When asked if he thought Curry was better than him, Lillard had a very direct response: "I don't think nobody is better than me when I get on the court." He also said he believes himself to be the best active point guard in the league.
Dame said, "I don't think nobody is better than me when I get on the court." And the author commented that "At least Lillard allowed himself to acknowledge Curry's greatness, while admitting his own personal competitiveness makes it impossible for him to think anyone is better than he is when the games start." That's common and understandable with elite athletes; they are hyper-competitive and need to have huge self-confidence to compete successfully at the highest level. This is not about what Dame thinks of Steph, it's about Dame believing in himself. I have no problem with that, even though I think it's obvious that Steph is the better player.
I'm sure from his point of view, he's done right by Portland in staying so long, and going to Miami isn't goin to a super team that already exists, he'd be joining to create a super team. Miami hasn't won a championship, so being the star to join and push them over the top is at least some sort of feather for his ego... where joining Steph would be unabashed riding coattails.
For me, this is waaaayyyy more rational than Dray & KD blaming Kerr & Myers for the fallout from their tiff, lol...
CP3 and Dwight Howard? It does have a bit of the Gary Peyton and Karl Malone joining the Lakers vibe. OTOH, were it not for the injury to Malone, that lakers team wins a championship.
And the Dwight Howard who played for the Lakers 2 years ago was a meaningful role player who brought energy and defense.
On a side note, what do you all think would be Wembanyama's pro comparison?
Personally, I see a lot of Kevin Garnett in Wemby. Both of them could be insane defensively both on the perimeter/rim protection with fantastic weakside protection while also simultaneously have excellent handles/jump shots for bigs of their size while having. an average first step.
The main difference would be that KG was a great passer and Wemby has yet to demonstrate that capability.
I can't fathom too many comps. Kareem for his physique, athleticism, and shot blocking maybe?
Speaking of shot blocking, Wemby will dissuade as many shots as Curry persuades pursuers. The Anti-Gravity to Curry's Gravity. A fascinating match up if they get switched onto each other.
Doesn't resonate with me. Can't picture Wemby as either one. But he should be a difference maker. The big question is whether Pop will play him major minutes or take it slowly with him. He has a lot to learn about the NBA game.
KG's offensive game was actually quite finesse based as he consistently preferred post moves which incorporated his jumper to just powering his way too the hoop.
KG's defensive game, just think taller Drraymond and you pretty much got it. In this area, I agree Wembenyama is more finesse based focusing on purely shotblocking but I think when Wemby fills out a bit he'll be less finesse based and the comparison willl fit more.
Thank you so much for the nice words and I’m glad you enjoy them! We really enjoy doing them (and the finished product makes me more likely to revisit/reminisce our own trip in the future). We love hearing when our travel inspires others.
I don't hate it. JaMychal made contributions last year, so why not DH? His wingspan is 7'5". We can use someone to obstruct opponents and protect the rim. Even if he stays on the bench, practices with him in the mix could benefit younger players who haven't experienced much of that style of play, and they could compare with Sarich. It could be interesting: Podz, get that floater over DH! JK, can you dunk on him? 🤔
Have heard the case that bigs with their larger hands find it harder to 'caress' the ball through the hoop (you saw Steve Adams, think Shaq and Wilt) so I get commiting to a stronger shot could give them more confidence (and I noticed the free throw bankers holding their shot longer, maybe better form?).
I think it’s crazy to think you could shoot better banking in a free throw rather than shooting it normally. You are basically turning a 15 foot shot into a 17 foot one that has less chance to drop should it not be shot cleanly. If some players do shoot better this way, it’s because they’re messed up in their heads. I still find it hard to believe that many veteran NBA players shoot below 80% from the line. It’s the exact same shot they’ve been taking since they first started hooping so most have probably shot tens or hundreds of thousands of them over the years. The muscle memory should be there to allow any veteran player to at least shoot in the 80s.
> I still find it hard to believe that many veteran NBA players shoot below 80% from the line. It’s the exact same shot they’ve been taking since they first started hooping so most have probably shot tens or hundreds of thousands of them over the years. The muscle memory should be there to allow any veteran player to at least shoot in the 80s.
What good is muscle memory if its remembering the wrong thing?
Wonder if that might work for Loondawg. He's no Steven Adams in terms of height and power but he does have a pretty big frame and his FTs are one of the only weaknesses in his game. If he could get to 75, 80% there would be no risk of Mike Malone pulling out the hack-a strategy against him. Doesn't Looney go for the bank on his rare midrange shots anyway? If I'm remembering that correctly, it might be a more familiar shot for him than a standard FT.
We all loved JaVale, but maybe certain players on the Warriors didn't. Who knows? Or maybe he wasn't enamored of certain Warrior players. Or maybe it was minutes as others have speculated.
Pretty sure the team could have gotten him back at some point after he left, but maybe there were/are fit/locker room issues we just we're not aware of.
Everyone seems to be saying we need someone to slow down Jokic and Embiid. Can either JaVale or DH (this old version, not the prime version) do that? Can one do it better than the other? Is there another candidate out there who could do it better?
I hope no one has any illusions about stopping them. But if Looney goes down, we need a big body that can guard one of these guys 10-15 minutes a game so Draymond can be used there in crunch time.
Is that playing at as slow a pace as humanly possible while at the same time having a telescopic baton at the ready because you can't I mean won't play defense? (Or would that be "Tonya Harening?")
I remember the year before last Bieli was good at slowing down the big men like Jokić. When I asked, he said he was so effective because he had had years of experience defending them. Doesn’t seem Dwight Howard brings this kind of skill.
Howard was a first-rate defensive center and rim protector in his prime. Now we just need him to be good, not elite, for limited minutes in certain matchups. It's not unreasonable to think he could do that and help with rebounding as well. He stays in terrific shape.
Do you know how hard it is to lock up 4 players on the court instead of 1? If it were easy, or even feasible, that would be every team's strategy every game--let the star get their's and lock up everybody else. Not saying its a bad plan. But its so hard to do it isn't necessarily better than the "bring in an older former strong defensive player in the 14 roster spot to give you 5-10 minutes in such matchups to keep your main defenders fresh for the challenge" plan.
I have no idea if we can do better than Howard in free agency at this point... I could see the case for him over JTA if he's in shape, since JTA's role overlaps more with young guys we know we'll want to find time for. And I'm sure we could do worse.
Happy Dwight Howard Day to those that celebrate! Speaking of athletic 7 footers (and with apologies to Bud Olsen), it is only Wilt Chamberlain (#13) days until training camp!
I'm sure pretty much everyone knows Wilt, and many know a lot more than I do, but there is a lot to find out about this interesting character.
First, he disliked "Wilt the Stilt", and preferred the nickname Dipper or The Big Dipper, which his friends gave him in high school because of how he had to dip down to walk through doorways. So of course, all the clips of him have him being introduced as Wilt the Stilt, cringe.
He still owns a significant chunk of the NBA record book, including a few records that are just never going to be touched let alone broken. Almost everyone will know about his 100 point game, but how about his average minutes of game, regular season, of 48.52, or total minutes played of 3882? Load management, anyone? Adam Silver would have loved this guy.
He's the only player to have his jersey retired by 3 different teams that he played for. Actually, four, since the Harlem Globetrotters also retired his jersey. How's that? Well, I didn't know this, but after his junior year of college at Kansas, he got frustrated with the games where they other teams basically had 4 guys guard him, and then freeze the ball when they got it, so the scores would be 61 - 44 or 42 - 48, and so Wilt decided to skip his senior year. In those days, the NBA would not let you play until your college class had graduated, so he took a "gap year" and played with the Globetrotters. Here's a few clips:
Another note, reportedly when growing up Wilt thought he would play for the Globetrotters, who predate the NBA by a few decades, and was the premier pro team for black players. The NBA also had unwritten rules against teams hiring black players for its first few years. Fortunately for all of us, that color barrier was broken in 1950 by a few pioneers. There is a film that was recently made about the first black NBA players that I plan to check out (https://www.sweetwatermov.com/home).
As a freshman at Kansas, he was rumored to have a unique free-throw style, no, not the Rick Barry one, but he'd start a few feet behind the line and basically long jump to a dunk. He also competed in track and field, and was the three-time Big 8 high jump champ, but unfortunately never got to use that form in a college or NBA game because they changed the rules to make it illegal. I mean, how cool would that be to see Kuminga or Giannis or other athletic big men use that style for free-throws? C'mon NBA, bring back the jumping free throw!
That was one of several rules that got changed due to him, along with widening the lane, instituting offensive goaltending and revising rules governing inbounding the ball.
After the gap year, Wilt was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors and played for the Dubs for 5 1/2 seasons. He helped the team get to the Eastern Finals twice, but lost to Bill Russell's Celtics both times. After his 3rd year, the owners moved the team to San Francisco, and many of the players and the head coach decided to quit or ask for a trade instead of move to the West Coast. They did manage to get to the finals the following year, but lost to Bill Russell's Celtics.
Unfortunately, despite having one of the top stars and a pretty good team, the Warriors struggled financially, so the owner traded Wilt for a few players and some cash back to Philly, where the once Syracuse Nationals had moved to become the 76ers. He ended up meeting Boston in the playoffs 5 more times, with the only series win being in 1967, when he went on to beat the Warriors in the finals for his first NBA championship. He was then traded to some team down south, but wasn't quite done being tormented by Russell, as the Celtics beat the Lakers in the 1969 finals. He did get one more championship beating the Knicks in 1972.
Wilt was not always the most supportive of teammates, and unfortunately because of his record, "only" winning 2 rings in 6 trips to the finals, he was labeled as a great individual player but not a winner. A few had some pretty harsh words about his game, here is Rick Barry from from Confessions of a basketball gypsy: the Rick Barry story
---
A lot of people have said that Wilt is a loser, but few of them have been players. Few players have the guts to say this about a guy who might be their teammate or who might take anger out on them on court. But I’ll say what most players feel, which is that Wilt zs a loser. He has a complex about this. He thinks the world is picking on him. He resents criticism, but he does not take advantage of his incredible natural ability. He is so inconsistent it is incredible. In some games he is simply awesome. He could be and should be awesome in most games, but he is not. He is terrible in big games. He knows he is going to lose and be blamed for the loss, so he dreads it, and you can see it in his eyes; and anyone who has ever played with him agrees with me, regardless of whether they admit it publicly. When it comes down to the closing minutes of a tough game, an important game, he doesn’t want the ball, he doesn’t want any part of the pressure. It is at these times that greatness is determined, and Wilt doesn’t have it. There is no way you can compare him as a pro to a Bill Russell or a Jerry West. If Jerry West had been a center, his team would have won as many championships as Russell’s. These are clutch competitors.
---
Ouch.
Overall, his team went 16 and 19 against Boston, which seems pretty even, but people only remember the end series results of 1 for 8. Wilt pointed out that he took Boston to a game 7 four times, and lost those four game 7s by a total of 9 points. Had he won even 2 of those 4, his team probably would have been champions, giving him a record of 4 and 2 in the finals, which is pretty good. But, it was not to be.
Clearly he was a prolific scorer (uh, both on and off the court, but this is a family site so I won't say any more about that), but he is the only NBA center to have led the league in assists, in '67-'68. He also was a monster on the boards, grabbing 2052 rebounds in the '61-'62 season, hmm, I think even Steve would play this guy. But, one of the most impressive stats was that he never fouled out of a game due to personal fouls in his entire career, though he was ejected for his second tech at least once.
Here is a longer video about the 100 point game, of which there is no footage because it was played in a neutral site with no TV coverage. Including some words from our good friends Tom Meschery and Al Attles:
And, since we still have a few weeks until exhibition games start, if you have time to kill you can check out the 1984 film Conan the Destroyer, where he plays Bombaata.
I just lost the last bit of respect I still had for Rick Barry. RB was good, but he was two leagues below Wilt, so far below he has no way to evaluate anything about the Big Dipper. And, nice move, hiding behind the "other players say" assertion. I doubt that was true, but even if were true, so what? The other players can speak for themselves. If RB has such clear feelings, he should just say it, not assert everyone agrees with him to somehow claim authority he did not have. Truth is not a popularity contest, nor is a matter up for a vote. It is what it is, whether people see it or not. But I guess RB wasn't man enough to say that to Wilt's face, and was not adult enough to just take credit for his own stupid take. Typical RB crap.
Wow, just finished watching the Liberty - Mystics game, that was crazy entertaining.
Natasha Cloud was incredible in that game. Holy cow what an effort.
In the Shannon Sharpe interview, Dwight said he sees himself contributing 20-25 minutes per game.
https://youtu.be/JgsuIPGFpBU?si=wr8GZY5wTbVNKZ1u&t=240
https://youtu.be/JgsuIPGFpBU?si=8fz3ndmIVpE-xl0p&t=472
>In the Shannon Sharpe interview, Dwight said he sees himself contributing 20-25 minutes per game.
(Somewhere MJD just tore up a contract offer he was drawing up ...)
I mean, technically, giving Steph a water cup and fist bump when he sits down qualifies as 'contributing'
towel-spinning and bench cardio counts for sure
Damian Lillard would rather 'lose every year' than play for hometown Warriors: https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/damian-lillard-would-rather-lose-every-year-than-play-for-hometown-warriors/
Dame, you’re already losing every year while not playing for the Warriors.
Lillard really thinks he’s better than Steph 🤣🤣🤣. Keep dreaming.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10090070-damian-lillard-ranks-himself-over-stephen-curry-names-magic-johnson-nbas-goat-pg
When asked if he thought Curry was better than him, Lillard had a very direct response: "I don't think nobody is better than me when I get on the court." He also said he believes himself to be the best active point guard in the league.
Dame said, "I don't think nobody is better than me when I get on the court." And the author commented that "At least Lillard allowed himself to acknowledge Curry's greatness, while admitting his own personal competitiveness makes it impossible for him to think anyone is better than he is when the games start." That's common and understandable with elite athletes; they are hyper-competitive and need to have huge self-confidence to compete successfully at the highest level. This is not about what Dame thinks of Steph, it's about Dame believing in himself. I have no problem with that, even though I think it's obvious that Steph is the better player.
Inferiority Complex
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferiority_complex
He's never been offered a vet min! Too small.
Dame you can go on winnin like in past 9 years
Good luck
I'm sure from his point of view, he's done right by Portland in staying so long, and going to Miami isn't goin to a super team that already exists, he'd be joining to create a super team. Miami hasn't won a championship, so being the star to join and push them over the top is at least some sort of feather for his ego... where joining Steph would be unabashed riding coattails.
For me, this is waaaayyyy more rational than Dray & KD blaming Kerr & Myers for the fallout from their tiff, lol...
Reminds of two other Portland players who never won anything and had great careers, Stockton and Malone. Portland's kind of a jinxed town.
Utah I remember
lol. My old brain. Thx. Portland is still jinxed.
Did I miss Dubsnerd posting in happy __ jersey number days til season starts post?
Im frantically scrolling and cant find it!
Maybe it wasnt dubsnerd, maybe it wasnt even real and I just dreamt about this wonderful posting idea! 🤔
Dubs Talk: Dalton talking about Dwight and Destiny Guzman
EDIT here’s the link https://youtu.be/6MqIM_oQNss?si=gPe8i5F1etqUVjb-
Can't believe we're really about start the season with Chris Paul soon....... still doesn't feel real.
CP3 and Dwight Howard? It does have a bit of the Gary Peyton and Karl Malone joining the Lakers vibe. OTOH, were it not for the injury to Malone, that lakers team wins a championship.
And the Dwight Howard who played for the Lakers 2 years ago was a meaningful role player who brought energy and defense.
Physical altercation is very unlikely but I wouldn't be surprised to hear plenty of verbal jawing throughout the season.
On a side note, what do you all think would be Wembanyama's pro comparison?
Personally, I see a lot of Kevin Garnett in Wemby. Both of them could be insane defensively both on the perimeter/rim protection with fantastic weakside protection while also simultaneously have excellent handles/jump shots for bigs of their size while having. an average first step.
The main difference would be that KG was a great passer and Wemby has yet to demonstrate that capability.
Breaking Down Victor Wembanyama's Unique Skill Set | Thinking Basketball
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXKQcEFoGvo
I can't fathom too many comps. Kareem for his physique, athleticism, and shot blocking maybe?
Speaking of shot blocking, Wemby will dissuade as many shots as Curry persuades pursuers. The Anti-Gravity to Curry's Gravity. A fascinating match up if they get switched onto each other.
Garnett-Durant hybrid, only with size?
Doesn't resonate with me. Can't picture Wemby as either one. But he should be a difference maker. The big question is whether Pop will play him major minutes or take it slowly with him. He has a lot to learn about the NBA game.
KG's offensive game was actually quite finesse based as he consistently preferred post moves which incorporated his jumper to just powering his way too the hoop.
KG's defensive game, just think taller Drraymond and you pretty much got it. In this area, I agree Wembenyama is more finesse based focusing on purely shotblocking but I think when Wemby fills out a bit he'll be less finesse based and the comparison willl fit more.
Short clip of CP3 and DG23 working out together https://youtube.com/shorts/8YGkoeNZSRQ?si=1raBcxw0oX6Wft_b
Yooo, why does Dray's jump shot look so much more smoother?
It looks smoother every single offseason lol. Reminds me of a video of Javale Mcgee and making like 20 straight 3 pointers
Goofus, I finally caught up on your last three videos. Amazing stuff.
Thanks for doing it. I keep adding cities I need to visit before I make up my mind where to go/potentially live!
Great inspiration for my Spanish class.
For anyone else interested in Goofus' travel videos:
https://www.youtube.com/@jennycraigadventures3314
Thank you so much for the nice words and I’m glad you enjoy them! We really enjoy doing them (and the finished product makes me more likely to revisit/reminisce our own trip in the future). We love hearing when our travel inspires others.
Steph helping out the state champs:
https://www.ktvu.com/news/steph-curry-surprises-oakland-basketball-players-shopping-for-sneakers
Evan Turner and JJ Redick Passionate Debate About "Embracing Your Role" (w/ Andre Iguodala) | JJ Redick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaBYHjR1DAI
I don't hate it. JaMychal made contributions last year, so why not DH? His wingspan is 7'5". We can use someone to obstruct opponents and protect the rim. Even if he stays on the bench, practices with him in the mix could benefit younger players who haven't experienced much of that style of play, and they could compare with Sarich. It could be interesting: Podz, get that floater over DH! JK, can you dunk on him? 🤔
OT: Can This CRAZY Free Throw Work In The NBA?!? | BBallBreakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42d39A1MAp8
Have heard the case that bigs with their larger hands find it harder to 'caress' the ball through the hoop (you saw Steve Adams, think Shaq and Wilt) so I get commiting to a stronger shot could give them more confidence (and I noticed the free throw bankers holding their shot longer, maybe better form?).
I think it’s crazy to think you could shoot better banking in a free throw rather than shooting it normally. You are basically turning a 15 foot shot into a 17 foot one that has less chance to drop should it not be shot cleanly. If some players do shoot better this way, it’s because they’re messed up in their heads. I still find it hard to believe that many veteran NBA players shoot below 80% from the line. It’s the exact same shot they’ve been taking since they first started hooping so most have probably shot tens or hundreds of thousands of them over the years. The muscle memory should be there to allow any veteran player to at least shoot in the 80s.
> I still find it hard to believe that many veteran NBA players shoot below 80% from the line. It’s the exact same shot they’ve been taking since they first started hooping so most have probably shot tens or hundreds of thousands of them over the years. The muscle memory should be there to allow any veteran player to at least shoot in the 80s.
What good is muscle memory if its remembering the wrong thing?
Wonder if that might work for Loondawg. He's no Steven Adams in terms of height and power but he does have a pretty big frame and his FTs are one of the only weaknesses in his game. If he could get to 75, 80% there would be no risk of Mike Malone pulling out the hack-a strategy against him. Doesn't Looney go for the bank on his rare midrange shots anyway? If I'm remembering that correctly, it might be a more familiar shot for him than a standard FT.
Who else feels like JaVale would've been a better fit than DH, and wonders why MDJ didn't try harder to sign him?
We all loved JaVale, but maybe certain players on the Warriors didn't. Who knows? Or maybe he wasn't enamored of certain Warrior players. Or maybe it was minutes as others have speculated.
Pretty sure the team could have gotten him back at some point after he left, but maybe there were/are fit/locker room issues we just we're not aware of.
It may well be that the Dubs wanted JaVale but he thought the opportunities were better elsewhere. That's why he left here.
Caboclo better than both
JaVale and Dwight are six of one, half-dozen of the other, imo. But who knows, as Abaddon notes, JaVale might have been our first choice.
I saw a report saying that JaVale went with the Kings because he'd get more minutes and be used more as a scorer. I can respect that.
What makes you say MDJ didn't try hard to sign him?
Everyone seems to be saying we need someone to slow down Jokic and Embiid. Can either JaVale or DH (this old version, not the prime version) do that? Can one do it better than the other? Is there another candidate out there who could do it better?
I hope no one has any illusions about stopping them. But if Looney goes down, we need a big body that can guard one of these guys 10-15 minutes a game so Draymond can be used there in crunch time.
The best centers in the NBA can't slow Jokic down, I don't know why anyone thinks a 14th roster spot guy can. Without Tonya Hardening him that is :p
"Tonya Hardening?"
Is that playing at as slow a pace as humanly possible while at the same time having a telescopic baton at the ready because you can't I mean won't play defense? (Or would that be "Tonya Harening?")
Tonya Harassing
I remember the year before last Bieli was good at slowing down the big men like Jokić. When I asked, he said he was so effective because he had had years of experience defending them. Doesn’t seem Dwight Howard brings this kind of skill.
Howard was a first-rate defensive center and rim protector in his prime. Now we just need him to be good, not elite, for limited minutes in certain matchups. It's not unreasonable to think he could do that and help with rebounding as well. He stays in terrific shape.
And he's still tall
Pa-reach.
Do you know how hard it is to lock up 4 players on the court instead of 1? If it were easy, or even feasible, that would be every team's strategy every game--let the star get their's and lock up everybody else. Not saying its a bad plan. But its so hard to do it isn't necessarily better than the "bring in an older former strong defensive player in the 14 roster spot to give you 5-10 minutes in such matchups to keep your main defenders fresh for the challenge" plan.
I have no idea if we can do better than Howard in free agency at this point... I could see the case for him over JTA if he's in shape, since JTA's role overlaps more with young guys we know we'll want to find time for. And I'm sure we could do worse.
Ahoy, mateys! Happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Arrrrr
Happy Dwight Howard Day to those that celebrate! Speaking of athletic 7 footers (and with apologies to Bud Olsen), it is only Wilt Chamberlain (#13) days until training camp!
I'm sure pretty much everyone knows Wilt, and many know a lot more than I do, but there is a lot to find out about this interesting character.
First, he disliked "Wilt the Stilt", and preferred the nickname Dipper or The Big Dipper, which his friends gave him in high school because of how he had to dip down to walk through doorways. So of course, all the clips of him have him being introduced as Wilt the Stilt, cringe.
He still owns a significant chunk of the NBA record book, including a few records that are just never going to be touched let alone broken. Almost everyone will know about his 100 point game, but how about his average minutes of game, regular season, of 48.52, or total minutes played of 3882? Load management, anyone? Adam Silver would have loved this guy.
He's the only player to have his jersey retired by 3 different teams that he played for. Actually, four, since the Harlem Globetrotters also retired his jersey. How's that? Well, I didn't know this, but after his junior year of college at Kansas, he got frustrated with the games where they other teams basically had 4 guys guard him, and then freeze the ball when they got it, so the scores would be 61 - 44 or 42 - 48, and so Wilt decided to skip his senior year. In those days, the NBA would not let you play until your college class had graduated, so he took a "gap year" and played with the Globetrotters. Here's a few clips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuSdzZr2z8Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDxj1TWssfE
Another note, reportedly when growing up Wilt thought he would play for the Globetrotters, who predate the NBA by a few decades, and was the premier pro team for black players. The NBA also had unwritten rules against teams hiring black players for its first few years. Fortunately for all of us, that color barrier was broken in 1950 by a few pioneers. There is a film that was recently made about the first black NBA players that I plan to check out (https://www.sweetwatermov.com/home).
As a freshman at Kansas, he was rumored to have a unique free-throw style, no, not the Rick Barry one, but he'd start a few feet behind the line and basically long jump to a dunk. He also competed in track and field, and was the three-time Big 8 high jump champ, but unfortunately never got to use that form in a college or NBA game because they changed the rules to make it illegal. I mean, how cool would that be to see Kuminga or Giannis or other athletic big men use that style for free-throws? C'mon NBA, bring back the jumping free throw!
That was one of several rules that got changed due to him, along with widening the lane, instituting offensive goaltending and revising rules governing inbounding the ball.
After the gap year, Wilt was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors and played for the Dubs for 5 1/2 seasons. He helped the team get to the Eastern Finals twice, but lost to Bill Russell's Celtics both times. After his 3rd year, the owners moved the team to San Francisco, and many of the players and the head coach decided to quit or ask for a trade instead of move to the West Coast. They did manage to get to the finals the following year, but lost to Bill Russell's Celtics.
Unfortunately, despite having one of the top stars and a pretty good team, the Warriors struggled financially, so the owner traded Wilt for a few players and some cash back to Philly, where the once Syracuse Nationals had moved to become the 76ers. He ended up meeting Boston in the playoffs 5 more times, with the only series win being in 1967, when he went on to beat the Warriors in the finals for his first NBA championship. He was then traded to some team down south, but wasn't quite done being tormented by Russell, as the Celtics beat the Lakers in the 1969 finals. He did get one more championship beating the Knicks in 1972.
Wilt was not always the most supportive of teammates, and unfortunately because of his record, "only" winning 2 rings in 6 trips to the finals, he was labeled as a great individual player but not a winner. A few had some pretty harsh words about his game, here is Rick Barry from from Confessions of a basketball gypsy: the Rick Barry story
---
A lot of people have said that Wilt is a loser, but few of them have been players. Few players have the guts to say this about a guy who might be their teammate or who might take anger out on them on court. But I’ll say what most players feel, which is that Wilt zs a loser. He has a complex about this. He thinks the world is picking on him. He resents criticism, but he does not take advantage of his incredible natural ability. He is so inconsistent it is incredible. In some games he is simply awesome. He could be and should be awesome in most games, but he is not. He is terrible in big games. He knows he is going to lose and be blamed for the loss, so he dreads it, and you can see it in his eyes; and anyone who has ever played with him agrees with me, regardless of whether they admit it publicly. When it comes down to the closing minutes of a tough game, an important game, he doesn’t want the ball, he doesn’t want any part of the pressure. It is at these times that greatness is determined, and Wilt doesn’t have it. There is no way you can compare him as a pro to a Bill Russell or a Jerry West. If Jerry West had been a center, his team would have won as many championships as Russell’s. These are clutch competitors.
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Ouch.
Overall, his team went 16 and 19 against Boston, which seems pretty even, but people only remember the end series results of 1 for 8. Wilt pointed out that he took Boston to a game 7 four times, and lost those four game 7s by a total of 9 points. Had he won even 2 of those 4, his team probably would have been champions, giving him a record of 4 and 2 in the finals, which is pretty good. But, it was not to be.
Clearly he was a prolific scorer (uh, both on and off the court, but this is a family site so I won't say any more about that), but he is the only NBA center to have led the league in assists, in '67-'68. He also was a monster on the boards, grabbing 2052 rebounds in the '61-'62 season, hmm, I think even Steve would play this guy. But, one of the most impressive stats was that he never fouled out of a game due to personal fouls in his entire career, though he was ejected for his second tech at least once.
A few highlights from his Kansas days:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZoWdJKRIus
Here is his profile on NBA.com:
https://www.nba.com/news/history-nba-legend-wilt-chamberlain
and a highlight video from the NBA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xr3i9jpiTE
Here are some clips of the '64 finals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vCb-i8XpaQ
Here is a longer video about the 100 point game, of which there is no footage because it was played in a neutral site with no TV coverage. Including some words from our good friends Tom Meschery and Al Attles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mniPj8inPbM&t=1591s
And, here is a tour of his crib in LA from 1972:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGa2nmOqI6s
And, since we still have a few weeks until exhibition games start, if you have time to kill you can check out the 1984 film Conan the Destroyer, where he plays Bombaata.
I just lost the last bit of respect I still had for Rick Barry. RB was good, but he was two leagues below Wilt, so far below he has no way to evaluate anything about the Big Dipper. And, nice move, hiding behind the "other players say" assertion. I doubt that was true, but even if were true, so what? The other players can speak for themselves. If RB has such clear feelings, he should just say it, not assert everyone agrees with him to somehow claim authority he did not have. Truth is not a popularity contest, nor is a matter up for a vote. It is what it is, whether people see it or not. But I guess RB wasn't man enough to say that to Wilt's face, and was not adult enough to just take credit for his own stupid take. Typical RB crap.
I'd take a modern day Wilt on the current team. Especially if the alternative is Dwight Howard.
If you have access to Showtime, the recent three-part Wilt documentary featuring Ben Taylor (Thinking Baskeball) is superb.