Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell are arguably two of the greatest players of the league who went up against each other on numerous occasions. Recently, Kevin Garnett shared a highlight from one of their matchups on his Instagram Story. In the video, the narrator is heard criticizing Russell for allowing Chamberlain to score easily. From what the added emoji suggested, Garnett seemed to be confused by the defensive efforts of the 1960s.
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There’s no doubt that Wilt Chamberlain was a physical anomaly. Standing at 7ft 1”, Wilt the Stilt had a multitude of different ways to torch his opponents. With a career average of 30.1 points, Chamberlain is rightly touted as one of the best offensive talents in league history. As seen in the video, unsurprisingly, Chamberlain is seen asserting his dominance and scoring points at Bill. However, the oddity of the matchup was pointed out by the narrator.
The narrator made everyone aware of the lackluster defense that Bill Russell was playing. Russell was regarded as one of the best defenders of his time. But, his performance in the highlight suggests something else. There were moments when the Boston Celtics legend was not even contesting any of his opponent’s shots. Allowing “The Big Dipper” to go on a scoring outburst, the narrator criticized the 11-time champ:
“Boy, Wilt Chamberlain was abusing Bill Russell.”
From what his reaction suggests, Kevin Garnett wasn’t too big a fan of Russell’s subpar defensive efforts seen in the video.
It is understandable as to why the Big Ticket added a confused-faced emoji alongside the video. Garnett was always regarded as a gritty superstar who took pride in his defense. Having won the Defensive Player of the Year award and made 12 All-Defensive selections, it is safe to say that KG was one of the best defenders of his time.
Contrary to the belief of Kevin Garnett, Bill Russell allowed Wilt Chamberlain to score
Wilt Chamberlain completely outplayed Bill Russell in their matchups. Across 94 regular season games, Chamberlain averaged more points (29.9-14.2) and rebounds (28.1-22.9) than the Boston legend. However, according to Kobe Bryant’s theory, Bill allowed his opponent to go on these berserk scoring runs on purpose to satisfy Wilt’s ego.
“Bill didn’t want to activate Wilt. He felt if he defended Wilt too well, then Wilt would take that as a challenge. And if he did, Wilt was going to demolish Bill because he was so physically big and strong. So, Bill felt if he could appease Wilt, let him score once in a while, then Wilt would remain satisfied and Bill could keep him at bay,” Kobe said.
Seems like Bill had a unique strategy that he was sticking by. While Chamberlain did outplay him, it was Russell who managed to win significantly more of those contests (57-37).
Wilt might’ve put up some jaw-dropping numbers throughout his 14-year career. However, it was Russell who was extremely successful. By the end of their careers, Wilt Chamberlain had won two championships. Whereas, Bill Russell lifted the coveted championship trophy a record total of 11 times.
