How good was Wilt Chamberlain defensively?

Not going to get into stuff like win shares. As meaningless as a Samuel Dalembert double-double imo.

I'm 53 and started attending Sixers games in 1965. Became te biggest basketball junkie out of a family of them. Contingent of dad, uncles, older cousins, etc made the pilgrimage to as many Philly basketball games as could be found, and there were plenty.

Chamberlain is the greatest big man I ever saw play the game. More athletic than anyone that size, though in a foot race he vs prime Kareem would have been interesting. Long, strong, skilled and I've never seen an NBA big face better competition in a higher percentage of his games than those guys did in the compressed league of that era.

Defensively? Russell was better. He was expected to do more within that system. He was quicker off his feet and showed greater anticipation of what the offense was trying to do than I've seen from anyone; prime Walton may be the closest. As some of the quotes indicate, Wilt didn't stray much from the lane, though when given a mon-on-man assignment like Kareem (something he took personally) he could dazzle defensively.

So, second greatest defensive center of all time to Bill Russell. That's my vote.

I'll add that I had the opportunity to meet and sit with Wilt at a game when I was 11 or 12. Like meeting Zeus. Tremendous guy who discussed what was happening on the floor with me...and who interrupted our chats to speak with some really, really, REALLY good looking women a few times. All the guys that came around asked for Wilt to write on pieces of paper. All the girls had pieces of paper on which they'd written for Wilt.

[QUOTE=ThaRegul8r]
Pete Newell on the difference between the two:

[I]

[QUOTE=JMT]I'll add that I had the opportunity to meet and sit with Wilt at a game when I was 11 or 12. Like meeting Zeus. [/QUOTE]
Yeah, I was about the same age when I met Wilt and he was bigger than life. That Zeus quote is dead on. His voice was big and he had a very cool way about him.

[QUOTE=D-Wade316]List of some of the best defensive centers:
Russell
Wilt
Eaton
Olajuwon
Robinson
Wallace

Russell is the GOAT defender, so it is implied that he is also the GOAT defensive center. No dynasty has come close to Boston's sustained dominance. They won mostly out of their defense. The teams Russell led were average or below average offensive teams compared to league average.
[url]http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=6205[/url]
1963 Celtics - 3rd best defensive team of all-time
1965 Celtics - 5th
1962 Celtics - 6th
1964 Celtics - 13th
And those teams coincided with Russell's prime. :eek:

I guess you could safely place Chamberlain at 2-5.
1. Russell
2-4. Chamberlain, Hakeem, Olajuwon, Wallace[/QUOTE]
I think Dikembe was the best of the modern day centers.

[QUOTE=CavaliersFTW]PTB - watch this [I]complete-game[/I] highlight showcasing Wilt's defensive "intangibles" from a 1971 playoff game against the Chicago Bulls.
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaXHYlPECcc[/url]

This is actually the series immediately preceding his battle with Kareem - West and Baylor DNP. This game is a losing effort though, and he doesn't score a lot of points, but you can get a good idea of what his defensive impact was like at least in his Laker years. Jerry West is color commentating and describes him as "The Big Eraser" making up for a lot of defensive mistakes of other players.

Watch the video with "annotations enabled" for information that will pop up to add insight on things like who he's guarding and what to look for in the game etc.

You can just tell by the footage, he is the undisputed glue of that team. He's assisting his players, altering countless opponent shots, blocking shots, setting screens, facilitating offensive plays, split-second full-court outlet passes off his rebounds, startling fast-break presses, and he plays all 48 minutes against 2 young centers and he never fouls out (in fact, he never fouled out in his entire career). People assume he played soft because of that but you tell me if it looks like he's defensively soft because of foul fear... he impacts the entire flow of the opponents offense.[/QUOTE]

I've seen that game. There's no doubt about it. He was arguably the greatest defender in the game at that time and has a solid case for the honor of the best stopper of all time.

He was really good, but i wonder what if he played half of that earlier in his career...

[QUOTE=CavaliersFTW]Agreed but...

:eek: [B]what about THURMOND!!![/B]

He may not have outright blocked the skyhook but the guy guarded the young version of prime KAJ "better than anyone" Kareem says ever faced (And it shows in their h2h statistics). [/QUOTE]

One of my all time favorite players of all time.

So damn good. The closest we've seen to him is Greg Oden.. who in a way was similar to him. However, Thurmond was so damn good. :bowdown:

My hidden candidate for the honor of the greatest stopper in NBA History. His case is really really great.

[QUOTE=ThaRegul8r]Then how about someone who's been presenting historical basketball information on the internet since it came to be what we know it as today, and who has been quoted on numerous occasions on this site?

That was one of the differences between Russell and Chamberlain defensively. Russell was more agile, a quick leaper and could cover more ground than Chamberlain. Russell would come out to guard guards and block shots on the perimeter. One memory I have is of Jerry West bringing the ball up the court, and about near the free throw line Russell picks him up. When he pulled up for a jumper, Russell was on it, pouncing like a cat and snuffing the shot, then grabbing it as the ball popped up in the air, and suddenly the Celtics were off and running in the other direction.

But I dislike using any personal recollection or anything, because no one has any reason to care about the recollection of a random guy on the internet. So here's someone whose account should have more meaning:

[B]Walt Frazier:[/B] [I]When you drove on him, you waited for the squat; then, if you timed it right, you could get your shot off. That was the main difference defensively between him and Bill Russell. Russell would stand straight up and you didn

Wilt (in addition to MJ, Kobe, LeBron) is one of the players I generally refrain from discussing, but I'm in need of some help with research. Does anybody have any information/quotes/sources regarding his defense during the 63-64 and 64-65 (his time in SF at least) seasons? I realize this is a long shot, but anything would be greatly appreciated (I'm not terribly interested in shot-blocking numbers alone, but they're of course a welcome contribution).

:cheers:

[QUOTE=Rnbizzle]Javale McGee.[/QUOTE]

:lol
I'd even claim Javale is more athletic and faster than Wilt from all the vids I've seen...

[QUOTE=madmax]:lol
I'd even claim Javale is more athletic and faster than Wilt from all the vids I've seen...[/QUOTE]

McGee is more athletic and faster than 99% of the centers in the NBA today too.

That doesn't mean anything though, because he's still rubbish at basketball though. People like you will never understand basketball.

Last time I checked, it takes more than athleticism to be a great basketball player.

Wilt Chamberlain was not only one of the biggest freaks of nature ever (athletically) but also a tremendous basketball player, e.g. footwork, post-moves, fade-aways, defensive timing, passing, pivot play, etc.

Gerald Green is more athletic than Jordan was (arguably).

I guess that makes him a better player, right?

Imagine if they recorded block in those days. Wilt, Thurmond, and Russell would have destroyed the current all time block list. But Wilt was great defensively.

Havlicek said in his book that when Wilt would get his fourth foul he would stop playing defence, as he was enamoured with the never fouling out record. Havlicek said that Wilt cheated his team out of alot wins by not contesting shots while having four fouls.

Kareem spent more than half of his career not giving any effort on defense. He's not a top 15 defensive center, much less player.

[QUOTE=senelcoolidge]Imagine if they recorded block in those days. Wilt, Thurmond, and Russell would have destroyed the current all time block list.[/QUOTE]

Example.

A 36-year-old Wilt blocked 446 shots in 1972-73 (5.44 a game), his 14th and final season in the league.

28-year-old Mark Eaton blocked 456 shots in 1984-85 (5.56 a game), his third season in the league, the most since blocks were an official statistic.

So Wilt at 36 years old in his last season in the league blocked 10 fewer shots than the record for most blocks in a season since they officially started recording them in '73-74. In other words, only one guy (almost 10 years his junior) in the almost 40 years after Wilt's retirement blocked more shots in a season than Wilt did [I]the last year of his career[/I]. So if he did that his last year in the league, how many blocks did he have for his career?

Same question can be asked for Russell and Thurmond.