Kareem was aging 36-41 veteran & usually had less trouble with Olajuwon than he ever did with Thurmond or Wilt who both held young Kareem below 45% shooting head to head.

Old man Kareem outtscored Olajuwon head to head , shot 60% from the field ( above his average) in his matchups with Olajuwon ( and his 7'4 teammate Sampson).

Kareem says Thurmond was his toughest defender ( followed by Wilt) & the head to head numbers bear it out.

There is YouTube video of a 38 year old Kareem dropping 46 on Olajuwon & Sampson & they look like deer in headlights

This post was edited on 2/7/17 at 12:26 pm

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Posted by Speedy G

Member since Aug 2013

3896 posts

Posted on 2/7/17 at 1:01 pm to sugar71

quote:
Chamberlain brutalized Russell head to head . Russell won't even deny that.

Wilt average 28/28 against him. Russell averaged 14 and 23.

I don't understand how this is even a question.

Wilt average 50 a game for an entire season! Averaged 45 another season. Averaged 35+ five times (only three players have done it once).

Only player to ever average 25 rebounds. He did that three times. Only 5 players have averaged 20+. Russell is there with him in rebounds, but never even averaged 20 ppg; only 15 ppg for his career.

Wilt even led the NBA in total assists one year (while averaging 24/24).

Look at his BB-Ref page totals section, and half of it is black ink (meaning he led the league). He's the most dominant player ever by a considerable margin. Doesn't make him the best, that much is debatable.

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Posted by litenin

Houston

Member since Mar 2016

2350 posts

Posted on 2/7/17 at 1:21 pm to Speedy G

I just picked a random year from Wilt's career (1965) and see that he averaged 24.6 RPG. Russell was next at 22.8, Jerry Lucas at 21.1, Nate Thurmond at 18.0. I think there were only about 10 teams so many less players (i.e. 4th best at 18.0 is equivalent to the 12th best rebounder today averaging that many, which isn't the case).

My only point is that rebounds and most other stats were not equivalent to today's stats. There were many more possessions per game and it was played very differently than today.

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Posted by mdomingue