[Stardust]

Wilt was the among the most athletic players ever to play in the NBA in any era. It seems that as every generation becomes the "current" one, they dismiss great players of previous generations and assume that they were just lucky to have played against inferior athletes. I never claimed that Wilt would have matched the stats that he had during his career if he played today but the level of competition was not as different as you seem determined to believe. While today's players are generally taller and more athletic than they were 30 or 40 years ago, they are also often less fundamentally sound.

Take Dennis Rodman, for example. Rodman was much smaller and much weaker than Chamberlain but he was a rebounding machine in the modern era against players who were often taller and stronger than himself because he blocked out and outworked his opponents instead of relying solely on his athleticism to get rebounds. Charles Barkley is another example of a player much smaller than Chamberlain who was a ferocious rebounder and scorer because he was so much better fundamentally than most of his opponents.

What really separates great basketball players from the field has always been the combination of athleticism and determination to learn and apply the fundamental skills of the game.

Had Steve Nash played in Chamberlain's era, he would have put up great numbers and you would be making a similar argument that you are about Chamberlain.There is no way that a guy as small and relatively unathletic as Steve Nash could ever win an MVP against today's competition. We all know that not only did Nash win an MVP, he won two of them and narrowly missed winning a third.

The NBA is full of athletes today but the number of truly great players in the league is not that much different than it was in Wilt's day. Wilt had 12 30-30 games against Bill Russell and the Celtics. Do you really think that he could not post those kind of numbers against teams like Washington, New Jersey, and Sacramento, and centers named Nazr Mohammed, Brendan Haywood, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Marcin Gortat, Brad Miller, Omer Asik, and Johan Petro? Today's big men are not as talented or numerous as you seem to think.

In 1964 there were only 9 NBA teams, which meant that Chamberlain was matched up against other Hall of Famers Bill Russell, Bob Petit, Willis Reed, or Walt Bellamy every other game.

Like I said above - I realize that I am in the minority with my opinion that Wilt was the best player in NBA history (but I would rather be right than with the majority). :biggrin:

Sorry for the off thread posts about Wilt. I just do not believe that there is a talent gap between today's NBA and the NBA of yesteryear. LeBron, Kobe, et al. would have been great in any era but there are also plenty of today's players who would have been cut from the NBA rosters of 1965.

LOL, this sounds like one of those "players back in my day.....". You still are trying to make this a one-on-one game, so no, he would not put up 30-30 games, EVER! You cannot put up those games ever again, EVER! It is absolutely nuts, and I mean NUTS to not think that a player like Nazr Mohammad, Zadrunis or even Miller would not have put up GREAT numbers during that time of basketball. Those guys would have all averaged 20/20 if not more. Why, because the skills of players today are tremendously better than in those days. if you want to talk about most Dominate, then put Shaq in that era and Shaq, unquestionably the strongest most athletic BIG man ever, would have averaged at minimum, the exact same as Wilt!