>By most accounts, he's one of only a couple of dudes who
>played any defense, yet he never shot better than .467 from
>the field.

look at his numbers relative to the era and his advanced shooting. it is respectable enough, especially when shooting was nowhere near the selling point of his game.

Who was guarding him? If he was playing against the
>same nobodies and 6'5 centers who supposedly guarded Wilt,
>you'd think he's crack .500 once. Even worse when you consider
>the fact that he played with the narrow lane. Also, career
>.561 FT shooter. ZERO offensive skills

Wilt and Shaq couldnt shoot foul shots either, talk about selective criticism. If you look at the quality of centers Wilt and Russell faced, including each other, Willis Reed, Nate Thurmond, et al, it's actually BETTER than the quality of centers Shaq faced in his prime. At his peak, who were the other centers? Smits, Divac, Sabonis, Mutombo, et al. Outside of Mutumbo (a crappier, more stone-handed, much taller version of Russell ... who will also be a HOF'er!), those guys were not that great.

>Top four in rebounding becomes less impressive when you
>consider the fact that he played the majority of his career in
>an 8 team league. That means that he was in the top always in
>the top 50% of bigs.

Dude, you are a fool, he is second ALL TIME in rebounding! He is about 4000 ahead of Moses Malone at #3. If not for Chamberlain, there would be a VERY sound argument for Russell as the greatest player at the most important position in the sport. Log off.