Will there ever be a player that dominated his sport like Wilt did?

Sorry, I should have qualified...team sports and only basketball, baseball, and football qualify. Not hockey, soccer, and other stupid "sports".
 
EddyP said:
Sorry, I should have qualified...team sports and only basketball, baseball, and football qualify. Not hockey, soccer, and other stupid "sports".
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That argument is plain stupid. Hockey and soccer are sports, even if you don't care for them. And now that you mention soccer, I'd throw in Pele into the discussion as well.
 
tm3308 said:
This is the final answer. No player outside of Wilt comes close to the Great One. The point records he set were unbelievable. Hell, it takes me creating a super-player on a video game to break those records.
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Wilt is the only player to ever lead the league in each of the following categories. All three were not done in the same season.

1. scoring(both on and off the court)

2. rebounding

3. assists

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_career_achievements_by_Wilt_Chamberlain


For these reasons, Michael Jordan couldn't carry his jock strap. :)
 
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tm3308 said:
1. 7-footers were EXTREMELY rare.
2. The lane was narrower, allowing him to play much closer to the basket than he would be today.

Now, is Wilt the most dominant player of all time? Yes. But he's not the best of all time.
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Wilt is the best of all time as he played against centers. Now, every big man wants to be a power forward and shoot threes.

Wilt played against:

1. Bill Russell, 6-10, Boston Celtics
2. Walt Bellamy, 6-11 250, New York Knicks
3. Nate Thurmond, 6-11 235,
4. Willis Reed, 6-10, New York Knicks
 
OO44 said:
Wilt is the only player to ever lead the league in each of the following categories. All three were not done in the same season.

1. scoring(both on and off the court)

2. rebounding

3. assists

List of career achievements by Wilt Chamberlain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


For these reasons, Michael Jordan couldn't carry his jock strap. :)
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Jordan is better because he was more versatile in my opinion. He had some of the best post moves ever by a guard, he could defend, he could play the perimeter and all at an elite level. Obviously have never seen Wilt play however I'm going to guess he couldn't play on the perimeter and I don't know what type of defender he was as it's hard to get a good gauge on that statistically.

But I'm a Bulls fan who grew up with Jordan so I'm biased.
 
bcl20 said:
Jordan is better because he was more versatile in my opinion. He had some of the best post moves ever by a guard, he could defend, he could play the perimeter and all at an elite level. Obviously have never seen Wilt play however I'm going to guess he couldn't play on the perimeter and I don't know what type of defender he was as it's hard to get a good gauge on that statistically.

But I'm a Bulls fan who grew up with Jordan so I'm biased.
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I grew up with Jordan too and he might be the best player of all time. But like I said in my OP Jordan had 40 something 50 point games in his career which is amazing. Wilt had more in one season. No one will ever do that again much like no one will come close to scoring 100 points in a game again. Yes it was a different era/time but that doesn't change the fact that he did what he did. And I don't think anyone has dominated their sport like he did or ever will.
 
I think it would be hard to say Tiger is better than Bobby Jones. Jones is the only golfer to ever win the Grand Slam in golf.
 
bcl20 said:
Jordan is better because he was more versatile in my opinion. He had some of the best post moves ever by a guard, he could defend, he could play the perimeter and all at an elite level. Obviously have never seen Wilt play however I'm going to guess he couldn't play on the perimeter and I don't know what type of defender he was as it's hard to get a good gauge on that statistically.

But I'm a Bulls fan who grew up with Jordan so I'm biased.
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The rules of the game were not changed because of Jordan.

Wilt:

During his career, his dominance precipitated many rules changes. These rules changed included widening the lane, instituting offensive goaltending and revising rules governing inbounding the ball and shooting free throws (Chamberlain would leap with the ball from behind the foul line to deposit the ball in the basket).

No other player in NBA history has spawned so many myths nor created such an impact


NBA.com: Wilt Chamberlain Bio
 
OO44 said:
The rules of the game were not changed because of Jordan.

Wilt:

During his career, his dominance precipitated many rules changes. These rules changed included widening the lane, instituting offensive goaltending and revising rules governing inbounding the ball and shooting free throws (Chamberlain would leap with the ball from behind the foul line to deposit the ball in the basket).

No other player in NBA history has spawned so many myths nor created such an impact


NBA.com: Wilt Chamberlain Bio
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I understand all that but part of the reason so many myths exist around Wilt is because there really isn't much video of seeing him play so it exists around the legend of second hand stories of older people where as with Jordan, pretty much every basketball fan around now watched him play.

Hell, Jordan already has a crap ton of legend, Romanticism and mythology surrounding him with the ability to watch him play on demand.

For example, even with every statistic listed regarding Wilt it's still controversial to anyone who is a basketball fan to claim anyone but Jordan is the GOAT.
 
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OO44 said:
The rules of the game were not changed because of Jordan.

Wilt:

During his career, his dominance precipitated many rules changes. These rules changed included widening the lane, instituting offensive goaltending and revising rules governing inbounding the ball and shooting free throws (Chamberlain would leap with the ball from behind the foul line to deposit the ball in the basket).

No other player in NBA history has spawned so many myths nor created such an impact


NBA.com: Wilt Chamberlain Bio
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The lane was also widened because of George Mikan (from 6 feet to 12). Changes to the rules don't make you the greatest ever. Most dominant? Absolutely. But that's all dependent upon the context. Some football players were more dominant in the 60s and 70s, but wouldn't hold a candle to many of today's players (athletically). Adrian Peterson would have dominated the NFL just like Jim Brown did.

They didn't lower the pitching mound in baseball because of Nolan Ryan. Is Ryan not the greatest pitcher of, if not all time, at least the modern era of baseball?
 
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EddyP said:
He was before my time but the things he did were ridiculous. I watched a special on the NBA channel that was a tribute to his 100 point game. That '61-'62 season he did that in he AVERAGED 50 points and 27 rebounds a game. Jordan had 40 something 50 point games in his career and Wilt had more in one season. That same year he missed a total of 8 minutes the entire 80 game season and that was because he got thrown out of a game. They never took him out. He holds something like 90 records that stand to this day and a lot will never be broken(insert sex record joke). Dude was a freak of nature.
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How about Edwin Moses. undefeated in a really grueling sport for many years. And he liked to diddle with the ladies if I remember some news stories.
 
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