Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are two of the most iconic names in NBA history. Wilt is arguably the single most dominant player the league has ever seen, while Kareem went on to become its all-time leading scorer by surpassing Wilt. The two were drafted 10 years apart, with Wilt entering the league in 1959 while Kareem came in 1969, which meant they got to face off against each other 17 times, with Wilt winning 9 of those.
This was despite Chamberlain being on his way out, as he retired in 1973, but he still managed to hold his own. In fact, these two went at it when they faced off, as they were the two premier bigs in the league and ESPN recently showed some epic footage of them repeatedly dunking on each other.
Fans were in awe of the two behemoths going at each other every step of the way and praised them for it.
“and would still go for the block, instead of moving to the side for “business decisions”
“They would dominate today.”
“And NO mean mugging , just professionals”
“Back when everything was contested”
“Notice how they just dunked and ran down the court. No taunting, nothing”
“Before magic and larry rivalry they was wilt and Kareem rivalry .”
“And now we have kids that whine and cry when people lay a finger on them ♂️”
“And Mfs in today’s league really think they can stop that “
“These two hated each other too dope rivalries like that don’t exist anymore.”
“when big men could play”
“No school like the Old school! “
“Era of the big man “
“That is friggin AWESOME”
“Imagine if they could take 4 steps and couldn’t be touched like todays game? Both would average 50 a game.”
“I would’ve loved to watch these two 1v1”
“That’s what you call fighting for the top spot”
“These the plumbers JJ talking about”
“Relentless… I don’t want to join you I want to BEAT you.. real sports”
“I need to see a 30 for 30 on their matchups”
“Wasn’t all the flash and cockiness, just straight ballin I love it.”
There was definitely some bad blood between these two towards the end of Wilt’s time in the league, which added more spice to their matchups, but that wasn’t always the case. Their relationship had started off on great terms, but once things went south, it never quite recovered.
It would have been great to see more games between them when they were at their absolute peak, as that would have been a clash unlike any other. It is saying something when Shaquille O’Neal admits someone was better than him, and he did just that when he took himself off a list of the greatest Lakers in favor of Kareem, Wilt, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, and LeBron James.
