IDK if you do early 80s as Well. But something that would be cool to see/find is footage of Larry Birds Debut Game I've looked For it alot and only found like 2 pictures from the game
Thanks for posting. This has to be one of Wilt's worst games. Still, he did a nice defensive job on Kareen, holding him to 14 of 33 shooting. But Wilt was 2-7 from the field (and got a few of his shots blocked by Kareem) and 1-8 from the line. And, most surprisingly, he grabbed only 11 rebounds. Now, some of that is certainly due to the fact that he is closely guarding Kareem so he has his back to the basket a good portion of the time. But 11 rebounds is something you expect from Wilt in a half, not an entire game. He ave 19 rebounds in the 1971-72 regular season, so 11 is well below that average. For the 2nd time in the series, the Bucks blew out the Lakers. The Bucks won Game 1 by 19 and this game (4) by 26. Meanwhile, the Lakers barely won game 2 by 1 point and Game 3 by 3 points.
....I seen Kareem score about 12 points off of offensive rebounds because Wilt didn't "box out" Kareem....That was a whole lot of energy wasted on defense....
@@thebigwhitehorse6228 In the book "The Pivotal Season" by Charley Rosen, the author quotes Laker coach Sharman saying "They killed us on the boards because we didn't box out, and we played with no discernible emotion." Things completely changed in the pivotal Game 5. Wilt outrebounded Kareem 26-16, and managed to go 8 for 8 from the free throw line in the Lakers blowout win 115-90. He even did a better job on Jabbar in Game 5, holding him to 13 field goals in 33 attempts, and blocking several of his shots.
@@ddenuci absurd to have some on RU-vid claiming Wilt outplayed Kareem this series. He did a great job on the glass and 1 on 1 defense. The bigger problem for Milwaukee this series was that Oscar Robertson was a complete non factor this series offensively. On the Lakers' side Mcmillian had a absolute monster series to outshine his more heralded HOF teammates offensively.
@@FuShengAlex Yes, Robertson was injured (Stomach muscle) and, at 33, he was old by the standards of the NBA back then. But he did a nice job defensively on West. Wilt played Kareem tough defensively in this series, but it wasn't a match for Nate Thurmond's performance the following year. In that 1972-73 playoff matchup between GS and Milw, Nate held Kareem to the following: Game 1 (22 pts, 10-24), Game 2 (26 pts, 12-22), Game 3 (18 pts, 8-24), Game 4 (25 pts, 8-19), Game 5 (19 pts, 8-24), and Game 6 (27 pts, 13-27). That is an absolute incredible performance by Nate the Great.
I think it's how you look at it in terms of contribution. Offense vs. defense. Eye test vs. box scores. Wilt was the better defender in this series and his play lead the Lakers to win the series. Kareem had the points, and put up some solid numbers, albeit with a low field goal percentage. It's like the argument between Wilt's and Russell's matchups. Wilt almost always dominated Russell statistically speaking, but Russell's defensive contributions to his team and his leadership, along with the play of great teammates like Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, Tom Heinsohn, Sam Jones, John Havlicek, Bailey Howell, Wayne Embry, etc. usually led the Celtics to win. All three are at the top of the list of greatest centers either way.
Wilt blocked Kareem 11 times in two consecutive games the WCF that year, the Lakers defeated the Bucks, the Lakers won the ring, and Wilt was MVP of the Finals. That's how good was Jabbar's shot blocking.
@@alfredodistefanolaulhe2212is that why Wilt only averaged 10pts for the entire 6 game series? The Big Dipper went 43% FG for the series. Couldn't have had something to do with Abdul-Jabbar lurking around the basket could it? Since we know Wilt could only shoot 5 feet and in. Kareem's hands must have been sore swatting Chamberlain's attempts. The Lakers won the series but according to that logic Russell was must been better than Wilt since Boston whipped Chamberlain's team 7 out of 8 times. The NBA finals MVP is names after Bill Russell. LOL
@@the_Sage71 Wilt wasn't a scorer anymore, he averaged 14 ppg for the whole regular season. So the statistic comparison is stupid. Jabbar also averaged 57 % FG for the regular season while he only made 43 % during the series against the Lakers, so it looks like it was not easy for him to score agaisnt Wilt... So the difference is easy to see, Wilt wasn't a scorer, but Kareem indeed was, but he dropped to 43 % and his team lost. As simple as that. Wilt was 35 years old, If he was 25 at the time he could have destroyed Kareem with ease. Go cry to the river.
The wasn't much of an television audience in those days for Basketball, this game like many playoff games in those days, was shown taped delayed after the 11pm news. I remember sneaking up to watch the playoff games.
I don't know why Wilt didn't do more of the Shaq-type backing down the defender, like he does at 2:45. He was so much more powerful than any other center in the league, it seems like he could have scored almost at will. You can see that Jabbar has no chance of keeping Wilt from getting to the basket, and undercuts Wilt and then complains when the foul is correctly called. Wilt took - to the extreme - Sharman's direction for him to focus on defense, rebounding and throwing the outlet pass, and so he underemphasized his role on offense. That is unfortunate because in games like this (Game 4) where the rest of the Lakers were cold, it would have been nice for Wilt to take on the offensive load. Clearly he was no longer the guy he was before the knee surgery (i.e., you won't see that 5 foot jump shot), but he was also stronger than he was earlier in his career. Shaq had no issues with using his size/strength to back his opponents in, but Wilt never felt comfortable doing that. And Shaq was only slightly better a free throw shooter than Wilt, so the argument that Wilt would be hurting his team because he was likely to get intentionally fouled doesn't hold water. In fact, it would have been good for Wilt to get the Bucks star player Jabbar into foul trouble. In the game where the Bucks stopped the Lakers 33 game winning streak, there is a point in the game where Jabbar throws a punch at Happy Hairston, who is down on the ground. After order is restored, on the very next Laker possession, the ball goes into Wilt (who was definitely upset at Jabbar) and he basically does the same thing he does in this clip at 2:45. Again, Jabbar had no chance and just backs out of the way.
That's probably because of how offensive fouls were called back then. Look at 3:22 and the charge that Wilt drew. Back then refs didn't allow you to be very physical on offense in the post. I have seen Artis Gilmore so many times doing powerful dropsteps and back downs and refs called a lot of charges because of that. It's one of the reasons why Gilmore had such a big number of turnovers in his prime. I agree with you that Wilt took to the extreme his passivness on offense. He should have attacked Kareem far more often, especially given how badly Bucks needed him on offense. Sure, Jabbar was good post defender and Wilt wouldn't score all the time, but it would require adjustements from Milwaukee. I hope that when I get film from game 6, we'll be able to see more agressive Wilt (he scored more points than usual in that game).
@@70sfan Wilt must have realized the importance of putting the Bucks away because he was 8 for 12 from the field in Game 6, showing he was definitely more aggressive offensively. There were games in this series where he is only taking 3 shots! Yes, the Lakers had alot of guys who were scorers but if Wilt doesn't make himself a threat, Jabbar can relax on him defensively and you don't want that if you're a Lakers fan. In the 1971-72 regular season, Wilt only averaged 9 shot attempts. It's hard to argue with success - the Lakers set a then NBA record for wins, but there's still an argument to be made that they could have been even better if, when the occasion warranted it, Wilt would show occasional spurts of the great offensive force that he still was.
The other thing that i'm sure is running thru Wilt's mind is that all those years that he was dominating the league in scoring, the Celtics would win the Finals. Wilt probably viewed himself as Russell and Jabbar as a young Wilt. That feeling was probably reinforced by having a former Celtic Sharman as the head coach and another Celtic KC Jones as the assistant.
JOHN: it's important to note that in the 1972 NBA Finals, Wilt realized that there was no way Jerry Lucas could stop him from scoring, so he proceeded to score 20 plus points in 3 of the 5 games. Wilt was a dominant force in games 2-5 of that series and he was voted the Finals MVP.
John As far as I know this was due to the rules back then.Referees were very strict with offensive fouls,backing down people with shoulders like Shaq and other players in the 90s was not allowed.Check this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-r-XTPVBOCLw.html Also I think Wilt should’ve made more shot attempts instead of shooting 3 times in a match because when his teammates were cold they would lose,he could’ve dominated Jabbar offensively.Meanwhile,Jabbar averaged over 29 shot attempts against Wilt but only averaged 30.96 points,he also lacked efficiency.
I know that the Milwaukee Bucks embarrassed the Lakers in Game 1 of this series at Los Angeles. Was this the second one the two game the Bucks won in this series? Lakers won this series 4 games to 2.
This is before Kareem developed a drop step for defenders overplaying his skyhook. You could see angles of Wilt totally shading to Kareem's left, anticipating a sweeping skyhook.
Jabbar blocked that finger roll right at the rim a couple of times. Wilt wasnt used to that. Kareem got McMillan a couple of times too. Many fans who only saw him in his older years with the Lakers don't realize how quick he was for a 7-2 center. Fluid and mobile. Guys that tall don't typically have that sort of grace and coordination.
@@alfredodistefanolaulhe2212 except Wilt was totally taken out of the game offensively by Jabbar. The Lakers were practically playing 4 on 5 on offense. Intimidation goes along way.
@@smokeyjoe795 Offensively? Lol. Wilt averaged 15 ppg at the time, not against the Bucks, but against every team in the league, he wasn't "taken out of the game", he averaged 15 ppg, lol. The offensive player was Gail Goodrich at the time. You're taken out of the conversation.
What was up with Wilt here!?? The self proclaimed GOAT played like a bench warming rookie! Always out of position, not blocking out, not contesting many shots, allowing a smaller and weaker jabbar to get position on him! This was not THE Wilt!
I mean, Wilt defended Kareem better than anyone not named Thurmond. Ask Bill Walton, one of the most fundamentally sound defenders ever, how orthodox defense helped against Jabbar - he got dominated. Watch the video from games 3 and 6 - Kareem really struggled against Wilt in these games.
@@Mr.56Goldtop Kareem dominated that series. In 6 games he outscored Wilt 202-59. He held Chamberlain to 44% FG for that series. Jabbar held his own on the glass with Wilt who only had 8 more rebounds in the series. Kareem had more assists and just as many blocks. The Lakers won the series because Oscar was hurt and couldn't finish game 6. Jabbar had to carry the entire offense and it caught up to him.
Granted this was an older Chamberlain against Jabbar, but had he faced Olajuwon, Ewing, Shaq, Robinson, on a regular basis I doubt he would have put up video game numbers and dominated as he did in the 60's. Chamberlain was just way ahead of his time but wasn't that much better than the 80s and 90s all star centers.
man kick Rocks with that bullshit. Wilt Chamberlain and his era of centers would hold their own against any era centers. Willis Reed, Bob Lanier,and the rest would give anyone work. You notice A ELDERLY KAREEM giving those 80's/90's centers like Dream buckets with that Grandpa Sky Hook. Or how about Bob Lanier bullying Moses Malone so bad by having his ass out near the 22ft mark shooting jumpers.
@@coachwane why don't read my comment carefully to understand the content of my message. I said Wilt will be a All Star player but his numbers would not be like "video game like" you know average 50 ppgs 25 rbs or score 100 points in a game. He would have put up similar number as Shaq in his prime. Great yes but not superhero like in the 60s numbers.
@Chris Gabler Yea I hate this myth that Wilt only played agianst "6 foot white dudes" or whatever people try to say it because it's completely false. In fact that average height of centers in 1970 was 6'10, the average height today is 6'11 and that's 50 years later. Wilt would have been great in any era. Even today very few guys are as strong and as as athletic as he was and you give him today's modern medicine and training? Please.
It impossible to compare era, wilt did not big man camp era , low post videos, etc etc wilt was Superman strong, legendary shot blocker like blocking the skyhook bunch of times etc etc
