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100 Point Game: Wilt Chamberlain Breakdown


The all-time ranking lists. Every NBA fan’s got their opinions on the greatest player of all time. Some have Michael Jordan number one, some have LeBron number one, and some even have Wilt Chamberlain number one, but outside of the top 10 or so players of all time most lists get murkier, as most NBA fans weren’t alive to watch the Big Dipper and others play. That’s why I’m here. I’m here to give you a detailed breakdown on the way Wilt Chamberlain plays and, at the end, tell you where I’d rank him after knowing this.

Wilt Chamberlain

Wilt Chamberlain was a freak of nature. He broke more NBA records than any player alive. He averaged 50 point per game in a season, scored exactly 100 points in one game, averaged over 48 minutes per game one season, was rumored to have a 50 inch vertical (the highest ever in the combine is 48), a 4.4 40 meter time (for reference, Davante Adams got 4.56), and a 9.6 100 meter dash time (fastest ever is a 9.58), as well as a 500 lb bench press. He certainly showed this strength and athleticism in the games I watched.

Chamberlain was ferocious getting rebounds, always positioning himself on the opposite side of the basket where two thirds of the rebounds normally go. He had unreal verticality and that, combined with his positioning led him to be the best rebounder of all time. Oh, and the fact that he was 7 foot 2 with a 7 foot 8 wingspan. With the average player being over 8 inches shorter. There was also no defensive three second back then, so he would camp the paint defensively to deter and block shots when someone drives into the paint and whenever a shot goes up he’d have the best chance to get it. He had great timing on his blocks, and had the leaping ability to match it, but at times he ignored the goaltending rule. Teams didn’t run much pick and roll against Wilt, but when they did he always dropped into the paint to get boards and protect the rim on a possible drive. While he was great at being a rim protector and rebounding the ball, Wilt sometimes doesn’t rotate quite fast enough to be able to contest a shot.

I was surprised while watching how low his motor was because you’d expect from a track and field athlete he’d be moving all the time. That’s when I remembered; he played 81 games (there was only 81 games to play), 45 minutes per game (wilt didn’t just have the record for most minutes per game in a season, he has the top 7 seasons), AND he was in the Eastern Conference Finals. He’d played over 200 straight games, with historic numbers in minutes per game, and it was almost the offseason. So I wouldn’t give him too hard of a time for not sprinting after every loose ball or going after every single block, as you’d imagine he’d be exhausted from playing that much. Also, he averaged 11 free throws per game. Getting hit that much takes a toll on your body. His motor was low, but I bet if I’d watched an early regular season game instead of a playoff game his motor’d be higher.

On the other side of the ball, Chamberlain played with a lot of finesse in the post and I was surprised by this after hearing his athletic feats. He looked graceful in the post, differentiating from Shaquille O’Neal who used his brute strength to move you out of the way so he could dunk. Chamberlain used lots of hook shots and fadeaways to create space when given the ball in the post. He also loved the finger roll where he towered over the entire other team using his bewildering length. He wasn’t the best at finishing these, but he’s such a great rebounder and always got it back and put it back up. Against smaller/weaker defenders, he’d do more backing them down and attempting to dunk while against better opponents like Russell he resorted to his fadeaways and hook shots. He also had bad footwork as he put on more muscle it looked very awkward.

He honestly couldn’t really self create, his handle of the ball was terrible and he just kinda chucked up shots in the post in hopes of being able to get offensive rebounds.

One other thing I noticed about his post offense was that he looked to pass before he would look to score. He just started off in pass mode and I’d assume the defense started catching on to this. The 76ers would pass it to him in the post and they’d cut around him in hopes to get an open look, which Chamberlain was great at finding. However, he did force passes at times. When he saw the cutter had a step on his defender, he’d throw a pass without accounting for help defense on the cut, which led to interceptions. For the most part, the cutters weren’t open so he scored out of the post or kicked it out. The 76ers offense depended & relied on Wilt’s ability to score & pass out of the post. He was even being doubled in the post BEFORE HE GOT THE BALL.

The biggest problem with his low post game was that he couldn’t simultaneously be in pass mode and scoring mode, it was either one or the other. For this reason, it held him back as an offensive force. Also, he exclusively played out of the left block. That was a problem because it clogged the lane which caused there to be zero spacing. However, when he was in pass mode he had good vision of the floor but wasn’t even thinking of shooting.

I know what you’re thinking. “But wait, isn’t everyone saying that Wilt was some huge ball hog that never passed to his teammates, and now you’re telling me that Wilt looked to pass before he looked to score?” That’s because, the Wilt that averaged 50 PPG wasn’t the most valuable Wilt. The most valuable Wilt was the one that averaged half as many points, but contributed to winning more by being a playmaker and getting his teammates more involved. They won the championship this year and it was the only year he won a championship as the best player on the team.

A few other interesting tidbits:

  • Chamberlain stopped shooting at the end of games, every time he got it he would pass it, even with pretty good looks.

  • Chamberlain never fouled out, which he kept throughout high school, and college, and throughout his pro career. Once he got 5 fouls, he stopped competing on defense.

  • Chamberlain almost never dribbled. If he got a defensive rebound or a steal, he would immediately look for an outlet regardless of how open the rest of the court was.

  • Wilt was the only person I’ve ever seen block the skyhook

Conclusion: Wilt Chamberlain was an athletic beast and an amazing rim protector with great speed but a small motor. Offensively, he was one of the best interior scorers the NBA’s ever seen, albeit heavily overrated due to him either being in “pass mode” or “scoring mode”.

I don’t think I’ll change where I rank chamberlain, I have him 4th behind Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Honestly, that feels about right.

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