Why is Wilt Chamberlain so underappreciated? Looking at his achievements and examining why he doesn't feature in G.O.A.T. debates
NBA legend and 4-time MVP winner Wilt Chamberlain is often considered to be the greatest scorers that the league ever saw. Chamberlain holds a range of scoring, rebounding and durability records to his name that are improbable to ever be broken. After joining the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1959 draft, Wilt Chamberlain became the first rookie in the NBA to average a double-double, with 37.6 points and 27 rebounds per game.
He improved on both those statistics the following year and became the first to ever average more than 50 points per game in his third season. Despite producing such humungous numbers and leading the league in both scoring and rebounding for a number of years, Wilt Chamberlain’s first MVP award came in 1967, when he led the Philadelphia 76ers to their second championship ever. Wilt Chamberlain dominated in the NBA for more than a decade, and is still often left out of “GOAT” debates around the world. In this article, we explore why.
Why is Wilt Chamberlain unappreciated? Does he deserve to be in the G.O.A.T. debate?
In a nutshell, a simple look over Wilt Chamberlain’s career record and dominance provides more than enough evidence that he should indeed be in the “G.O.A.T” debate. However, it appears as if the changing nature of the game, especially the introduction of the three-point rule, has resulted in forwards and guards who can shoot the ball getting more attention.
Early NBA had a range of big centers who dominated the league for years. Bill Russell was part of the great Celtics’ dynasty while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neale all enjoyed a similar kind of dominance in the NBA. However, they are not often given the same kind of attention as the likes of Michael Jordan, LeBron James or the late Kobe Bryant are given.
Be that as it may, it still does not explain why Wilt Chamberlain ended up winning only two MVP awards throughout his career. Since joining the NBA, he led the league in scoring for eight straight seasons which included a 50 ppg and a 40+ ppg season as well. Chamberlain also led the rebounding category for eight of his first 11 seasons and holds season records for both rebounding and scoring, as well as minutes per game.
Part of the reason he never won the MVP award was because he played partly through the same era as Bill Russell, who played for a Celtics team that won 11 championships in 14 seasons. Additionally, Chamberlain was reportedly not well-liked among his peers, with his humungous statistics and off-court antics also playing a part in his decreased popularity. Unlike today, the MVP winners back in the day were selected by players, which to a great extent explains why Wilt Chamberlain did not win a single one through the best years of his career.
The fact that he was not on the best team through the early years of his career also played a part, with Bill Russell dominating voting as the Celtics were the best team in the league through this period by quite a margin. The criteria for the NBA MVP award has changed in recent decades, with players’ individual stats throughout the regular season playing a huge role in the process. That was not the case back then, with Wilt Chamberlain arguably missing out on at least four MVP awards due to the above reasons.