Wilt Chamberlain vs. Bill Russell: Who shrunk in the Playoffs more?
Daniel Santos Settling once and for all who was better when the lights shined the brightest: Wilt Chamberlain or Bill Russell?
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While George Mikan is considered to be the first NBA great, he didn’t exactly help put the National Basketball Association on the map. What caused the league to gain traction was the rivalry between Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. The two played a whopping 142 games against one another and the stats show who was truly dominant over the other.
Don’t get me wrong, Wilt Chamberlain is one of the most dominant players to have stepped foot on NBA hardwood. Sure, a plethora of guys who were guarding him were severely less athletic and had to take summer jobs to support themselves in the offseason because the league didn’t pay them well.
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On the other hand, Russell had to face the same and his stats, on paper, aren’t close to what Wilt’s are. First off, it should be noted that Russell was not a great offensive player. He shot 44% from the field for his career as a center. Truly atrocious efficiency for a 6’10 guy.
‘The Big Dipper’ shot over 10% better, standing at a respectable 58% on his career. Their rebounding numbers are obviously incredible with Russell and Chamberlain snagging 22.5 and 22.9 per game in their careers, respectively.
This is of course, during the regular season. What really matters however, is the Playoffs. And we all know where this is headed.
Also read: Wilt Chamberlain’s $600,000 coaching gig saw the Lakers sue him instead
Wilt Chamberlain vs Bill Russell in the Playoffs.
Everybody knows Bill Russell has 11 rings to Wilt’s measly 2. A lot can be said about the distribution of superstars between their two teams but the fact of the matter is that Wilt Chamberlain managed to snag merely a single championship in Russell’s era (his 1972 chip came after Russell retired).
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In head to head matches, the Celtic great has 84-58 upper hand over the Lakers legend. What’s also interesting is that for all the times Wilt averaged over 30 points per game in the regular season, his scoring dipped significantly come Playoff time, averaging 22.5 points a game.
Bill averaged 16.2 points in the Playoffs but he was never a score-first or even score-second guy. He stuck to what he knew and that was locking the paint down, rebounding relentlessly, and pushing the fast-break.
Two other incredible stats that Bill Simmons had once shared with us in his ‘Book of Basketball’ was their Game 7 and elimination game records.
In Game 7s, Russell holds a 10-0 record while Wilt has a 4-5 record. When it comes to elimination games, Russell is at 16-2 and Chamberlain comes in at 10-11.
All in all, when the lights were at their brightest, Bill Russell came out on top 9 out 10 times, with that 10th time being those 1967 Playoffs.
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