Wilt and Russell?

Question

Would these modern day guys have gone up and 360 dunked against Wilt and Russell, or would those guys have swatted their heads into the fifth row and put an end to all this nonsense before it ever got started?

Answer 1

This may come as a surprise to some but the older players play a much MORE PHYSICALgame than they are today. The team owners and coaches encourage it and the refs, afraid of losing their jobs, allow it. At that time basketball and hockey share the same fanbase and as they all know no hockey game is complete without a fight.

Players during Wilt and Russell's time, even more so before their time, dont hack thier opponents in the arms, they hack them on the chest or throw an elbow at them to foul an opponent. There were no sissy handcheck rules in those days.

Wilt and Russ would just shrug off the "physical" play of today. Heck, Wilt was elbowed at the mouth and was suffering from blood poisoning but he still keep playing. Russ once played a game with a hemorrhaging eyeball.

And, yes both Wilt and Russell could pluck a quarter from the top of a backboard, how many centers today could do that? They were both fine physical specimens at their time and theyre still fine physical specimens today. The weight training of today would just be a perk.

Answer 2

Would they dominate? If they play the same way they played in the yesteryears, the running and gunning, I probably would not believe they could dominate. The game have evolved to a more methodical approach. No longer do athletic types of players dominate the game but the strategic strcture each coaches lay for their respective teams. See in the yesteryears Wilt was able to dominate the other players through sheer powers (like Shaq did in his dominating years) but if he plays today, he would have to face hordes of defense, the hacking players and the floppers (which can be effective at times but it's annoying though). Wilt and Bill would have BIG problems facing those so to finish this I'd say if they play today they would be good but not the same great players as they are.

Answer 3

Wilt & Russel were supreme athletes & they would have excelled in any era. They would not have dominated as much as they did during their time but they would still be pretty good & would still belong in the franchise player category.

What they possessed that current players today sorely lack is love & respect for the game & that makes all the difference in the world.

Answer 4

Wilt and Bill would manhandle any two players in the NBA if they were trying to dunk on Wilt the Stilt and Bill russel.

Answer 5

Wilt and Russell would dominate all the current day ******* in the NBA.

Answer 6

I mean it wasn't like basketball was invented yesterday, or that a basketball player from the past was totally inferior physically inferior to basketball players of the past.

Wilt and Russell were all around athletes who could run forty something 400s in each case while both were high jumpers (Russell if he was not chosen for the USA Olympics basketball team was a world class high jumper ranked something like fifth, or, at the worst, seventh in the world in the high jump would have tried out and most likely made the USA track team as a high jumper; Wilt won three straight Big 7 high jump titles along with running the 100, the long jump, and threw the shot put among others). These guys were world class athletes in their era and would still be world class athletes today.

It would be like saying that Major League Baseball's Bob Feller who came along 20 years before Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain could not pitch in the 21st century Major League Baseball because in the late 1930s, Bob Feller could only throw a 100 mph fast ball. A 100 mph fast ball in the 1930s is still 70 years later a 100 mph fast ball.

Training methods today are at a higher standard which would make athletes of the past train at today's standards if they were still around today and not at standards 40 or 70 years ago.

Arguably Wilt Chamberlain is the strongest man to ever play NBA basketball, or basketball for that matter, still using today's 2007 standards. As far as any star basketball player, it was Wilt Chamberlain who first started lifting weights ending his career at the Lakers with almost zero body fat and at 7' 2" tall was rumored to weigh close to 400 pounds. And, not the Shaq of 2007 type of almost 400 pounds. Just watch the old movies of Wilt with Arnold Schwartzennegger in the Conan movies, and those movies were made long after Wilt had retired as Wilt kept up his weight lifting routine.

The NBA's all time classic one on one matchup was Wilt versus Russell and Russell versus Wilt as the NBA referees let those two guys go at it as physically as they wanted to without calling fouls. Russell was physical with Wilt to keep Wilt from scoring and rebounding. Wilt was physical with Russell to keep Russell off of the boards, to keep Russell away from his hook shot, and to keep Russell away from position for an "alley oop dunk".

Chamberlain was rumored, I haven't bothered to research it as it was somewhat of a generally accepted fact, to have been able at least early in his career to jump and grab with a hand a silver dollar or fifty cent piece off of the top of the backboard.

Regardless, Wilt and Russell were well trained athletes using the training methods of the 1950s whom if they were still in their youth in 2007 using the training methods of the 21st century would still be dominating forces offensively, defensively, and rebounding.

That is not to say that Wilt and Russell would be as dominant today in 2007 as they were back in their prime assuming that everything were equal, but they would certainly be in a category along the line of Shaq, Hakeem, David Robinson, or Tim Duncan all at their primes as forces in the lane.

It all goes back to the example is a 1930s Bob Feller 100 mph fast ball equivalent to a 2007 era 100 mph fastball in baseball. Is there a difference in balls moving 100 mph from the pitcher to the catcher just because it is a different era.

Russell with his tremendous leaping ability was not just a shot blocker but would redirect the ball to keep it in play and block a shot to a teammate. Russell is the only NBA player I have ever heard in NBA history that made blocking a shot an art rather than just blocking a shot. Chamberlain in any era with his early use of weight lifting along with his tremendous jumping ability would be a force in the lane.

Answer 7

Good point! Everyone asks if the old cats could play today (of course they could!). Let us ask how back peddling Carmelo would fare in the butt kicking ABA...or even against the Pistons of 15 years ago. Bunch of spoiled wimps for the most part today.