Russell vs. Wilt full H2H stats against each other year-By-year.

[coastalmarker99]

1959-1960 regular season in 11 H2H's

Russell: 19.8 ppg, 23.7 rpg 3.5 APG 39.3 FG%

Wilt: 39.1 ppg, 29.7 rpg,46.5 FG%, 1.3 apg.


1960 ECF in six postseason H2H's

Russell: 20.7 ppg, 27.0 rpg, 44.6 FG%, and 2.8 APG.

Wilt: 30.5 ppg, 27.5 rpg,.50.0 FG% and 2.0 APG



1960-1961 in 13 H2H matchups

Russell: 18.8 ppg, 25.4 rpg, 39.8 FG%, and 3.6 APG

Wilt: 35.5 ppg, 30.6 rpg, 49.2 FG%, and 1.8 apg.


1961-62 in 10 regular season H2H's:

Russell: 18.5 ppg, 24.6 rpg, 38.3 FG%, and 4.4 APG.

Wilt: 39.7 ppg, 28.8 rpg, 46.8 FG%, and 2.1 apg.


1962 ECF in seven postseason H2H's

Russell: 22.0 ppg, 25.9 rpg, .39.9. FG%, and 4.6 APG.

Wilt: 33.6 ppg, 26.9 rpg, .46.8 FG%, and 2.9 apg.


1962 -1963 in 9 regular season H2H's:

Russell: 15.3 ppg, 27.8 rpg, .38.14 FG%

Wilt: 38.1 ppg, 28.9 rpg, . 51.1 FG%


1963-1964 in 8 regular season H2H

Russell 14.3 ppg, 25.3 rpg , 5 APG 39.81 FG%

Wilt 29.1 ppg ,26.8 rpg, 3.6 APG 53.9 FG%


1964 finals in five postseason H2H's

Russell 11.2 ppg, 25.2 rpg, 5.0 APG 38.6 FG%

Wilt 29.2 ppg 27,6 rpg, 2.4 APG 51.7 FG%


1964 - 1965 in 11 regular season H2H

Russell 12.6 ppg, 22.2 rpg 4.6 APG, 28.1 FG%

Wilt 25.4 ppg, 26.5 rpg, 4.2 APG, 47.3 FG%



1965 ECF in seven postseason H2H's

Russell 15.6 ppg, 25.1 rpg, 6.7 APG,44.7 FG%.

Wilt 30.1 ppg, 31.4 rpg, 3.3 APG 55.5 FG%.



1965 -1966 in 9 regular season H2H

Russell vs Wilt in 9 regular season H2H's:

Russell: 9.4 ppg, 21.2 rpg, 4.9 APG, .30.1 FG%

Wilt: 28.3 ppg, 30.7 rpg, 4.1 APG 47.3 FG%



1966 ECF in five postseason H2H's

Russell: 14.0 ppg, 26.2 rpg, 5.6 APG, 42.4 FG%

Wilt: 28.0 ppg, 30.2 rpg, 3.0 APG 50.9 FG%


1966 -1967 in 9 regular season H2H

Russell: 12.2 ppg, 21.1 rpg, 4.1 APG .44.7 FG%

Wilt: 20.3 ppg, 26.7 rpg, 6.3 APG, .54.9 FG%



1967 ECF in five postseason H2H's

Russell: 11.4 ppg, 23.4 rpg, 6.0 APG, 35.8 FG%

Wilt: 21.6 ppg, 32.0 rpg, 10.0 apg, 55.6 FG%



1967-1968 in 8 regular season H2H

Russell: 7.8 ppg, 17.5 rpg, 5.1 APG 29.1 FG%

Wilt: 17.1 ppg, 26.1 rpg, 8.5 APG, .46.1 FG%



1968 ECF in seven postseason H2H's


Russell: 13.7 ppg, 23.9 rpg, 4.1 APG, 44.0 FG%.

Wilt: 22.1 ppg, 25.1 rpg, 6.7 APG, 48.7 FG%.



1968-69: in six regular-season H2H

Russell: 6.7 ppg, 15.8 rpg, 5.8 APG on 34.0 %FG

Wilt: 16.3 ppg, 24.0 rpg, 4.8 APG on 50.7 %FG


1969 finals in seven postseason H2H's

Russell: 9.1 ppg, 21.1 rpg, 5.1 apg on 39.7 %FG

Wilt: 11.7 ppg, 25.0 rpg, 3.0 apg on 50.0 %FG

[coastalmarker99]

One thing Wilt deserves a lot of credit against Russell for is that he made him virtually useless on the offensive end of the court.

As to reduce a center to a shooting percentage of under 30 percent when you are matched up against them is the definition of lockdown defence.

[coastalmarker99]

One thing I don't understand about Russell is that how do you manage to shoot under 30 percent as a 6 foot 10 centre against your biggest rival.







While a player such as Kobe despite the fact that he usually was taking ridiculous shots from the outside was able to shoot over 40 percent from the field against top tier defenders in Tony Allen and others.

[Manny98]

Wilt got the stats

Russell got the wins :applause:

[coastalmarker99]

Wilt got the stats

Russell got the wins :applause:


If you swap the two I think Wilt on the Celtics sweeps or gentleman sweeps Russell every single year outside of 69.

[julizaver]

One thing I don't understand about Russell is that how do you manage to shoot under 30 percent as a 6 foot 10 centre against your biggest rival.







While a player such as Kobe despite the fact that he usually was taking ridiculous shots from the outside was able to shoot over 40 percent from the field against top tier defenders in Tony Allen and others.

Bill Russel is a team player, has a limited offensive moves and his defense and rebounding is what he is known best (Kobe is more renown for his offensive game). The other thing is that Wilt Chamberlain is known for his offensive exploits, but he is also very good one on one defender and he also closed the paint. Russell is also known as probably the best shotblocker in NBA history, but based on some unofficial data we can argue if Wilt didn't block more shots. I supposed that as in the rebounding department Wilt could have a slight edge also on block shots. On his last season Wilt at 36 was leading "unofficially" NBA in block shots per game, this stats was made by LA Times (5 blocks per game)- sadly after Wilt retires the NBA start counting officially the block shots. And Russell is not the only C, whose suffers offensively vs Wilt. The prime high scoring Kareem vs old past knee injury Wilt in 1969-1973 (28 meetings including post-season) shot with 10 % less accuracy when playing vs Wilt (there is a lot of videos of Wilt blocking Jabar hooks and shots). You can check their match up data from net. And you can see that it is not only Russell and Kareem, but also other high scoring bigs from 60, 70s have problems scoring vs Wilt (it is documented that in their first meeting Wilt blocked the first 9 shots of Walt Bellamy, who was scoring 30 ppg that season).

[julizaver]

If you swap the two I think Wilt on the Celtics sweeps or gentleman sweeps Russell every single year outside of 69.

It could be.

[Manny98]

If you swap the two I think Wilt on the Celtics sweeps or gentleman sweeps Russell every single year outside of 69.
Why they had pretty much even supporting casts yet Russell won every time

Ilt had West and Baylor and still couldn't beat Daddy Russell

Russell sacrificed his stats for the betterment of the teams success whilst Wilt went for stats at the cost of his teams success

[Manny98]

Bill Russel is a team player, has a limited offensive moves and his defense and rebounding is what he is known best (Kobe is more renown for his offensive game). The other thing is that Wilt Chamberlain is known for his offensive exploits, but he is also very good one on one defender and he also closed the paint. Russell is also known as probably the best shotblocker in NBA history, but based on some unofficial data we can argue if Wilt didn't block more shots. I supposed that as in the rebounding department Wilt could have a slight edge also on block shots. On his last season Wilt at 36 was leading "unofficially" NBA in block shots per game, this stats was made by LA Times (5 blocks per game)- sadly after Wilt retires the NBA start counting officially the block shots. And Russell is not the only C, whose suffers offensively vs Wilt. The prime high scoring Kareem vs old past knee injury Wilt in 1969-1973 (28 meetings including post-season) shot with 10 % less accuracy when playing vs Wilt (there is a lot of videos of Wilt blocking Jabar hooks and shots). You can check their match up data from net. And you can see that it is not only Russell and Kareem, but also other high scoring bigs from 60, 70s have problems scoring vs Wilt (it is documented that in their first meeting Wilt blocked the first 9 shots of Walt Bellamy, who was scoring 30 ppg that season).

Russell was the ultimate intangibles team player

His stats don't look pretty but his team always won because Russells impact goes WAY beyond the statsheet that's why every team he was on always won

And the argument that Russell played with 10 HOF is stupid because those same teams looked like dogshit when Russell didn't play

Russell was the reason those guys were HOF because he put them in the ultimate winning spotlight

[Shogon]

Russell sacrificed his stats for the betterment of the teams success whilst Wilt went for stats at the cost of his teams success

https://youtu.be/46RutBTe-as?t=221

Wilt himself acknowledged this.


To stray from the topic... also people should consider this... Hakeem and the Rockets used to wax Jordan's ass. Despite Hakeem having a vastly inferior supporting cast for his entire career, the Rockets won >50% of their games against Jordan's Bulls.

Anyone think Russell would have done worse? :D

Real talk though? All of this is unknowable. The variables between teams in the same era are astronomical, let alone cross eras.

[julizaver]

Why they had pretty much even supporting casts yet Russell won every time

Ilt had West and Baylor and still couldn't beat Daddy Russell

Russell sacrificed his stats for the betterment of the teams success whilst Wilt went for stats at the cost of his teams success

No it hasn't - generally it is well known and established fact that Russell teams were better and his supporting cast stronger. There is some parity in the mid to late 60s, but in the first 4-5 years Celtics got the edge. In 1969 Baylor was as old as Russell. Anyway at the end basketball is a team game and althoug Wilt stats were superior to Russell in 1969 his team lost (Wilt injured in G7 4Qth - try to re-enter but his coach refused).

[coastalmarker99]

It could be.

Russell even said himself when he was a commentator for CBS that a 35-year-old Wilt post knee injury on the Lakers was playing his role better than he ever did.

And let's get real here a prime Wilt on those stacked Celtic teams, with the vast array of talent that they had, would not have been getting doubled, tripled, and even completely swarmed, as he did with his other teams in the '60s.


Plus the thing is...Wilt proved that he could adjust to ANY coach. His play in '62, '64, '67 and '68, '69, '70, and '72 and '73 proves it as He did whatever his coaches asked of him.

[coastalmarker99]

Why they had pretty much even supporting casts yet Russell won every time

Ilt had West and Baylor and still couldn't beat Daddy Russell

Russell sacrificed his stats for the betterment of the teams success whilst Wilt went for stats at the cost of his teams success

Tom Meschery a teammate of Wilt's actually said this about the 1962 WCF


''the Boston players, man for man, were all better players than us on the Warriors. To go as far as we did was Wilt's doing. we came within two points of the championship because of that man."






BTW, In Robert Cherry's book Wilt larger than life. (page 116 for those who care)...

"The Warriors team, while good, was not as good as Boston's team. And no one, least of all the Philadelphia media, ever said they were.


The Bulletin's Jim Hefferman pointed out in the story before the seventh game that the Warriors had been underdogs in every game of the series, and remained so for the Final game.


That the Warriors came so close as they did to defeating the Celtics was a testament to Wilt's talent ."

[coastalmarker99]

Also, everyone at the time, knew that Wilt had to do far more then Russell for his team's to be competitive against the Celtics.


Russell could concentrate solely on the defensive end (and with a TON of help...which even his teammates acknowledged), while Wilt had to be dominant at both ends of the floor otherwise if he didn't.



Then they would get blown right out of the building as when Russell clearly outplayed Wilt in games such as game 3 of the 1960 ECF the score ended up being 120 to 90 in the Celtics favour at the end of the game.

[iamgine]

One thing Wilt deserves a lot of credit against Russell for is that he made him virtually useless on the offensive end of the court.

As to reduce a center to a shooting percentage of under 30 percent when you are matched up against them is the definition of lockdown defence.

I don't know about that. Russ usually only average like 10-17 shots a game on like 43 FG%. Lets say he usually average 14 shots. That would mean he's usually shooting 6/14.

Now lets assume Wilt was able to reduce his FG% to say, 38%. That would mean Russ is now shooting 5.3/14.

I mean, that's not even a whole basket being prevented from Russ.

[getting_old]

Wilt got the stats

Russell got the wins :applause:


Russell said he made sure to always compliment Wilt for all the great things he did during the first 42 minutes of the game, because he was going to roast WIlt in the last 6 minutes of clutch games

THose 68 and 69 C's wins over Wilt in the playoffs are almost a crime against humanity considering Wilt's teams superiority, but only 28 points better, Wilt needed 30 points better to win big games

[julizaver]

I don't know about that. Russ usually only average like 10-17 shots a game on like 43 FG%. Lets say he usually average 14 shots. That would mean he's usually shooting 6/14.

Now lets assume Wilt was able to reduce his FG% to say, 38%. That would mean Russ is now shooting 5.3/14.

I mean, that's not even a whole basket being prevented from Russ.

After Wilt start playing more team basketball, maturing and in his prime yet he just oblitared Russell (1964-1967). I know a game from that period that Wilt held Russell to 0 from 14 - can you imagine a 6'10 (barefoot) center going 0/14 from the field ? Wilt put up a 30-30 series with a lot of assists and tons of block shots. Once his team was healthy in 1967 and with good coach his Sixers were conidered one of the best teams ever and Sixers decimated Celtics in the post season. Wilt was just the bigger and better player. He was the best defensive and best offensive player at the same time.

[coastalmarker99]

After Wilt start playing more team basketball, maturing and in his prime yet he just oblitared Russell (1964-1967). I know a game from that period that Wilt held Russell to 0 from 14 - can you imagine a 6'10 (barefoot) center going 0/14 from the field ? Wilt put up a 30-30 series with a lot of assists and tons of block shots. Once his team was healthy in 1967 and with good coach his Sixers were conidered one of the best teams ever and Sixers decimated Celtics in the post season. Wilt was just the bigger and better player. He was the best defensive and best offensive player at the same time.


Indeed he was the best defensive and best offensive player at the same time as he proved that to start the 1969 1970 season when he averaged over 32 PPG on 57 per cent shooting.







Those first nine games before he got hurt showed that he had been easily capable of still averaging over 35 points per game from 1967 to 1969 as I mean he did have the highest-scoring games in those three seasons.

[getting_old]

Indeed he was the best defensive and best offensive player at the same time as he proved that to start the 1969 1970 season when he averaged over 32 PPG on 57 per cent shooting.







Those first nine games before he got hurt showed that he had been easily capable of still averaging over 35 points per game from 1967 to 1969 as I mean he did have the highest-scoring games in those three seasons.


Wilt and Dwight Howard... a lot in common mentally in big games, good thing because they never would have lost if they had killer instinct

[iamgine]

After Wilt start playing more team basketball, maturing and in his prime yet he just oblitared Russell (1964-1967). I know a game from that period that Wilt held Russell to 0 from 14 - can you imagine a 6'10 (barefoot) center going 0/14 from the field ? Wilt put up a 30-30 series with a lot of assists and tons of block shots. Once his team was healthy in 1967 and with good coach his Sixers were conidered one of the best teams ever and Sixers decimated Celtics in the post season. Wilt was just the bigger and better player. He was the best defensive and best offensive player at the same time.
ah yes the one game argument. :lol

You know Wayne Embry once held Wilt to 6-19. What a beast that Wayne Embry was.

[Manny98]

Russell said he made sure to always compliment Wilt for all the great things he did during the first 42 minutes of the game, because he was going to roast WIlt in the last 6 minutes of clutch games

THose 68 and 69 C's wins over Wilt in the playoffs are almost a crime against humanity considering Wilt's teams superiority, but only 28 points better, Wilt needed 30 points better to win big games

Yep Russell was 10-0 in Game 7s, clutchest player ever

Otoh Wilts was 2-5 in Game 7s, Choke Artist

He blew a 3-1 lead to Bill Russell in 1968 and disappeared from the face of the earth in the second half in game 7

[Manny98]

Wilt and Dwight Howard... a lot in common mentally in big games, good thing because they never would have lost if they had killer instinct

Wilt with Kobe's mentality would easily be the GOAT

Unfortunately he seemed more concerned about his statline than winning for most of his career that's why I don't rate him highly as other greats

[j3lademaster]

https://youtu.be/46RutBTe-as?t=221

Wilt himself acknowledged this.


To stray from the topic... also people should consider this... Hakeem and the Rockets used to wax Jordan's ass. Despite Hakeem having a vastly inferior supporting cast for his entire career, the Rockets won >50% of their games against Jordan's Bulls.

Anyone think Russell would have done worse? :D

Real talk though? All of this is unknowable. The variables between teams in the same era are astronomical, let alone cross eras.
Definitely impossible to quantify but interesting conversation nonetheless.

But to rephrase the question: do you think Wilt does a better job replacing Hakeem on those Houston squads or Russell?

[coastalmarker99]

Definitely impossible to quantify but interesting conversation nonetheless.

But to rephrase the question: do you think Wilt does a better job replacing Hakeem on those Houston squads or Russell?


It's clearly Wilt as where would the Rockets get their offence from if they replaced a goat two way big in Hakeem with a player that is only good on one side of the ball in Russell.