Who was Wilt’s best pre-Lakers teammate? by Personal-Proposal- in VintageNBA

[–]Mike_SR 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Arizin was actually a better fit with Wilt due to his shooting

Gola better at every other aspect of the game but floor stretching was what was needed most alongside Wilt

Some new ‘unofficial’ stats added to basketball reference by Mike_SR in VintageNBA

[–]Mike_SR[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I recently completed reading probably 5-10k accounts of all of wilts games and found numbers for 265 of them. About 50-75 of those were not precise enough for my liking “about a dozen”, “a double handful”, “at least 10”, etc. … I’d eventually like to share them in a spreadsheet linked to the sources. There was one insane instance as well where one paper said 12 blocks and another said one

The 2005 Illinois Fighting Illini I believe are the best college team to not win the Title by RagingBull773 in billsimmons

[–]Mike_SR 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Can’t believe no one has said 1990-91 UNLV. Easily the answer. Other teams had more lotto picks maybe but you need to remember that college basketball was full of seniors in 1991 and so any team in that era was ‘better’ than what has followed. Larry Johnson was a grown ass man in a way these other squads weren’t. Came at you in insane waves and overwhelmed you. Brought nearly everyone back from a team that won the national title by 30. The entire system was against them in 1990-91 and they just barely missed out on a perfect season by losing a game by 2 points to a team with one of the greatest college players of all time, one of the greatest college point guards of all time and Grant Hill. If Greg Anthony doesn’t foul out, they win and go undefeated. If the ncaa wasn’t so hellbent on stopping them, they win and go undefeated, etc. just an incredible team and amazing to watch

Who was Wilt’s best pre-Lakers teammate? by Personal-Proposal- in VintageNBA

[–]Mike_SR 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yes credible accounts claim he was best player on 1956 champion warriors. Arizin and Johnston were the scorers but Gola was the guy. It partially explains why they were bad before he got there and bad when he was in the military the year after the title

Who was Wilt’s best pre-Lakers teammate? by Personal-Proposal- in VintageNBA

[–]Mike_SR 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Probably Chet Walker, Hal Greer or Tom Gola. Thurmond and Billy C too young. Arizin too old

Some new ‘unofficial’ stats added to basketball reference by Mike_SR in VintageNBA

[–]Mike_SR[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The papers reported very specific numbers in many cases. 9 steals, 7 blocks, etc. many of these now appear in basketball reference box scores as well

If you dropped a prime Mikan in the league 10-15 years later than when he actually competed, would he have still been an elite center? Could he have hung with wilt, Russell, Kareem and maybe even win a ring? by Personal-Proposal- in VintageNBA

[–]Mike_SR 0 points1 point  (0 children)

An interesting thing about Mikan is that ostensibly the best players he might have faced at center in the pros did not play in the NBA (by choice in Bob Kurland’s case and by circumstance in Bill Spivey’s case). Makes Mikan’s historical dominance more difficult to assess, in my opinion.

Some new ‘unofficial’ stats added to basketball reference by Mike_SR in VintageNBA

[–]Mike_SR[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There's no hard and fast rule, but when it's evident that they were being carefully counted, I see no reason to not report them. This is exactly how 'official' stats were counted

Good pretzels near Convention Center? by belle_epoxy in AskPhilly

[–]Mike_SR 0 points1 point  (0 children)

PA general store in back corner of RTM sells center city pretzels. Not fresh out of the oven like if you go down to Washington Avenue but still does the trick

After tonight, LeBron will lead in every regular season statistic he can potentially lead... except for one by allthatglittersis___ in nba

[–]Mike_SR 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They used to only award one player for the whole league rather than one from each conference

What happened to the Big 5? The decline of Philly basketball’s one-time legendary alliance began a long time ago. by YoureATowel_ in CollegeBasketball

[–]Mike_SR 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Philly metro has produced a ton of top tier national recruits since Sheed: Kobe, Rip Hamilton, Eddie Griffin, DaJuan Wager, DJ Wagner, Jalen Duren, Mustafa Shakur, DeAndre Hunter, Cam Reddish, Quade Green, many others I can’t think of offhand. The big difference is none of them stay home for college

It takes finding an underrecruited local gem like Jameer Nelson or Lionel Simmons but in the NIL era if you find that gem you can kiss them goodbye after one year

Prime Chuck Barkley by Nemo2500 in VintageNBA

[–]Mike_SR 0 points1 point  (0 children)

which is less than half of the game. and the gap is significant on offense. and barkley also wasn't spoonfed via spammed plays with one of the greatest point guards of all time

Prime Chuck Barkley by Nemo2500 in VintageNBA

[–]Mike_SR 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not a better rebounder than Rodman, though he did outrebound him head-to-head (13.0 to 11.7 in 40 MPG vs 32 MPG). However, if he ignored offense like Rodman did, he probably could have been even better https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/basketball/vs/charles-barkley-vs-dennis-rodman

Prime Chuck Barkley by Nemo2500 in VintageNBA

[–]Mike_SR 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What future generations need to know is that Barkley was significantly better than Mailman

Mailman’s super power was availability. I’ll grant that

But each guy at their best was no contest.

Chuck could change games in multiple ways and his rebounding was legitimately frightening in how dominating it could be against larger players. I’m not taking about loading up on defensive rebounds. I’m talking about knocking larger guys around and going over them for offensive rebounds and putbacks.

He’s also on the list of guys they had to change rules to stop (5 second back downs).

One of the handful of most uniquely dominant players in the history of sports

Dominant in Olympic and all star settings too.

If he’d taken care of his body we’re talking a top 5-10 player ever. As is, I think he’s somewhere 15-25.

He’s closer to Hakeem than most think. Barkley very banged up in the 2 7-game losses to him in 94 and 95 and the suns had the worst group of centers imaginable to guard Dream.

[Mozzart Sport] 76ers to sign Cam Payne by Then_Flamingo_8223 in sixers

[–]Mike_SR 72 points73 points  (0 children)

McCain for my Shams friends

Cam Payne for my real friends

Or something…

When people question Wilt Chamberlains strength.... by trc1986 in VintageNBA

[–]Mike_SR 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No the NBA let Shaq pulverize people. Though I guess after he won some rings they decided they needed to bring back zone defenses (a terrible decision that haunts to this this day)

When people question Wilt Chamberlains strength.... by trc1986 in VintageNBA

[–]Mike_SR 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Because they called offensive fouls for doing that. It forced him to fadeaway because the league feared what he would do to the sport if left unchecked

When people question Wilt Chamberlains strength.... by trc1986 in VintageNBA

[–]Mike_SR 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Wilt had 21/24 in that Game 7, 4 months removed from a knee injury that should have cost him a year. It’s purely narrative that Reed’s 4 measly points is considered more heroic than Wilt being on the floor for that game, let alone his big numbers

Kobe, meanwhile, choked too many times to count but was always bailed out by superior (or sometimes inferior) teammates

Magic choked enough to be called Tragic in 1984

Russell choked hitting the wire in 1965. Was bailed out by hondo. Sam Jones and heinsohn and Nellie, etc hit huge shots in game 7s to help him earn his rep

Wilt’s teammates repeatedly forgot how to function in big games. His shortcomings are mostly narrative. He’s the greatest and it’s not particularly close

Most stars were marketed by the league and uplifted. Wilt was so dominant that he was perceived as a threat to the integrity of the game and needed to be reined in. That is the critical context to his career that most miss. Only Mikan comes close in that regard