Argumentative Essay On Michael Jordan

Michael Memis

Salzano/ Nigro

Internship

19 Jan. 2018

Wilt Chamberlain Is The GOAT

If you watch any sports program on television or listen to a sports radio show, there is a good chance about whom the greatest basketball player of all time is (known as the GOAT). Most of the arguments revolve around whether LeBron James by the end of his career will surpass Michael Jordan as the GOAT. Many people think Michael Jordan is the GOAT because of his scoring prowess and that he dominated the 90s. Others will say that it is Lew Alcindor (more commonly known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) due to the fact that he has the most points scored and MVP (Most Valuable Player) awards in NBA history. Another train of thought by people is that Bill Russell is the

GOAT because he has won the most NBA Championships. However, the real GOAT is none of those people. The real GOAT is Wilt Chamberlain. Even though his name rarely is mentioned when discussing the greatest basketball player of all time, he should be the obvious choice due to his dominance on the court, his statistical output, and the legacy he left behind.
There are some people that think Wilt Chamberlain isn’t the GOAT, and other basketball players are. A few of those people make the ridiculous claim that Wilt Chamberlain isn’t the best player in his era and Bill Russell is. The reason for that is Russell beat Chamberlain constantly and won NBA championships. Mike Kern, of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote that “Bill Russell was 85-57 against Wilt” (“Wilt was larger than life…”). It is also based on the fact that he has the most championships won with 11 (Smith). Wilt, meanwhile only won two championships and was constantly stopped by the Celtic from making the NBA Finals. However, this logic is flawed. Even though Wilt constantly lost to Russell, he usually outplayed him. They both averaged 23.7 rebounds but Wilt averaged 28.7 points while Russell only averaged 14.5 points (“Wilt was larger than life…”). Russell’s teams were constantly better than Wilt, not because he was better than Wilt, but because of the fact that “He played with six or seven hall of famers” (Johnson). Wilt Chamberlain played with a few hall-of-famers, but never as many as Russell. Also, if rings were analogous to greatness, than Robert Horry, who has one of the most NBA Championships, would be considered an all-time great when he was just a solid role player who hit a few clutch shots.

While most people will admit that Wilt was the best player in his era, some say that he isn’t the greatest big man in basketball history and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is. The main arguments for Kareem’s greatness are that he has won the most MVP (Most Valuable Player) awards and has scored more points than anyone else in NBA history. One reason is that Kareem had more big men in his era than Wilt. According to Mark Whicker, of the Orange county Register, “On 1962 preseason rosters, there were 15 players who stood 6-9 or taller…. On opening day last November [1987], 114 players were at least that tall” (Whicker). Kareem for the most part was able to get all those points with the tall players in his era by developing his patented sky hook. Wilt didn’t struggle against the few tall players in his league, though, and even if there were lots of tall player, he would have found a way to still score all those points. They also say that Kareem would have won more than Wilt if he replaced Wilt on the teams he was on. According to

Whicker, as historically great as Wilt’s two championship teams were on, they didn’t need Wilt to be successful, and probably would have been greater with Jabbar (Whicker).

There is no way to prove that the teams would win championship without Wilt and there wasn’t many more wins the teams could have gotten if they had Kareem instead of Wilt. Also, the Orange County Register is in California and was written while Wilt was retired for over around 20 years and Kareem was playing for the Lakers. Whicker may have had some bias because Kareem was a star in California while Wilt, despite playing a few years for the Lakers, isn’t fresh in the mind of Californians. Just because Kareem is more likeable than Wilt, it doesn’t mean he is better than him or a better teammate. While there are a few people who believe that Wilt Chamberlain is the best big man of all time, there are a dearth of people who believe Wilt chamberlain is the GOAT. Most people believe that Michael Jordan is the goat because of his scoring prowess and how he dominated the 90s. One reason people say that Jordan is better than Wilt is because of his clutch play. Sam Smith wrote about “Jordan dropping 35 points on Clyde Drexler in the first half of Game 1 against the Trail Blazers in 1992 after critics said Drexler should have won that season's

MVP. Or Jordan setting the all-time NBA Finals scoring record against Phoenix in 1993 after Charles Barkley won that season's MVP. And Jordan hitting the game-winner to beat Utah in Game 1 of the 1997 Finals after Karl Malone won that season's MVP” (Smith). He also has more championship rings than Wilt, with 6 of them compared to Wilt’s two. But Jordan never had a rival to compete with for the title. Smith writes that “Wilt had Russell, so Wilt didn't win as many titles…. But Jordan never had the great opponent to measure himself against, which was hardly any fault of his. There just wasn't another player for the ages when Jordan came of age. But Chamberlain faced one just about every week--and did pretty well…. If there had not been any great Celtics teams, would Wilt have ended up with nine championships” (Smith)? Chamberlain had to play his rival Bill Russell often, as well as other great centers such as George Mikan, Willis Reed, Wes Unseld, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Even if there were teams that gave Jordan trouble, he didn’t play them that often and no generational was close to their prime when Jordan was in his prime. In terms of scoring they were about even with both players scoring 30.1 points per game in their careers (Johnson). In terms of other statistics, Wilt crushes in rebounding, Michael has a slight edge in assists (although he never led the league), Wilt wins in field goal percentage, and Michael wins in free throw percentage. If steals and blocks counted during Wilt’s time he would crush Michael in blocks and Michael would probably have a slight edge in steals. Also, the NBA made rules to make Wilt Chamberlain less dominant and to allow teams to be more physical with him while they changed the rules that made it easier for Michael Jordan and harder for teams to be physical with him. If the rule changes went the other way, the comparison wouldn’t be even close. While these players have some reasons to be called the GOAT, they pale in comparison to Wilt.