A shame Wilt didn't come back to play in 1985

[LAZERUSS]

In jlauber's words, "Wilt was hobbled by injuries" in his thirties yet his stans believe he could dominate the league at age 50.

When it comes to Wilt, there's always an excuse. But go on, tell us more of his h2h stats that resulted in 2 titles.

I see you avoided MY questions.

How come MJ in his '89 (and '90) seasons did not win a title? Was he not good enough?

How come KAJ didn't win a ring in '77? Was he not good enough?

How come Kobe didn't win a ring in '06, but he won one in '09? Was he a MUCH better player in '09 than in '06?

How come Russell could win rings throughout his career, including several against Wilt, and yet got blown out by Chamberlain and his Sixers in '67?

[Asukal]

I see you avoided MY questions.

How come MJ in his '89 (and '90) seasons did not win a title? Was he not good enough?

How come KAJ didn't win a ring in '77? Was he not good enough?

How come Kobe didn't win a ring in '06, but he won one in '09? Was he a MUCH better player in '09 than in '06?

How come Russell could win rings throughout his career, including several against Wilt, and yet got blown out by Chamberlain and his Sixers in '67?

Why do you ask questions you already know the answer to?

There's no excuse, they lost plain and simple. Yet when all is said and done they lead their teams to more than 2 rings. Wilt? Oh yeah I forgot we gotta give him a pass coz he got injured and Baylor and West sucks.

[senelcoolidge]

Wilt after his NBA career played a lot of volleyball. He said that this actually helped him a lot. He was having knee issues toward the end of his career and volleyball was great rehab. I think as he got older he began to have a hip problem, but I'm not sure if this was at age 50 or later. Either way Wilt would could have played and been effective even at age 50 with limited minutes. I believe he would have still been a dominate rebounder and defender for his minutes.

[julizaver]

The claim is that Wilt could still play in the league at age 50, not that he would be the same player. Maybe he plays an effective 15 minutes a game and still has an impact.

I think he could do things which a player of Mark Eaton caliber could do - stay near the basket catch some rebounds, blocked some shots and then "cruising half court" to see what happen... for those 15 minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uakwVc86vg

[LAZERUSS]

Why do you ask questions you already know the answer to?

There's no excuse, they lost plain and simple. Yet when all is said and done they lead their teams to more than 2 rings. Wilt? Oh yeah I forgot we gotta give him a pass coz he got injured and Baylor and West sucks.

Yep, Kareem's contributions to his '88 ring, when his team won DESPITE his awful play, outweigh Chamberlain's failed effort in '65, in a series in which Wilt was BY FAR the best player on the floor.

makes perfect sense...

[Elosha]

I've followed these Wilt discussions on ISH for years with interest, even long before I joined. Let me say I find both the pro and con arguments to be intriguing and find some merit to both. I'm much older then most posters on ISH, but not old enough to have watched Wilt play, like several of our posters. But I will say that we are fortunate to have members like Cavs, who posts so much rare footage of Wilt and other great players of the past. Same with the details provided by JLauber/Lazeruss, who I have little doubt from his posts, watched Wilt play in person. Agree with them or not, they certainly spark what can often be thought-provoking debate

Where the controversy starts is where to place Wilt and others in the modern context, given how long ago he played. When analyzing Wilt's actual playing ability/athletic ability, and the relative playing ability/athletic ability of his peers, the most authoritative source for me is actual game footage. Although it's limited, thanks to Cavs and others, we actually have a somewhat significant amount of video highlights and game footage, although regrettably Wilt's younger years are underrepresented. Second in priority, I do appreciate and consider anecdotal evidence of Wilt's play/athleticism, although such testimony must yield in my opinion to the actual physical evidence that we have, limited though it is. I do maintain a healthy amount of skepticism for anecdotal evidence, whether from the past or present day. Such evidence often, intentionally or not, becomes exaggerated, distorted, or just plain inaccurate.

It's like a tall tale I remember hearing of Jordan during his sophomore year at UNC. During a practice, he was supposed to have stolen the ball, driven the length of the court, jumped from the free throw line past two defenders, double pumped and dunked with two hands. As great as Jordan was, I do not believe this occurred. What probably happened was a monster dunk that then became a bit of an urban myth. Not to say every Wilt exploit is inaccurate, he was unquestionably a very big, strong, and athletic man. But I prefer to judge as much as possible on physical, rather than anecdotal evidence.

As to the question of whether Wilt could have played at 50. Perhaps on a limited basis. But as Lazeruss stated, he wouldn't have been the player he was. No one can be at that age. I saw a video on here, probably posted from Cavs, of Wilt dunking the ball at around 50. Cavs rightfully proclaims this an impressive feat given his age. I agree, but I remember also watching the video and noting how much more difficult in seemed for him to dunk and how it seemed he really could not get up very high at all. Not to say that he couldn't jump higher, but the man was human, not a demi-god. At age 50, neither Wilt, Jordan, KAJ, Magic, Elgin, Bird, West, or any other great could ever play to the level of their prime, it's not humanly possible.

Oh and for the record, MJ dunked at age 50 too, and he's 7-8 inches shorter than Wilt. :)

[julizaver]

I've followed these Wilt discussions on ISH for years with interest, even long before I joined. Let me say I find both the pro and con arguments to be intriguing and find some merit to both. I'm much older then most posters on ISH, but not old enough to have watched Wilt play, like several of our posters. But I will say that we are fortunate to have members like Cavs, who posts so much rare footage of Wilt and other great players of the past. Same with the details provided by JLauber/Lazeruss, who I have little doubt from his posts, watched Wilt play in person. Agree with them or not, they certainly spark what can often be thought-provoking debate

Where the controversy starts is where to place Wilt and others in the modern context, given how long ago he played. When analyzing Wilt's actual playing ability/athletic ability, and the relative playing ability/athletic ability of his peers, the most authoritative source for me is actual game footage. Although it's limited, thanks to Cavs and others, we actually have a somewhat significant amount of video highlights and game footage, although regrettably Wilt's younger years are underrepresented. Second in priority, I do appreciate and consider anecdotal evidence of Wilt's play/athleticism, although such testimony must yield in my opinion to the actual physical evidence that we have, limited though it is. I do maintain a healthy amount of skepticism for anecdotal evidence, whether from the past or present day. Such evidence often, intentionally or not, becomes exaggerated, distorted, or just plain inaccurate.

It's like a tall tale I remember hearing of Jordan during his sophomore year at UNC. During a practice, he was supposed to have stolen the ball, driven the length of the court, jumped from the free throw line past two defenders, double pumped and dunked with two hands. As great as Jordan was, I do not believe this occurred. What probably happened was a monster dunk that then became a bit of an urban myth. Not to say every Wilt exploit is inaccurate, he was unquestionably a very big, strong, and athletic man. But I prefer to judge as much as possible on physical, rather than anecdotal evidence.

As to the question of whether Wilt could have played at 50. Perhaps on a limited basis. But as Lazeruss stated, he wouldn't have been the player he was. No one can be at that age. I saw a video on here, probably posted from Cavs, of Wilt dunking the ball at around 50. Cavs rightfully proclaims this an impressive feat given his age. I agree, but I remember also watching the video and noting how much more difficult in seemed for him to dunk and how it seemed he really could not get up very high at all. Not to say that he couldn't jump higher, but the man was human, not a demi-god. At age 50, neither Wilt, Jordan, KAJ, Magic, Elgin, Bird, West, or any other great could ever play to the level of their prime, it's not humanly possible.

Oh and for the record, MJ dunked at age 50 too, and he's 7-8 inches shorter than Wilt. :)

It is not a big deal for me. A player of Wilt's height could dunk easy with 13-14 inch vertical on 10ft basket, which is nothing for a good conditioned 7th ft athlete in his 50s. A player of MJs size would need around 25 inches to dunk one handed. DrJ could dunk at 60.
And a player with Wilt's stature could rebound almost flat footed - just need to be in a good position for the rebound. The last is basketball ability. :)

[jongib369]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsz3wLZfwSo

Really wish he played in that game, would of been cool to see him and Thurmond go at it again

If they were on the same team it would of been comical

[jongib369]

I've followed these Wilt discussions on ISH for years with interest, even long before I joined. Let me say I find both the pro and con arguments to be intriguing and find some merit to both. I'm much older then most posters on ISH, but not old enough to have watched Wilt play, like several of our posters. But I will say that we are fortunate to have members like Cavs, who posts so much rare footage of Wilt and other great players of the past. Same with the details provided by JLauber/Lazeruss, who I have little doubt from his posts, watched Wilt play in person. Agree with them or not, they certainly spark what can often be thought-provoking debate

Where the controversy starts is where to place Wilt and others in the modern context, given how long ago he played. When analyzing Wilt's actual playing ability/athletic ability, and the relative playing ability/athletic ability of his peers, the most authoritative source for me is actual game footage. Although it's limited, thanks to Cavs and others, we actually have a somewhat significant amount of video highlights and game footage, although regrettably Wilt's younger years are underrepresented. Second in priority, I do appreciate and consider anecdotal evidence of Wilt's play/athleticism, although such testimony must yield in my opinion to the actual physical evidence that we have, limited though it is. I do maintain a healthy amount of skepticism for anecdotal evidence, whether from the past or present day. Such evidence often, intentionally or not, becomes exaggerated, distorted, or just plain inaccurate.

It's like a tall tale I remember hearing of Jordan during his sophomore year at UNC. During a practice, he was supposed to have stolen the ball, driven the length of the court, jumped from the free throw line past two defenders, double pumped and dunked with two hands. As great as Jordan was, I do not believe this occurred. What probably happened was a monster dunk that then became a bit of an urban myth. Not to say every Wilt exploit is inaccurate, he was unquestionably a very big, strong, and athletic man. But I prefer to judge as much as possible on physical, rather than anecdotal evidence.

As to the question of whether Wilt could have played at 50. Perhaps on a limited basis. But as Lazeruss stated, he wouldn't have been the player he was. No one can be at that age. I saw a video on here, probably posted from Cavs, of Wilt dunking the ball at around 50. Cavs rightfully proclaims this an impressive feat given his age. I agree, but I remember also watching the video and noting how much more difficult in seemed for him to dunk and how it seemed he really could not get up very high at all. Not to say that he couldn't jump higher, but the man was human, not a demi-god. At age 50, neither Wilt, Jordan, KAJ, Magic, Elgin, Bird, West, or any other great could ever play to the level of their prime, it's not humanly possible.

Oh and for the record, MJ dunked at age 50 too, and he's 7-8 inches shorter than Wilt. :)

This one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UbK5EMhJwg

[Psileas]

Just 1 play, but he looks pretty fine at the age of 44:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REVTDO8JsZM#t=20s

[Mr Feeny]

Using that analogy...

MJ, ZERO rings without Pippen, Grant, and Rodman. And Kobe ZERO rings without Shaq, Gasol, and even Horry and Artest.

TEAM game.

Are you a complete idiot?
Giving an opinion is not the same thing as stating a fact.
MJ was 6 for 6 in NBA finals while Wilt was a serial choke artist going 2-6. That's a FACTS. Your d!ck slurping isn't going to change that.

Mr 18 ppg in NBA finals doesn't hold a candle to MJ, unfortunately. And most wouldn't have him top 5, Never mind GOAT.

[Euroleague]

Why is it a shame? Did you want him to die on the court of a heart attack?

[coin24]

Lonely laz has gone full retard

Time to move on, wilt hasn't played for about 40 years it's time to get a life

[DaRkJaWs]

Why is it a shame? Did you want him to give Michael Jordan a heart attack?

Why yes, yes I did. Kill the "GOAT" before his "legend" could take off.

[deja vu]

Jordan would've shoved his balls on Wilt's face. Wilt hasn't seen such athleticism back in his heydays.