Monday February 17, 2014
For my first blog topic, I’m gonna go to the NBA, as I’ve been a big fan of NBA basketball since my childhood.
Recently Lebron James was asked to identify the four players he would put on his NBA Mt. Rushmore. To put it another way, he was asked to name his top four players of all time. He named Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and for his fourth he named Oscar Robertson. I guess throwing Robertson’s old-head ancient-history name in there was his way of showing he had some knowledge of basketball history.
Kobe Bryant was asked to name his Rushmore crew, and he too identified Jordan, Bird, and Magic. His fourth was Bill Russell. Kevin Durant also went with the big three, and his fourth was Kareem Jabbar.
To Lebron, Kobe, And KD I say, Come on bruh. How can all three of y’all ignore the most dominant force the game has ever known, Wilt Chamberlain? Wilt was so dominant, they had to change the rules to prevent him from absolutely destroying everyone. Because of Wilt, the three-second lane was widened. Because of Wilt, offensive goaltending was made illegal.
Wilt averaged 50.4 per game in one season. He averaged 30.1 per game for his career. He averaged over 20 rebounds a game 10 times. Not to mention that he scored 100 points in one game – arguably the most impossible-to-break record in all of sports. As of now, it’s only stood for a mere 52 years.
When naming the top players in the NBA of all time, Wilt’s name should come first. Period. Even the next greatest player – whether you think it’s Jordan, Bird, Magic, Kareem, or Russell – is a distant second. Wilt is hurt not only by people’s short memories, but also by the perception that he was a selfish player who cared only about his own stats.
Wilt did win two championships – one in 1967 with the Philadelphia 76ers and one in 1972 with the Los Angeles Lakers. But even despite his relatively small collection of championships, Wilt was not selfish, and he did play to win.
If Wilt is guilty of anything, it’s of lacking the obsession with winning that our cultures demands of its sports heroes. He didn’t like losing, but he could live with it. He didn’t equate losing a basketball series with being a loser. He didn’t measure his self-worth by how many rings he had on his fingers.
In a lot of ways, Wilt was a dreamer. He liked to look up at the sky at night and gaze upon the Big Dipper.
We don’t like dreamers; we like conquerors. We like ruthless competitors. Jordan was ruthless. Russell was ruthless. Magic and Bird were ruthless.
Wilt wasn’t. So we can’t find a spot for him on our Mt. Rushmore. I think that says more about us than it does about him.
