Best Lakers Center Ever

[DGS49]

You have Kareem...lanky, skilled, durable, great. Shaq...monstrous, intimidating, victorious.

But what about Wilt? The greatest scoring machine ever, but, what? He comes to L.A. and he is told that "We already have two gunners, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, so we want you to focus on defense, rebounds, and score a few poi ts, get a few assists, and help the team win."

Can you leave Wilt out of the conversation?

 

[Manonthestreet]

NBA.com: Mikan, Lakers Begin Championship Run

 

[Weatherman2020]

You have Kareem...lanky, skilled, durable, great. Shaq...monstrous, intimidating, victorious.

But what about Wilt? The greatest scoring machine ever, but, what? He comes to L.A. and he is told that "We already have two gunners, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, so we want you to focus on defense, rebounds, and score a few poi ts, get a few assists, and help the team win."

Can you leave Wilt out of the conversation?

I was there at the Forum when Chamberlain faced off against the young Kareem.

Chamberlain dominated him, one time fly swatting Kareem's shot into the 10th row.

No one comes close to Chamberlain. Hell, almost all of the primary rules of the game today were created to slow him down.

 

[DGS49]

Chamberlain, in my opinion, combined the skills of Alcindor with the strength of Shaq. I was responding to a story on another site which presented what it considered the best Lakers team of all time, and didn't include Wilt. They put both Kareem and Shaq on the "starting five" which I thought was ridiculous, because they both played the same position; you have to pick a center and live with that pick.

My question is whether Wilt should be considered, even though he was not an outstanding scorer during his couple years with the Lakers. He could have scored 40 points a game, but at the request of management, he elected not to do so, but was still a dominant force, and a main reason for a couple of championships.