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And of course he played every minute of every game at his peak. That is somehow a knock? How about the fact that he did not ONCE foul out during his career, despite those minutes anchoring a defense?
Further, there actually *is* some "coincidence" to his diminished scoring. You're making a fair assumption, but an inaccurate one. Read what Wilt said as his career progress and what Alex Hannum had him doing with the Sixers. He sacrificed tons of scoring once he had actual talent around him. Compare his rosters from 1965 onward with his early career. There is no contest, and he tailored his game accordingly.
You're saying 25/12? That is preposterous. What player with his size and agility have we seen? Hakeem potentially, Shaq arguably (sort of a different combo that may have been equivalent), and after that there are only a few arguables. and all of them were more productive than that.
Thurmond came into the league in 1963, and they battled plenty with Wilt getting the better. Against Russell, he grabbed 55 rebounds and had plenty of huge stat lines (the argument is not that he didn't, but that they were empty ... history is written by the winners though).
You're looking at guys 6'9" on that list, are we saying three inches is that huge of an edge? Among those nine centers, I saw a bunch of all-stars and at least three hall of famers. So your point is that they were short? That I was mistaken in saying Stokes, whose career was short, had one year of overlap with Wilt? Not really Walleye-ish.
If an old Wilt who had long since de-emphasized scoring in his game was putting up the high 20s on Jabbar, we can feel pretty confident he would have been more than formidable in his prime. Again, Jabbar's career lasted so long that goes a couple eras beyond Wilt's.
Adjusted numbers of that 61-62 seasons still had him at 35 and 19 or so, it was Elliot Kalb's book, and he was actually sort of making a case against Wilt as No. 1 (somewhat controversially, he had Shaq at the top).
You're bending overbackward here to knock down Wilt? Why? Jordanian allegiances are not for Pistons fans. And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
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