Wilt is the GOAT; why is he? Though I’m only searching for more evidence, I know he is.
I’ll keep it brief and let those with more experience add to it. Wilt stood at 7′ 1 1/16′′ and was a powerful, muscular man with amazing speed and leaping abilities. He was the fastest player on the floor most of the time and a track star at Kansas. Can you picture the fastest centers on the court in the modern era?
With a vertical leap of more than 44 inches, he was a top high jumper in college. His outstretched palm is almost level with the TOP OF THE BACKBOARD in photos where he leaps to prevent a shot. Tapes of some of Wilt’s later games show that, although not a statistic at the time, it was estimated that he blocked over twenty-five shots! During the playoffs this year, a report in the news stated that James had stopped four shots in just one quarter. Wilt and Abdul-Jabbar have confrontations where Wilt blocks FOUR of his shots in a single possession! Kareem was a competent basketball player in his own right.
Wilt was a field goal scorer who was unstoppable. Because of this, he averaged more than forty points per game during the course of his first four or five years in the league. He averaged 20+ rebounds and 37.4 points a game as a rookie (I am estimating because I do not have the numbers close at hand, but they are in the ballpark, or court, as the case may be:-)
Wilt’s athleticism led to a number of regulation modifications. He was able to dunk from the free-throw line with ease. As a basketball player, his weakest point was his notoriously bad free-throw shooting. Aside from that, he was the most athletic, fastest, stronger (just look at Gus Johnson’s dunk attempt), and dominant player to have ever played on a basketball floor.
As previously stated, the current trend of using the number of championships won as a yardstick to determine the greatest of all time depends on a plethora of other variables that are outside the player’s control. And anyhow, Bill Russell will always be the greatest of all time if this is the real deal.
I’ve watched basketball greats like George Mikan, Kevin Durant, and others, and I think that Wilt is the greatest of all time.
I appreciate your thought.
