Wilt Chamberlain is the only man in NBA history to have averaged 50 points per game in a season. His dominance on an individual level was unmatched, Wilt was a statistical marvel, a machine. And like players from the 80s and 90s think today’s NBA is easier to score in, that’s precisely what Chamberlain thought of the 1990s.
“Today, right now? Cuz I could get maybe 30 right now big fella, I’m gonna tell you,” Wilt Chamberlain said to Ahmad Rashad about how many points he would have in 1997 in the NBA. “At 60?” a bewildered Bill Russell asked. “Yeah. But at 30, I could probably average 60 or 70. And I’m saying that politely. I’m not trying to dismantle your belief in the athletes of today, but the game would best suit me.”
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Wilt Chamberlain was a deeply confident man, and why wouldn’t he be, considering everything he achieved? But for him to say he would average 60 or 70 points in the 1990s is quite wild, nonetheless. Considering how much the game had veered away from dominant centers taking most of the shots, it would be unlikely that the game would suit him as well.
Older Generations Have Always Thought They Could Dominate The Eras That Came After Them
The same NBA stars that would have scoffed at Chamberlain’s claim in the 1990s have likely said similar things about the current era. Wilt is far from the only player to think that the game has gotten softer from the time they dominated, and there are many examples of this very recently.
Former NBA Head Coach George Karl claimed Michael Jordan would average a 40-point triple-double in the modern NBA. Ben Wallace, who wasn’t even in his prime in the 90s, suggested he could average 50 rebounds per game. And Paul Pierce famously said he would have multiple 50-point plus performances in the league today.
Players from former eras tend to glorify what they did, but if there is one man that could back his claims up, it’s probably Wilt Chamberlain. A lot of his statistics get downplayed because of the era in which he played. But considering that he was 7 feet tall and one of the most athletically gifted players in NBA history, he would likely have put up some monster numbers in the 90s as well.
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