looking at the Hall of Fame, nine of Wilt’s teammates are enshrined compared with Russell’s 10. Wilt was also coached by HOFers Alex Hannum, Frank McGuire and Bill Sharman. The Big Dipper had plenty of support.
Wilt’s biggest problem, I believe, was his tendency to come up small in the big games. Read these details and decide if he lost because of his teammates.
- His Achilles heel was free-throw shooting: career .511, playoffs even worse at .465. (Compare to Russell: career .561 from the line, but .603 in the playoffs.)
- In 1962, Wilt averaged an unthinkable 50.4 ppg, yet in a Game 7, two-point loss at Boston, he scored just 22.
- In 1965, Wilt shot 6-13 at the free-throw line in a Game 7, a one-point loss (“Havlicek stole the ball”).
- In 1968, he shot 39-92 FTs in the series as Philly blew a 3-1 lead to Boston and lost Game 7 at home. In that deciding four-point loss, Wilt was 6-15 on FTs and took only one shot from the field in the second half.
- In the 1969 finals, Wilt was 24-64 on FTs and his Lakers gave up a 3-2 series lead. In Game 4, a one-point loss, he shot 2-11 FTs. He then went 4-13 from the line in the Game 7 two-point loss at L.A.
- In the 1970 finals, the Lakers lost to the Knicks in Game 7. New York captain Willis Reed, playing with a torn leg muscle, couldn’t move at all but was in the starting lineup to provide inspiration. On the Knicks’ first two possessions, Wilt – as if unaware of the situation – did not come out on defense and allowed Reed to shoot uncontested set shots from the foul line area. Reed made both for his only points of the night, and the home crowd was delirious. Behind Walt Frazier’s 36 points, the Knicks rode the momentum to a 14-point win. Oh yeah, Wilt was 1-11 at the line.
If Wilt had been even an adequate foul shooter, or if he had matched Russell’s basketball IQ, the championship results would have been dramatically different and there could still be a debate about who was best. But he didn’t, and there isn’t. It was his own fault. Sorry, Goliath.
On Page 2: K.O. seems to be O.K.
As noted yesterday on Red’s Army, Kelly Olynyk went down after a collision while playing in an international game for his home country. There’s been no official update since then, but these two Monday evening tweets from a Toronto Sun reporter indicate that it’s all good.
What, me worry? Olynyk seems fine. #celtics pic.twitter.com/K7Eg06Uk6f
— Ryan Wolstat (@WolstatSun) August 24, 2015
Triano said Olynyk is fine, they are just being cautious. Also said hard to play 11 guys, hence Hanlan today, Sacre yesterday.
— Ryan Wolstat (@WolstatSun) August 25, 2015
And, finally… Shifty on the court and the gridiron
Had a good time at the homie @matt_barnes9 / @snoopdogg celebrity flag football game. Thanks for the invite! 4 catches and a TouchDown for myself… Oh yeah & we got the WIN lol #TeamSnoop #AthletesVsCancer A photo posted by Isaiah Thomas (@isaiahthomas) on Aug 24, 2015 at 8:21am PDT
//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js
The Rest of the Links:
MassLive – David Lee, Amir Johnson receive votes for ‘best newcomer’ | ESPN – Forecast: Worst newcomer of 2015-16
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