Bob Cousy quote on Wilt Chamberlain

[senelcoolidge]

When asked to score..Wilt scored..ALOT.
When asked to pass more..he lead the league in assist, and was in the top in the league for those years.
When asked to not score and concentrate on defense..he defended and rebounded like a monster.
Wilt just did what was asked of him.

[Alan Shore]

In the book Red and Me Russell writes that Chamberlain admitted that while he, Wilt, personally needed to have the offense go through him, such was not the case for Russell-- and that Chamberlain admitted that held him back from winning. The fact that Chamberlain "decided" to shut his critics up by leading the league in assists showed that it was not a lack of ability but rather a lack of volition to play a more team-oriented game. The year Philly won the title he also recorded a very high amount of assists. Meanwhile Russell was always the Celtic with the second most number of assists every year he played.

It is not the case that Chamberlain's coaches instructed him to play the way he did. He was too selfish and held too much power to follow any coaching and simply decided to play the way he wanted to play-- and God knows that he had plenty of players who have taken that exact same approach. He isn't unique but he is the paradigm for this losing scenario.

In Harvey Araton's book When the Garden Was Eden numerous accounts portrayed Chamberlain as overwhelmed by the moment when Reed hobbled onto the court. It was at that point that Frazier knew that they were going to win that game, as related to the author. In the same book, it seemed clear to some Knicks and Knick fans that the Lakers were lacking in chemistry with West, Chamberlain, and Baylor never being on the same page and giving off that vibe of dysfunction in their body language and facial expressions towards each other.

[oolalaa]

Originally Posted by bdreason

The problem is that one man isn't going to win a title.... I don't care how good he is. So when it comes down to it, you need everyone on the team to contribute... but you cannot expect 'roleplayers' to contribute when they are not given the opportunity, and/or the gameplan is essentially for them to contribute as little as possible.

And that's the whole point here. Wilt's teammates almost certainly wouldn't have performed as badly as they did in the post season if Wilt was facilitating a lot more and moving the ball. Consequently, the Wilt stans would have a lot less ammuntion when ripping said teammates, and would have a much harder time blaming Wilt's losses EXCLUSIVELY on them. They would be forced to look at their favourite player in a more critical and objective light.


"You cannot expect nine other guys to submerge themselves and their abilities to one man. It particuarly doesn't work when the man everybody else is feeding isn't helping the others whenever and wherever he can"

[Pointguard]

If you read enough, former Celtic teammates all follow a script and say the same thing in their own way. I believe it was instructed by Red because it doesn't have enough diversity of expression to be an individual expression. It's almost robotic. Cousy who never talks about another player, comes out of his shell to hype the exact same notes as other former teammates who never say a word about other players.

Sounds like a conspiracy theory??? Well if a Guitar plays only one note, then the creator conspired it that way. Hopefully the nonsense has stopped.