One small reason Wilt had those astonishing numbers is that he was always in the game. The guy never came out, never fouled out, never needed a rest. In the 1962 season he did the impossible: He averaged more minutes per game (48.5) than there were than there were minutes played (48). Let that sink in.
Considered perhaps the worst ever draft move and rightly so. When Jordan left after his junior year he was the National Player of the Year and his team went nowhere. Gotta read the signs.
And the great irony of course is that Jordan also became All NBA on defense first team 9 times and defensive player of the year once.
Personally I'd rather do a bracket of top desserts... or sandwiches
to be fair many thought Drexler, a future hall of famer, was Jordan, he was Cylde the glide after all, and had that position filled. They did not have a center and Sam was considered very talented, but unfortunately also fragile which turned out to be true. If you wanted a post player, after Hakeem who went #1, Sam was 7'1", then came Turpin who proved to be to slow, and nobody would have thought either Thorpe, Willis or any other center was close to Sam. Most people would have taken him and most people would have been wrong. 4 hall of famers, and nobody could have seen Stockon that way. Some nice players and a lot of duds (like most drafts).
Today, 48 years ago, in 1972, the Lakers finished with the best record at the time (69-13) in the history of the NBA. Wilt averaged 15 points and 19 rebounds for that team with Jerry West and Gail Goodrich each averaging 25 points a game. West also had almost 10 assists a game. Throw in Elgin Baylor, Happy Hairston, Jim McMillan etc. and you have a pretty good team. It was the Lakers' first title believe it or not and Wilt's second and last one with the first being the Philadelphia Warriors in 1967.
The Walton game you described above took place 47 years ago today. I remember watching it in amazement.
basically the same team lost the championship the next year to the N.Y. knicks with Frazier, reed and monroe
Excluding Ray Allen is beyond idiotic
Not including Bill Walton or Jabbar is ridiculous .... we are talking about college, not NBA ..... I do agree Laettner is totally suspect ....
You haven't the foggiest idea of what you're talking about ..... his college career may have been the best in the history of the NCAA and you are either too young to know or too old and foggy about how magnificent his game was ..... We are talking about college, not his pro career where injuries affected and limited his game ....
Thanks for sharing ..... I knew Wilt was a great athlete but I didn't know he was so diversified ..... amazing
Wilt was on the list but he was way down on the list ....
I was commenting on people who were diminishing Walton and Jabbar ..... they totally deserved being where they were on the list
Walton did not play as a freshman, either
Women were always getting diminished in this idiotic poll .... the fact that you could only vote on Twitter is ridiculous because how many people over 50 have a twitter account or care about twitter ....
I'm over 50. What's a twitter?
The team the Lakers beat in 5 games in the Finals in 1972 were the Knicks. Wilt had 25 points, 29 rebounds, 8 assists and 8 blocks in game 5.
And the Knicks beat the Lakers in five games the next year. Just sayin’.
Believe me, I know. I watched it. The Lakers won the first game and the Knicks won four in a row. If you listen to early interviews with Geno, he says that watching the 1969 and 1973 Knicks made him realize that is the way the game should be played. I see great similarities in the emphasis on team passing with the old Knicks' team passing and UCONN and when you look at film of our great teams, like 2002 and 2016 as examples, you see a level of team passing that is extraordinary. I thought we were getting that at the end of the regular season this year and I hope we start with that next year, especially with Evina, Anna and Paige and please don't forget Nika. She can dish.
Great point. Back to Back titles for the Dons. Not a bad point guard either by the name of KC Jones.
