This is one of the most common myths that perpetuate, that Wilt played in a weak era with 8 teams full of short white unathletic dudes and that’s why he dominated easily and dropped 50 a night. Well, I’m going to name a bunch of HoFers from his era, and tell you their best seasons. After all, if the league was not competitive, and full of short white dudes then guys other than Wilt shouldn’t be putting up great numbers at all right?
1960-1973 HoFer (except Wilt) best seasons:
Jack Twyman (1960) – 31.2 PPG / 8.9 RPG / 3.5 APG
Bob Cousy (1960) – 19.4 PPG / 4.7 RPG / 9.5 APG
Cliff Hagan (1960) – 24.8 PPG / 10.7 RPG / 4.0 APG
Tom Heinsohn (1960) – 21.7 PPG / 10.6 RPG / 2.3 APG
Bailey Howell (1961) – 23.6 PPG / 14.4 RPG / 2.5 APG
Elgin Baylor (1962) – 38.3 PPG / 18.6 RPG / 4.6 APG
Oscar Robertson (1962) – 30.8 PPG / 12.5 RPG / 11.4 APG
Walt Bellamy (1962) – 31.6 PPG / 19.0 RPG / 2.7 APG
Richie Guerin (1962) – 29.5 PPG / 6.4 RPG / 6.9 APG
Wayne Embry (1962) – 19.8 PPG / 13.0 RPG / 2.4 APG
Bill Russell (1962) – 18.9 PPG / 23.6 RPG / 4.5 APG
Bob Pettit (1962) – 31.1 PPG / 18.7 RPG / 3.7 APG
Jerry Lucas (1965) – 21.5 PPG / 21.1 RPG / 2.7 APG
Sam Jones (1965) – 25.9 PPG / 5.1 RPG / 2.8 APG
Zelmo Beaty (1966) – 20.7 PPG / 13.6 RPG / 1.6 APG
Jerry West (1966) – 31.3 PPG / 7.1 RPG / 6.1 APG
Chet Walker (1967) – 19.3 PPG / 8.1 RPG / 2.3 APG
Rick Barry (1967) – 35.6 PPG / 9.2 RPG / 3.6 APG
Dave Bing (1968) – 27.0 PPG / 4.4 RPG / 5.0 APG
Dave Debusschere (1968) – 17.9 PPG / 13.5 RPG / 2.3 APG
Nate Thurmond (1968) – 20.5 PPG / 22.0 RPG / 4.2 APG
Hal Greer (1968) – 24.1 PPG / 5.4 RPG / 4.5 APG
Gus Johnson (1968) – 19.1 PPG / 13.0 RPG / 2.7 APG
Earl Monroe (1968) – 24.3 PPG / 5.7 RPG / 4.3 APG
Lenny Wilkens (1969) – 22.4 PPG / 6.2 RPG / 8.2 APG
Wes Unseld (1970) – 16.2 PPG / 16.7 RPG / 3.5 APG
Connie Hawkins (1970) – 24.6 PPG / 10.4 RPG / 4.8 APG
Willis Reed (1970) – 21.7 PPG / 13.9 RPG / 2.0 APG
Billy Cunningham (1970) – 26.1 PPG / 13.6 RPG / 4.3 APG
Elvin Hayes (1971) – 28.7 PPG / 16.6 RPG / 2.3 APG
Lou Hudson (1971) – 26.8 PPG / 5.1 RPG / 3.4 APG
John Havlicek (1971) – 28.9 PPG / 9.0 RPG / 7.5 APG
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1972) – 34.8 PPG / 16.6 RPG / 4.6 APG
Bob Lanier (1972) – 25.7 PPG / 14.2 RPG / 3.1 APG
Walt Frazier (1972) – 23.2 PPG / 6.7 RPG / 5.8 APG
Jo Jo White (1972) – 23.1 PPG / 5.6 RPG / 5.3 APG
Gail Goodrich (1972) – 25.3 PPG / 3.0 APG / 5.2 APG
Dave Cowens (1973) – 20.5 PPG / 16.2 RPG / 4.1 APG
Spencer Haywood (1973) – 29.2 PPG / 12.9 RPG / 2.5 APG
Pete Maravich (1973) – 26.1 PPG / 4.4 RPG / 6.9 APG
Tiny Archibald (1973) – 34.0 PPG / 2.8 RPG / 11.4 APG
If you look at those numbers, you can tell that Wilt definitely was playing in a league full of some pretty talented guys, not just ‘short white unathletic dudes’ as casual fans just assume. And yet, Wilt outscored and out-rebounded them all.
We all know Wilt’s best season but here it is – truly video game numbers – 50.4 PPG / 25.7 RPG / 2.4 APG on 50.6% shooting. Nobody since has ever averaged more than 37 pts in a season (Michael Jordan in 1987). Rebounding wise no one has even come close to Wilt’s career average in rebounding (22.9 RPG). In addition, no one has ever come close to the minutes Wilt played in that season either at 48.5MPG – that’s every second of every game including overtimes.
I’ll give you Wilt’s worst season for comparison – his last season when he was 36 years old in 1973 – still averaged 13.2 PPG / 18.6 RPG / 4.5 APG, 72.7% FG% and went to the Finals that year. Think about that – in his last and worst season – he still led the league in rebounding with an average that was only ever equaled once since (Dennis Rodman in 1992), averaged 4.5 assists a game for a center, then had the NBA’s highest FG% in a season ever.
And yet, despite all this, many fans and analysts do not put Wilt in their top 5. This is a case where Wilt’s numbers worked against him in that he was so dominant that people just automatically assumed his peers were all nobodies.
