NonPlayer Zealot: 'Wilt Chamberlain On Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Russell'

Source:NonPlayer Zealot- NBA great Wilt Chamberlain being interviewed by ESPN's Roy Firestone, in 1987.

"With Roy Firestone.  Wilt's takes on basketball career, sex, personal attitudes, race, Bill Russell, politics, etc.  Big Wilt passed away on Oct 12, 1999.  RIP." 

From NonPlayer Zealot

I have a lot of respect for Wilt Chamberlain and not only consider him to be the 2nd best center in NBA history, but one of the top 5-10 NBA players ever. But I disagree with him about fellow NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the era that he played in. 

I think Wilt would've been a great NBA player and center in any era. But he dominated the NBA before it was common for NBA teams to even have very good centers, let alone great NBA centers. 

The NBA in the 1960s was very similar to the game today in the sense that it was a game that was dominated by swingmen, guys who would play either the 2nd guard or swing forward, or both positions. A lot of great NBA players back then were in the 6'4-6'6 range and weight maybe 200 pounds and in many cases weighed less than 200 pounds. Players like John Havlicheck, and Elgin Baylor. And where centers were like 6'8-6'9, maybe ever shorter and not very muscular. 

And then comes 7'1, 270 pound, all muscle Wilt Chamberlain, who was also very quick and well-skilled, who dominated the NBA simply because he was one of maybe 3 great NBA centers back then, where most of them were 3-5 inches shorter than Wilt and maybe 50 pounds lighter than Wilt. 

Go up to the 1970s and 1980s where every NBA team has at least one 7 footer and if not a 7 footer, their centers were 6'10 or 6'11 and where a lot of the NBA teams had at least one good big man who was an inside threat, who rebounded and maybe had both a good or great center and power forward and maybe they could bring another quality big man off the bench as well, teams like the Boston Celtics. 

To me Kareem is the best center ever, if not best player ever, because he dominated the NBA at its best, where the great teams in his era, were really great teams, that were loaded with talent and not just big men, but really at every position. 

Like I said, Wilt would be a great player in any era and perhaps the best player from any era. But he dominated the NBA when the NBA was fairly weak at center and power forward positions. Which is a big reason why I have Kareem ranked ahead of him.