Wilt Chamberlain was always critical of any player who tried to dethrone him from the position of most dominant center. When Shaquille O’Neal started emerging as a dominant center in the league, Wilt criticized him in interviews and media appearances. Perhaps, he always wanted to be the best big man in the league, even if any player showed promising potential to snatch this status away.
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Not only Shaq, but Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was also on Wilt’s list as the two had a complicated relationship during their playing careers. The players created a historic NBA storyline of rivalry, which is still remembered today. A throwback clip of Wilt Chamberlain from a 1987 interview has resurfaced on Reddit, where Wilt discusses whether he is better than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Although nobody disagrees with Wilt being one of the legends of the sport, his constant criticism of younger players impacted the credibility of his takes. Many still believe he was the greatest ever to grace the NBA court, but his off-the-court behaviors and criticism for others have affected his stature.
Wilt Chamberlain once claimed himself to be a better player than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
The great rivalry between Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar helped elevate the level of competition in the NBA. In a 1987 interview, Wilt tried differentiating between his prime-level performance and Abdul-Jabbar’s. In the video, Wilt asks about Kareem’s credibility in playing better than him.
“In the facets of the game. Did he score better than me? Did he rebound better than me? Did he pass better than me? Did he run better than me? Hard for me to figure out”
It’s interesting to note that Chamberlain does not deny the greatness of Kareem. However, for any player to reach his level in their prime, that’s something hard for Wilt to digest.
Chamberlain is one of the few players to have played a 100-point game. On the other hand, Kareem was the player who led the NBA career points tally for over 34 years until LeBron James broke that last season. Wilt believed that Kareem would have never been able to compete against a prime Chamberlain, scoring 50s in games.
“Kareem was also a different type of basketball player than I was. I would have also loved to had a chance to play against Kareem when I was scoring 50-points a game.”
Wilt also claimed that he was too strong to play against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. If he were to go one-on-one against the Lakers legend, he would score more baskets than his latter counterpart. Although Kareem and Wilt’s rivalry is from the bygone era, it is undeniable how both the legends laid the stepping stones for players aspiring to be like them in the league.
How did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar fare against Chamberlain?
According to StatMuse, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played 17 games against Wilt Chamberlain, averaging 31.8 points, 15.8 rebounds, and 3.6 assists. If we compare the players head-to-head, we must note that both played in two different eras of the NBA.
Wilt played in a rather simpler era of basketball, where a good height meant easy scoring of points in a game. However, when Kareem gained the limelight, the NBA was entering its transition era. The new rules made scoring easy points like Chamberlain or Bill Russell difficult. However, Kareem was bold enough to test his skills and pulled the same numbers as Wilt, even in a changing era of the league.
