Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain might have sold a lot of seats every time they played against each other, but if the pair were ever asked, they’d admit their intense rivalry was just public perception. While Russell asserts that the toughest thing about playing against Wilt was that he couldn’t afford to be repetitive, for Chamberlain, the biggest issue was being called a “loser.”
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The two men had contrasting styles of play. Russell was more old-school with his impeccable defensive technique and was a fine example of a leader. Chamberlain, on the other hand, was a rebounding machine who piled on scoring statistics like his life depended on it.
Being consistently pitted against each other — 143 times, to be exact — and in historic games like the 1969 Finals (the last time they played) contributed to the adversary narrative. But in an interview from 1997, long after their careers were over, the pair appeared on TV and revealed just how mistaken the fans were.
The host, Amad Rashad, began the interview with the pair’s impact on 1960s culture, saying, “Back in the ’60s, if you went to a barber shop or any place where fans gathered, they always debated one question: Who was better, Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain?“
“When I watched you guys play, it was always built up like you guys were such bitter rivals, not only on the court but off the court too, but then I read somewhere that every time you played against each other, you would pick one another up from the airport,“ Rashad said.
Without hesitation, an amused Chamberlain answered with vigor, “For some odd reason, always seems … adversaries not liking each other. I mean, people think that for a while, we didn’t really like each other. And they always chose to believe that you cannot be as good as we both were, apparently doing our thing, and we like you. I had to be envious of him.”
“The only thing I was envious of him was … that people would from time to time call me a loser. Well, you know, if I’m a loser, then d**n near everybody else who was playing was, because they won all the time,” he argued.
Despite Russell winning 86 of their games to his 57, Chamberlain says he was happy to be in the company he was. Russell, of course, doesn’t believe Wilt was a loser. The 11-time NBA champion also detailed just how insane it was to play against Chamberlain.
“I could never play him the same way two games in a row because it didn’t, it would not work, and so, through the whole time we played against each other, every game was different,” Russell asserted.
Whether it was media-made frenzy or just people being crazy about their favorites, both Chamberlain and Russell put on 10/10 performances week after week, and that is precisely why we are still talking about their great rivalry today.
