Oh the times they are a changing "Wilt on MJ, Kareem, Shaq" The Beginning Cycle

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Wilt was big on stats. One time he called me up and said, 'You know, Harvey, Michael Jordan can't hit a shot beyond 15 feet?'

I said, 'How do you know that?'

He said to me, 'Don't you watch the games?'

I said, 'I don't watch stuff like that. How do you know?'

He said, 'I watch it.'

So, during the height of Michael's career, I got the play-by-play of the first 20 Bulls games and I checked the distance of every shot Jordan took during the season and sure enough, he was shooting 38 percent from 15 feet back. So, I did 20 more and came up with the same result. So then I said, if I did 40, I might as well do 82. Wilt’s appraisal was perfect. From 13 feet back (Jordan) was 37.8 percent.

Then Wilt said, 'Jordan doesn't take any shots from seven feet in, all of those shots are drives to the basket. He doesn't take five or six footers. He goes right to the hoop.'

I tried 20 more games and ended up looking at the entire season and got the same results. Wilt's analysis held up.

Wilt was a student of the game. People don't know that. He knew everything that was going on.

Another season, Wilt said that the refs never called any traveling violations on Jordan. Wilt was after Jordan for some reason. I checked the play by plays and Wilt was right. Jordan was called only for four traveling violations.

Whenever Wilt came out with a book, he always credited me with the stats. I'm referenced throughout his books."

Pat Riley said the NBA doesn’t keep field goal percentage right. They should separate the (two-point shots) from the (three-point shots). They separate the three’s, but overall they don’t separate the two’s. So one of the categories I keep is field goal percentage for two’s. Charles Barkley was the leader in the two-point category for years."

-Harvey Pollack





"For years now, I've said nothing but good things about Kareem, not one negative thing, and he's never said anything nice about me. I just don't think he's this great defensive center he's supposed to be. It's just unreal, look at all the guys dunking over him. I look back over my career and recall only a few times anyone dunked over me. I still remember the time Elgin Baylor did. I still lose sleep over it to this day. I particularly resent what Kareem said the other day in a newspaper article. He said the centers of today in the NBA are much better athletes than when I played. Well I disagree with him 100%. I don't think he knows what the hell he's talking about. I played against him for four years. Does he not consider himself a good athlete? I'm not here to discredit Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, I believe he's a great talent that has had too many subpar years defensively. I just want to set the record straight. There were some damn good centers when I played. What about Bill Russell? Does Kareem consider him a good athlete? What about Nate Thurmond? Or Willis Reed? Or Walt Bellamy?"

-1979



'"How many layups do you think there were in the last Laker game? Forty-eight. People will tell you guys shoot better now. No doubt they shoot a little better, but not like you'd think from looking at the percentages. Mike Cooper is shooting 59 percent. You want to bet some money he'd outshoot Jerry West? I'll bet my house against him (Cooper) on Dolph Schayes. I'll take Larry Costello and give you any Laker with the exception of Wilkes.

Players just get to the basket (layups) more. It ups their percentage. There's no defense inside. When I played, if the other team ran a fast break two or three times, the coach would assign a forward to break back on defense as soon as the ball went up. I never see a coach doing that now. There were no uncontested layups.

My last two or three years I shot 69 to 73 percent. You think I was a better shooter? No, the defenses got worse and I was able to dunk every damn ball I wanted to. It was easier to get there. When I played against guys like Johnny Kerr . . . He was 6-10 and couldn't jump, but I'll tell you, you didn't get to the basket on him."'

-1982



"It's a run up and down the court and dunk the ball game now. These are speed merchants and jumping fools. That's why their shooting percentages are going way up. I led the league 11 times in field goal percentage and my lifetime average was 54%. There are now five billion guys shooting over 54%. Can you imagine playing when your hands are so cold and the ball is as hard as a brick? I can remember going to Detroit and playing the old Detroit Arena and there's about 3000 people in this big old huge thing. Every time they opened the door, the wind blows through. I can vividly remember Paul Arizin blowing into his hands and the smoke was blowing out of his nose. Guys were shooting 37%, and these were great shooters. People look at that any say, 'Is that a basketball player or was he on a blind team?' They don't know how to put that into perspective."

-1985



"It's just not a really professional thing to do, accepting all those gifts. Rolls-Royce? Motorcycle? That's blasphemy. It is stupid to give Kareem a Rolls-Royce, which is what the Lakers did. Why not give a scholarship at UCLA in Kareem's name?"

-1991



"All that faking Hakeem does, if you're Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain or Nate Thurmond, that **** don't mean nothin'. You just don't leave your deer. You would see Robinson fall for every god-damn fake, and Hakeem would dip around or under him for an easy basket."

-1995



"The best team I ever saw was the 1967 Sixers. Everything today is geared for the offensive player. Open the middle so he can drive. You can't put your hand on a guy's back. Can you imagine me in the paint with only one guy on me and he can't put his hands on me and nobody's beside me? Michael Jordan is a bit older and he walks all the time, but the referees allow it. He's not going to come through dunking the basketball on Luke Jackson. He's going to get slammed to the floor. I'd like to see Wali Jones playing defense on him, driving him into me. I'd be more than happy to see that."

-1996



"He's 6'6, 196 lbs. Coming into our domain, the pivot, would not have been very wise of Michael. I don't think, I know he would have been crushed back then. During my time, if you did a 360 dunk you would either be on knocked on your arse or benched. It was called hot-dogging back then."

-1997



"I'm not a big fan of Michael Jordan's because he never led the league in field goal percentage. If you take the dunk out of his game, his percentage will be even lower."

-1997



"If Shaq has been chosen as the team leader then he need to do it more by example. He needs to get down the court and play defense instead of cherry picking by the basket for all those dunks. Too often the other team is on offense and Shaq is not even at half court. Everybody talks about his points when we should be looking closer at his rebounds and blocked shots and defense."

-1999

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