Five athletes you wish were active today and in their prime

He played the post. He got double teamed. He kicked the ball back out. I was talking about dribbling.

 

That's not true, either. Consider the size of the talent pool and the way the game has developed internationally.

 

Chamberlain didn't sleep the night before he scored 100. He was a high jump champion and 400 meter runner in college. He also out thew an Olympic gold medal shot putter in practice. He made a point to lead the league in assists because he was tired of hearing he was a ball hog. He could do just about anything he wanted on the basketball court. The only thing Wilt didn't do well was shoot free throws, which was strange because he could hit 15-foot jumpers.

In retirement he was a world class volleyball player. NBA teams were trying to get him to come back in the late 70s and early 80s.

He got bored with basketball because he was so dominant, that's why he created challenges for himself like the assist thing. If Wilt had played in the past 20 years he'd have been extremely motivated to prove he was the best player, he'd have wanted to leave no doubt he was better than Shaq, Jordan, LeBron or whoever the inevitable comparison would have been.

It's hard to even imagine how good Wilt might have been with modern competition to drive him, today's training techniques, coaching, supplements, a private nutritionist and chef and all the other advantages current players enjoy.

 

Well said. I say the same thing about Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. I know, different sport, but same analogy. And, to add they didn't need to take the train to go to different stadiums.

 

Yeah, good point. Wilt closed down his club in Harlem the night before his 100-point game, then rode the train back to Philly, but didn't sleep because he was worried he'd miss his stop. Then he rode in a car to the hotel in Harrisburg before going over the arena in Hershey.

 

If you are the best of your era, you are the best of your era.

To say that the 20th or 25th best player in the NBA would dominate in other eras, with all factors in "training" being the same, does not make sense to me - no matter the sport.

 

True, and Chamberlain was a freak of nature in any era. To say he'd sit on the bench today is ridiculous.

 

Preposterous. The 11th-12th men on NBA benches in the 1960s couldn't start on NCAA D-3 teams today.

The very worst player in the NBA today, whoever that is, would be a starter in the 1960s.

 

We're talking about taking the mid-'60s Wilt and putting him, as is, into the 2013 NBA. The mid-'60s Wilt was a freak of nature for his era, not this one. He'd be among dozens of athletic seven-foot players in today's environment. In fact, there would be players bigger, stronger and more athletic than him. The talent pool is bigger and better, the training and nutrition is better, the scouting and coaching is better. This isn't just a Wilt thing or a basketball thing. Every sport and every sport's best players are far, far better than they were in the '60s.

Do you guys think the '76ers of 1967, one of the greatest NBA teams, could even begin to compete with today's Heat?

 

No, but I think Wilt himself would eat Chris Bosh alive. I think if Wilt had been born in 1980 we'd be done talking about Jordan being the best ever.

 

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/stithto01.html

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/buckncl01.html

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/f/foleyja01.html

The last three guys on the Knick bench. They were all very good college players and not guys pulled off of the street. You give these guys today's "training" and they would play in the NBA.

The human race did not evolve into super beings the last 50 years. People are still people.

 

The first-half career Wilt (7-1, 250) was pretty comparable to prime-years Kevin Garnett before his odometer turned over and he lost a foot off his vertical leap and a second off his 40 time.

The second-half Wilt (7-1, 300) was comparable to Shaq before he started packing on the pounds and heading toward 400.

Those guys did pretty well in the modern-era NBA.

A 6-4 forward, a 6-9, 210-pound center and a 6-3 forward.

None would start on any BCS-conference NCAA team today.

They would, in fact, probably be good players at the D2/D3 level.