[Stardust]

IMO, Kareem was not even close to Wilt because, as you said, he was not a physical player. The sky hook was an unstoppable shot when it was falling because of Kareem's height but in his prime, Chamberlain would have physically dominated Kareem in every way possible. Wilt was the first recipient of the hack-a-Shaq defense because, like Shaq, he was a horrible free throw shooter. Kareem was a scorer but even in that area, he would have been no match for Wilt.

People who insist that Chamberlain put up big numbers because centers were less talented in his day ignore the big games that Chamberlain had against Boston and Russell, including the following 30/30 games:

12-13-61 Wilt Chamberlain Philadelphia vs Boston 30 rebounds-52 points
02-10-62 Wilt Chamberlain Philadelphia vs Boston 31 rebounds-38 points
12-26-62 Wilt Chamberlain Philadelphia vs Boston 32 rebounds-43 points
01-08-63 Wilt Chamberlain Philadelphia vs Boston 31 rebounds-45 points
02-21-63 Wilt Chamberlain Philadelphia vs Boston 38 rebounds-40 points
02-26-63 Wilt Chamberlain Philadelphia vs Boston 30 rebounds-34 points
01-07-64 Wilt Chamberlain Philadelphia vs Boston 32 rebounds-35 points
01-19-64 Wilt Chamberlain Philadelphia vs Boston 30 rebounds-31 points
11-25-64 Wilt Chamberlain Philadelphia vs Boston 32 rebounds-37 points
12-28-65 Wilt Chamberlain Philadelphia vs Boston 40 rebounds-31 points
01-14-66 Wilt Chamberlain Philadelphia vs Boston 42 rebounds-37 points
03-06-66 Wilt Chamberlain Philadelphia vs Boston 30 rebounds-32 points

In other words, against one of the best defensive centers ever to play the game, Chamberlain had some of the best games of his career. Bill Russell, like Kareem, had a much better supporting cast than Chamberlain had during most of his career. That is the only reason that Chamberlain did not die with more championship rings than he did. He was a fierce competitor and he does not get enough credit for it. People who assume that Chamberlain would not have been a dominant center in today's game are just fooling themselves.

I think that is way overstated using those stats. Wilt was the ONLY shooter. He was the ONLY interior player. Thus, he would have been the ONLY player to have stats! He was not putting up those numbers against just the 6-9 Bill Russell, but 6-5 Sam Jones, and 6-5 Tom Heinson. PLEASE! You don't play 1:1 basketball! There has been help defense since the beginning of the game.

Wilt was so much bigger phyiscally than any of his competition. You are way off to think that Wilt could even come close to the outrageous numbers he had in today's game. That's nuts to even consider! The NBA center in Wilts day was 6-9, with power forwards 6-5 & 6-6. Wilt could not create the clearance today with interiors averaging 6-11 in the paint. He would be surrounded by guys as big and bigger than him. C'mon, you are fooling yourself. This is like the argument that Babe Ruth is the greatest player ever. Bull, he was the greatest of his era. Players in each era have always been better than the previous era.