Super excited for this and really appreciate all the positive comments! Reminder: Patreon Insiders & Deluxe subscribers get early access to each episode before it is released. www.patreon.com/posts/44189096 A few have mentioned/asked: I do tend to view Wilt's peak as higher than Russell's (which was outside the scope of this prelude). In 1967 he found a better balance with his playmaking and scoring, and combined with great defense authored a legendary season.

This channel's peak is also historically great

So excited for this series. You make the absolute greatest basketball content available

It’s a an absolutely crime how undervalued this channel is. Wish I lived in a world where this is what we talked about when talking about great players. Especially in mainstream media

This is the best basketball content on YT and it’s not even close.

Tiny fun fact for Ben : Wilt didn't actually play every minute in '62. He had a game against the Lakers with a lazy 40 minutes due to being ejected, but made up for it in averages with 5 OT games, a double OT game and a triple OT game

It's so weird that you and Stephen A Smith somehow have the same job title.

This is so exciting! This is the type of analysis that we deserve not hours of Skip Bayless and Stephen A Smith GOAT debates

People have said this a thousand times here but I want to say it myself. To an unhealthy-level NBA addict like me this channel is absolute crack. It's so far ahead of the usual (even professional) NBA content on YT intellectually it makes them sound like kids talking about a pickup game in their schoolyard. THANK YOU BEN and never stop please.

This serie is gonna give me goosebumps. And you are a true inspiration, watching your videos I'd wish I could dedicate myself to NBA analysis

I feel like I'm committing a crime watching this for free

You can see it in the clips around 8:40, Russell would block shots as a tip pass to his teammate to initiate a fast break. Master level defense

Russell is like Curry in a sense. Both the figureheads of dynasties; mostly because both are so good on one end of the court that you can overload their teams with players that make their money on the other end. Curry, for instance, can play with spacing-deficient, defensive centric units like Draymond, Iguodala, Livingston, Bogut, Festus, etc. and still handcraft an elite offense; while Russell’s teams could be supplemented with mostly offensive talent since he was in many ways a one man defense. Great start to the series.

Paul George catching strays left and right

Oh man, this is about to get crazy. The top 40 was already an eye opening, perspective changing series, now we have another one. Hope this all comes as quickly as possible

I’ll say it again, this is the best basketball analysis in the world. This is million dollar work

I'm in the Russell camp for sure, but I'm wondering why you didn't mention that the Wilt using so many possessions at decent efficiency is actually a huge value (ie decent efficiency at huge volume is more valuable than better efficiency at small volume)

Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain are both underated by modern NBA fans. On the other hand, some of Wilt Chamberlain's fans always bring stats in order to display Chamberlain's dominance. The thing is, we can't use metrics in order to determine if Chamberlain outplayed Russell, since journalists rarely wrote about these meetings. But, on occasions, we were lucky. During those years, the NBA rarely filmed their games and when they did, they destroyed the footage. On a few occasions, Wilt Chamberlain gathered points and rebounds when games were out of reach and Bill Russell [or other stars] were sitting on the bench. Thinking Basketball repeats it continually : "Stats don't tell the whole story." Let's dig into (link in the next comment) the 1962 EDF between Boston & Philadelphia : * Game 1 - Wilt held in check; Celts Cop "With Russell doing a defensive masterpiece on Wilt Chamberlain...Boston settled the contest early as it launched the defense of its world title. Russell, a picture of coordinated movement rising to the Chamberlain challenge held Wilt to 12 points in the first half. Chamberlain wound up high scorer with 33 points only after the issue was no longer in doubt." * Game 3 - Boston Clinches Contest Early (Russell Outplays Wilt, Celtics Take 2-1 Edge) "Bill Russell stole Wilt Chamberlain's thunder... Russell outscored and out rebounded scoring king Chamberlain in the crucial first half after being outplayed Wilt in Philadelphia Tuesday night. Though the 7-2 Chamberlain wound up leading all scorers with 35, most of them came too late for the visitors. Russell tallied 21 points to Wilt's 13 in the opening half and grabbed 14 rebounds to Chamberlain's 11. The big Celt finished up with 31 points. A typically brilliant play by Bob Cousy and Russell enabled the Celtics to open up their big spread before the first half ended...That gave Boston a 13 point bulge, 62-49, and the Celts proceeded to run the Warriors ragged the remaining four minutes. Boston led by 21 at intermission, 76-55." Pay special attention to this part - "Russell outscored and out rebounded scoring king Chamberlain in the crucial first half" Wilt was the 1961/62 REGULAR SEASON scoring and rebounding champion (50-25), but Russell outdid him in both categories when it MATTERED MOST. * Game 5 - Fights Mark 119-104 Triump by Champions (Celtics put clamp on Chamberlain; Gain 3-2 Lead in East NBA Playoffs) "Bill Russell put the clamps on Wilt Chamberlain... Russell scored 29 points to Chamberlain's 30. Bill blanketed Wilt so well that the NBA scoring king had only four of 13 field goal tries, 11 points and outrebounded 11-9 by his tormentor in the first half. Russell also contributed numerous blocked shots and assists to the decision...When Philadelphia closed the gap to eight points at the start of the second period, the Celtics turned on a burst in which they outscored the Warriors 17-4" ONCE AGAIN - "Russell scored 29 points to Chamberlain's 30. Bill blanketed Wilt so well that the NBA scoring king had only four of 13 field goal tries, 11 points and outrebounded 11-9 by his tormentor in the first half." Russell delivered the points and rebounds when it MATTERED, unlike REGULAR SEASON scoring/rebound champ Wilt Chamberlain * Game 7 - Jones Sinks Winning Two For Celtics "Jones fired the winning basket over giant Wilt Chamberlain with two seconds left for the 109-107 victory Thursday night...Russell, 6-10 center whose spectacular blocks of shots and passes in the fourth quarter helped Boston's comeback, agreed (with Auerbach). "Toughest series I've ever had to play in," said Russell...Though Russell held Chamberlain to 22 points and had the rebounding edge 22-21, Wilt was outstanding defensively...while rookie Tom Meschery took scoring honors with 32 points ONCE AGAIN - "Russell held Chamberlain to 22 points and had the rebounding edge 22-21...rookie Tom Meschery took scoring honors with 32 points" Sure, if you look solely on basketball reference, it looked like Chamberlain destroyed Russell, but journalists have us an insight of what really happened. Russell was handling the situation pretty greatly... but, Chamberlain managed to padded his stats when Russell was on the bench.

If everybody watched these videos nba twitter would have been a much more habitable place

Really excited for this series but regarding this episode, you analysed Bill's defence and offense and how his defence made him really good and you also spoke about Wilt's offensive game but you didn't (if I'm not mistaken) speak about his defensive impact

Wilt was more talented and individually dominant while Russell understood the team game better. Russell tailored his play to most maximize his team's output, while Wilt tended to tailor his game for his own output. In 1967 Wilt was tasked to take on a more team optimizing role and to his credit he did take that on with great success. Over the careers overall Wilt measured himself by stats while Russell measured himself by wins, so they both hit their personal targets at high levels. If Wilt was tasked earlier on to take on his 67 role then maybe he wins more, but his raw statistical marks would not be as gaudy as they were.

This is the quality of discourse I wish all NBA analysts had. Outstanding work, loved every minute.

Super, super impressive content as always - such a joy to be able to head down memory lane yet still get some analysis on the game like we have today. Can’t wait for the rest Ben!

Got a fat blunt and some food prepared for this. Thanks Thinking Basketball 🙏🏾

The biggest quibble I have with your approach is that you can't completely discount how many minutes a player played. If one player is playing much more, then the value they deliver (relative to an average player) while on the court will stack up higher. Wilt's insane minute totals in the early 60s can't be completely discounted. I'm not saying this by any means invalidates your overall analysis, and when you go to WOWYR stats later you're obviously (implicitly) taking this into account.

You are committing a serious mistake when trying to analyze data strictly. You fail to take context into account. "Wilt played more minutes so he had more opportunities to score" led you to say "Kobe and Mike scored more per possession so they're better scorers". Durability is an aspect of basketball. It shouldn't be ignored like that. Wilt's case for being the greatest scorer ever shouldn't take a hit because he was durable enough to play the whole fucking game (especially considering the pace was crazy as well). The minutes played is a pro-Wilt argument, not an argument against him.

For some reason I like watching videos about the GOAT debate. I watched like a 100 of them. But this one changed my mind more than any other.

I'm not even a basketball guy (or sports guy in general), but this year's Euroleague put me in the mood for some basketball content and I'm enjoying the hell out of this channel. It feels like I'm learning so much, things that will help me better enjoy the matches I'll be watching in the coming days. Thanks a million!

i really really really wish that stephen A. smith would watch this and learn. i bet he will watch it, but i’m not holding my breath that he’ll learn from the master... thanks for a stellar vid, ben. so excited for this series!!!!

The best basketball channel on youtube. I look forward to new posts

Bill Russell always gonna be my favorite player of all time. Lebron and Jordan are close favorites but Russell is for me the single greatest competitor in the history of competive sports. In 15 championship or 1st place games/series over 15 years, Russell led 14 titles. He even dominated in high school. My favorite stats of his time with the Celtics: 27-2 in playoff series for his career, 10-0 in game 7s. He was absolutely a maniac who wanted to win more than anyone. He made every teammate better just like Magic and his all time BBIQ is clearly evident by his last two titles, in which he was both the head coach AND starting center at 34/35. He led the first 1-3 deficit comeback against prime Wilt and then the first Finals 0-2 comeback including a road game 7 to close his career. Plenty of players have the better highlight reel, but Russell might just be the single most valuable player ever: his measured defensive impact and playoff results will never be matched.

What was amazing to watch apart from the absolute perfect analysis was the vintage footage of Wilt and Russell. Made the video so much more appealing to me! Keep the amazing content coming and can't wait for the next episode

Incredible video man! Best basketball content not just on KZfaq but anywhere. It’s a shame you don’t have an audience the size of these clowns on ESPN and FOX

“The original GOAT debate was divided into two” You forgot the Oscar Robertson and Jerry West truthers.

Channels and content like this are such a breath of fresh air. I feel like anytime you talk basketball with someone new, you are forced to either walk away (due to their nuclear level bad takes) or dump a few courses of NBA knowledge to get them up to speed. Volume scoring is only so impactful, creating easy offense for your team as a whole is the one of the key markers of an all-time great, assists are an absolutely terrible stat, rebounds, blocks, and steals are a poor proxy for measuring defense, how team defense is different than one-on-one defense and why both matter, the concept of efficiency, the concepts of pace, the concepts of hard to measure factors (culture, getting teammates involved can help them play better even if they may the be seemingly less efficient option, etc.). Love this channel! Should be required course material for TV analysts and commentators. That would hopefully raise the collective basketball IQ of fans to an acceptable level. Edit: Love that Ben Wallace gets some love. Such an underappreciated player. And people forgot that he got hurt right before the 2003 playoffs and suffered a decline afterwards. Most missed his true peak!

Oh my god it's finally happening!

Bill Russell will always be the true GOAT to me.

Great video, you make a lot of good points. This being said, there's a couple of things that didn't convince me quite yet so I thought I might chime in. Wilt's teams were better offensively when he was scoring less - that's a statistical fact. But to me it seemed like you tried to imply that Wilt was holding his teammates back and I don't think that this was sufficiently proven (I'm not trying to say that it couldn't have been true, I just wished it was statistically proven). For that I would like to see how his teammates and his teams from those years performed when he was not on the team. Also his teammates on his 1972 Lakers team (where he was passing more) were Jerry West and Gail Goodrich. I don't think he had prolific teammates as those 2 in his Sixers years. Would his early teams be better off if he shot less? The other thing that kind of bothered me was the segment where you talk about how Wilt's stats sank against Bill Russell, but there's no analysis of how they defended him as a team compared to the other teams. From what I've seen on the tape the best 1:1 defender against Wilt was Willis Reed and not Russell. The last point is that Wilt's own defense is never brought up in this video and he was also considered one of the best defenders of his time. His teams were not as good defensively, but some of Kevin Garnett's Minnesota teams were bad on defense too. Plenty of good or great defenders have looked bad on bad teams. So it's not really all time offense against all time defense, it's all time offense + elite defense against all time defense + average offense in my opinion. Still I'm not saying this makes Wilt better but it's something that has to be considered in my opinion. Also I'm not trying to say you somewhat misused the stats and I also understand that we don't have many stats and even less film, so analysis is always going to be difficult. But I think that there's this "Russell would do whatever it needed to be done for his team to win" narrative, which is kind of faulty to me because he wasn't as offensively gifted and didn't make a deliberate decision. I just wanted to add that I don't have a dog in this fight. I think that GOAT lists are pointless so I'm fine with it either way.

Brooooooo. Finding your page just now almost made me cry. This is feeding the geek in me like crazzzyyyy

Wilt's career is a tale of confidence and (perceived) lack of talent around him. He scored in bunches early in his career because he could and he was the best scorer and only efficient scorer on the team. When he got teammates he trusted to take the shots, he became more well-rounded and his team's success skyrocketed.

For those wondering, Wilt actually peaked higher than Bill in single season peaks, according to the creaotr of this video. his 1967 season is better than any of Russell's season, because of better creation, and critically, insane defense. Wilt is still a top 10 player of all time, but he accomplishes this through high level defense, and great but not transcendent offense, buoyed by a willingness to pass in the late 60s.

Wow that Bob Cousy dime at 12:25 was super nice!

This series is so underrated, I haven't been excited to watch a basketball series since the last dance.

Just noticed this channel last night -- I think I've watched 15 of your videos since. Basketball has always been my favorite sport -- I'd rather watch a decent high school game than the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup finals. Your work examines and explains the game's complexity better than any I've ever seen.

This channel almost got me thinking I would want to study statistics in college but then I took my required STAT250 class and found out I more just like basketball lmao.

Bruh some of those Big Bill blocks were stupid impressive

I'm spreading this to whoever I can. GOAT Basketball content. One of the only things I think is worth me donating to

Even with 181k subscribers this channel is still really underrated. Deserves at least 500k. Been here since the Lonzo Video at around 21k subscribers. Always such great and quality content.

Wilt and Bill played against each other for 10 seasons. I took their ranking in different categories, and produced an average ranking for that year. Example: if you came in first each season your ranking would be 1.0. Defensive Win Shares: Bill(1.1) Wilt(2.9) Total Win Shares: Bill(5.3) Wilt(1.4) PER: Bill(10+) Wilt(1.2) Bill didn't crack the Top 10 enough for me to calculate a proper total. He did finish 9th or 10th a few times, though So, over the 10 years they played against each other, Wilt was a much better defensive player than Bill was an offensive player. Bill is an all-time great, but Wilt was far superior based upon advanced analytics. He had the best Total Win Shares and PER, 8 out of the 10 years and even beat out Bill one year for most Defensive Win Shares. Bill did win every other year in that 10 year period, which is quite amazing in itself.

The reason fans have a hard time calling Russell the GOAT is that his style of play was so dependent on his era. As you say, rules have changed to favor offensive players. In today’s era, under today’s rules, Russell’s style of play would be much less effective. As a big man who could play in the paint or on the perimeter, he would still be valuable. But he couldn’t shut down a team by controlling the paint. But with Russell’s world class athleticism, height, length, competitiveness, and basketball IQ, he might find an entirely different way to dominate. I’ll just echo others to say I’m incredibly excited for this series. I’m just trying to figure out what you will consider Jordan and James’ peak years. Also, I’m curious about Duncan vs. Garnett.

This might be your best video. Incredible

WHAT AN INTRO!! This looks great and this will be an incredible series. Reminding me why I love the game

Beautiful statistics, Ben. Fabulous work here. (huge fan btw :)

It's a crazy thing how much the mainstream media basketball "analysts" undervalue defensive contribution. Pure scorers who are absolute defensive liabilities are always celebrated while defensive oriented guys are ignored. There's this latest conversation with Shaq being salty with Rudy Gobert's contract with him not being deserving of that contract because "He averages 11 points". I'm not saying Gobert's a Bill Russell but why do we do we balk at the sight of overpaying defensive guys but not purely offensive-minded players?

This is one of the best videos on yt, on any topic. congrats man, awesome job.

Such great work. People dont appreciate the impact of a Russell. keep these coming even in 2022

Thank you for your content. It would never be the same when I watch basketball from now on.

I’m still convinced that Wilt’s 1966-67 season was the greatest single season of all time. Too bad he couldn’t keep up that level of dominance.

Finally! Been waiting for this ever since it was announced, thanks for your work.

This is literally the best channel on youtube

Wilt was an absolute terror on defense as well.

Wilt was better. If Auerbach had gotten Wilt like he wanted this wouldn't even be a discussion. Wilt always ran the offense that his coach wanted. He cared about his stats but he still bought in to whatever offense his coach wanted and once he actually got other scorers in 1967 he gladly sacrificed his scoring numbers and they beat the Celtics in 5 and won the championship.

Rewatching the series for the millionth time. This channel is genuinely outstanding

Been a fan of your channel and podcast for quite a long time now, so I was expecting great things from this series given how much time you've put in these past several months. So far, you've surpassed my expectations as far as the level of in-depth analysis given as well as how clear you've made the questions that you're trying to answer. Incredibly hyped for the rest of the series now!

Wilt was so astounding in terms of strength and talent and athletic ability. Still one of the GOATs. But he was in love with himself and tbh it's hard to blame him. It's hard not to just look at him and immediately give him the ball. He really was a Goliath--kind of the first pariah for individual, overpowering greatness so impressive that it can make people blind to how it ultimately doesn't help the team as much as you'd think when it's made to be the first offensive option. Real hubris. AND it was the first time we'd seen players like him and Russell. The head to head comparison of styles needed at least one trial run for us to understand which style worked better in terms of team success. We had to learn through practice. AND it took a long time afterwards anyway to go much further than basic stats, pointing to championships, and the eye test!

Ben your content is so good, thank you ❤️

this is so incredibly captivating

Why couldn't any other player play as many minutes as Wilt? The fact that no player didn't is amazing in of itself. At one point Wilt was averaging 70 points a game in the 62' season. Why wouldn't you pass it to Wilt?

I agree with everything here, but there's one small gap in your reasoning regarding Wilt's team offenses. The Lakers offense in the early 70s was sky high because of Jerry West. That can't be entirely attributed to Wilt embracing a Bill Walton role.

Russell was an amazing player and nobody could play defense at his level. Russell and Wilt were so good they were the only real opponents for each other

Incredible video, watching your content really expands my knowledge of the game

Awesome video as always Mr. Taylor. I’m very excited to see where you Walton among the Mikans and Abdul-Jabbars of his time. I hope you revisit this series over the next few years so that we can definitely say that Lu Dort’s 2 year peak is the highest of all time!

I think when analysing Wilt's offence like this, you have to consider his teammates and coaches. Let's be honest, if he had great teammates during his prime, he would've won more. Also, for what it's worth Russell only averaged 37% from the floor against Wilt. Interesting video!

'Russell was a coach on the floor, a forward thinker with respect to value of team possessions and using his athleticism to change the game, and treated his teammates like family. And he totally respected Red Auerbach as a coach, GM and person and vice versa. Auerbach had no issue starting 5 black players and was way ahead the curve with respect to talent evaluation and understanding the game. With Russell and Auerbach, the Celtics had the most stable team culture in the league. And Russell's self-worth and pride as a basketball player came from his team winning. 'Wilt was a genetic freak in terms of strength, speed and leaping ability along with his overall size. He was a track and field star in high school and college and had the same individual mentality when competing in the NBA. 'Wilt's mix of: - frame (7'1" height without shoes, 275 lbs, 92 inch wingspan, 9.5 inch width/11.5 length hands), - athletic ability (able to touch the top of the backboard, ran 100 yard dash in 10.9 sec in college, did 180 lb tricep extensions with the Lakers in his mid '30s) and - skill (good touch on hooks, fallaway shots and finger rolls, solid passer from the post and on outlets, elite rebounder, shot blocker and post defender) 'was way ahead of his peers at the center position (with the exception of Russell) during his early years in the league. So you combine the athleticism, talent and individualist attitude (obsessed over personal stats, deflected the blame onto his teammates and coach, preferred living a full life than being obsessed with competition)...Wilt was not considered a player's coach, unselfish teammate or someone who placed his team's overall performance and victory on the top of his priority list with his self-worth as a basketball player. Honestly, if Wilt didn't give a crap about everyone's perception of him, he could have unleashed the beast and just dunked on everyone like Shaq and led his team to multiple titles...even Russell admits this in interviews. It's why he was always nice to Wilt and tried not to get him angry. 'So all in all, Wilt had the higher peak and Russell had the better career. Russell knew who he was from day 1 and Wilt could never make up his mind.

Thank you! I’ve been waiting for this.

One Huge Point Ben misses (and many other young bucks who don't know what happened back then): During Wilt's scoring years, the owner pushed the point for Wilt to score because he was the highest paid, and he wanted Wilt to sell tickets (all about money, not winning). Ben and others make it seem that Wilt did that on his own; no, that is not true. Coaches did not like it either but they had to submit to the owner. Another key point that is not considered by Ben (and others who did not see the games): Especially during the playoffs, the refs let other teams kill Wilt with intentionally uncalled heavy fouls; after games, Wilt was bruised up--visibly, which kept his scoring down in the playoffs. I am an old-head from Philly who saw Wilt play, read the papers, and listened to the radio (which was big back then); you young guys only see snippets of his play and are swayed by biased reporting that was heavily against Wilt (the press really did not like Wilt, who was a proud black man who spoke his mind, a bad trait to the white press back in those overtly racist days); listen to those who played with and against Wilt or those who seem both Wilt and MJ, they say Wilt is the GOAT. The style of play back then is not Wilt's fault. Ben makes Wilt's stamina a negative. @risingschool234 makes great points to further debunk Ben's biased reporting.

"When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object".

I'm always having a great day when Thinking Basketball uploads :)

Damn, those 18 minutes just flew by. This was amazing, and I wish all nba fans followed this channel

Wilt’s efficiency was out of this world. MJ’s peak fg% was 10th in the NBA. Wilt was 1st in fg% in the NBA 10 times.

First of all the pace was in average 126 in 1962, not 130 as you suggest. Second, using per 75 possessions is very innacurate here, having a guy play all 80 games, 48 minutes every game, in a pace of 126 possessions, in one of, if not the most, physical eras of basketball while playing with rules that made is really hard to play ofense is not comparable to playing way less games, way less minutes, with way less physicality in a much slower pace with incredibly diferent rules that make it way easier than in the 60s to play the whole ofense. Then you compare the shots attempted to assists numbers in an era that clearly made it very hard compared to the 80s and onward to rack up assists, if you compare assists acredited in the 60s to the ones acredited in the 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s you'll see how big of a diference there was in rules regarding assists, many actions we consider assists nowadays were nowhere near the definition of assists in the 60s, so that stat is again vert innacurate and missleading here. Then you say when showing the axis graphic that the coach changed the style with better players around him, and that is again extremely innacurate, as in the Warriors Wilt had the 4th or 5th best pg of the decade in Guy Rodgers, a top 3 sg of the decade in Gola and a player that had been the 1st option and best player in a championship team years before in Paul Arizin. What changed was aside from the team the coach, Wilt had pretty average and bad coaches with the Warriors that only wanted to run the ofense thruough him, but on the 76ers he had an all time great coach in Alex Hannum, probably a top 10 coach all time, and a team that fitted the style Hannum implemented much better than the Warriors' roster did with the system they had when Wilt was there. The graphic of all-stars per team is wrong too, as there was a rule throughout most of the decade (if not all of it) that didn't allow teams to have more than 3 all-stars each year, the years that the Lakers and Celtics had 4 all-stars each team had 3 players selected but 1 was substitited by a teammate because they were injured and couln't play. Also why the 76ers had 1 year 1/4 of an all-star and another year 1/2 of an all-star? Then comparing per 36 minutes to today's game has the same problems as the ones I mentioned about the per 75 pos

Best basketball channel on KZfaq 💯

I like this new series, looking forward to watching all of it!

These two opposing philosophy of basketball still clashes: iso vs teamball passing Harden vs Curry Kobe vs Duncan/Nash 2014 Finals

14:06 Damn Bill Dunked on Wilt 👀

Would love to see a series between those 60s dynasty Celtics and the showtime Lakers of the 80s. Maybe the best defense ever vs maybe the best offense ever. I'm sure it would be wildly entertaining.

It will be interesting to se how you analyze players like Kareem (whose "peak" is really difficult to narrow down because he was so consistent for so long), Isaiah Thomas (I don't know if he would qualify, but the fact that his statistical peak doesn't line up with his more successful years is super interesting) and LeBron James (whose peak is also kinda weird, at least in my opinion, because his play has evolved a lot and he has dominated in very different ways in different stages of his career). Also, I'd be really excited to watch an episode about Larry Bird, since he is one of my absolute favorite players ever, but his prime was sadly cut short. I'm really looking forward to this series!

Why didn't he add the defensive impact of Wilt. Cause Wilt was also a great defender

Im fckin watching this for free omfg thank you so much!

Big thumbs up for the Ben Wallace mention and footage. His blocks were so much more than blocks. They were demoralizing and constant. Sometimes at the end of games, he and Rasheed would keep giving the Pistons tap out rebounds and the other team wouldn't even touch the ball for entire minutes. Pistons fans loved it, but it made for horrible TV for everyone else. You should do a video about all the rule changes the league made to make sure great defensive teams didn't make it to the Finals. AKA, the 3 or 4 times the league changed the rules because the Pistons were whomping on popular teams.

As a young dude getting into basketball, this videos really helped me understand the reason why these guys are regarded as greats

You realize with 4 teams in a conference and pretty much a limit of 3 stars per team, teams had basically the same number of all-stars.

Halfway thru the video I think I'm convinced to change my all time top 2 to Airness than Russell, instead of Wilt no. 2 behind Mike.

I love this series. Its been so educational! I have a request: would you mind creating a series for the best off ball/hybrid/connective tissue players in modern NBA history? Say Pippen, Rodman, Draymond Green, Ginobili, etc. A fun thought experiment is thinking ab what the best possible all time team could be. And, that means not just the best players, but the best players who could mesh well together. Having listened and learned so much from you ab whats made great players great, I'd rly love to learn from your perspective on that group of great players not necessarily viewed as all timers but who made championships happen. If you don't mind, I'm rly curious for your perspective on those maybe slightly less celebrated all time greats who helped mesh great individual running mates into great teams.

Long time listener first time caller..really feels like you've taken another step recently it's great to see. Not to say that it hasnt always been fantastic but just that the presentation is getting so good

Wilt averaged 50 per game regular season that year, but only 35 a game in the play offs. Yikes

Watched it on Patreon already, finna watch it again and again till the next one comes out

yes! series like this and Clayton Crowley's Making the Case are the best sort of analytical videos out there!

Awesome video, yet give me Wilt any day of the week 🤷🏻‍♂️

Random thought: Is Bam Adebayo the closest thing we have to Bill Russell today in terms of overall skillset/playstyle? Undersized center that is uber athletic compared to their competition Both are switchable / can guard a variety of positions (all though Russell didn't switch all too often because of the way basketball was played back then) Both are great playmakers for their position They both can run the fast break after grabbing a rebound and finish at the hoop or make a great pass