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“I Don’t Think You Have the Right”- NBA Legend Wilt Chamberlain on Why Michael Jordan isn’t the GOAT

Published 10/24/2020, 5:30 PM EDT

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Michael Jordan is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time due to his flawless Finals records. MJ played in 6 Finals and never lost a series. He didn’t even let any team push him to 7 games.

Moreover, Jordan had a plethora of individual accolades to back up his case. However, one of the best players of all-time, Wilt Chamberlain, took a dig at MJ as the GOAT from time to time.

Wilt believed that he should be regarded as the GOAT and had some pretty solid facts to back up his claims.

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“It bothers me because we all have our opinions. Commence with what he’s doing and what he’s done and how the game is going today, he’s better than a number of people.”

When a person brought up the rings argument in front of Wilt. He simply replied: “I have a friend of mine who I talk to about once a week. You know what he says about Michael’s 4 championships? He doesn’t say anything about it.

“Because he has 11 (Bill Russell). I don’t think you can’t predicate how great a guy really is because he has championships. There are a lot of guys on those championship teams who’ve done nothing.”

Wilt continued bashing MJ by saying, “I know you’ve already made Michael number one, but if you had to have Wilt against Michael my prime and his prime, how much money would you be willing to bet?”

It is true that MJ has more rings than Wilt, but when it comes to 1 on 1, Wilt would have surely dominated MJ. Wilt had a towering stature, which gave him immense power to destroy any player on both ends of the floor.

Wilt Chamberlain vs Michael Jordan: Who will come out on top in a 1 vs 1 duel?

Chamberlain went on to say Jordan wouldn’t survive his era.

“He’s 6-foot-7 and he’s like a 197 pounds. Coming into what we call our domain, the paint for us big guys, we would’ve not been very wise of Michael if he was playing during our time.

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“We would say, Michael, as long as you do all your fancy things outside of where we are, that’s fine.”

Wilt further believed that he would give MJ a run for his money. Even though technically Jordan should be much faster than him.

“I run around 105, 100 meters around 10, 10.2 and then in that area, 52″ vertical.”

In an interview with Conan O’Brien, Wilt was asked if Jordan would have been completely crushed in his era. To which Wilt replied: “I don’t think, I know he’d have been crushed. I wouldn’t have been good for Michael.”

Who was the better scorer between MJ and Wilt?

Apart from having the GOAT title, Jordan is looked upon as the greatest scorer of all time. However, Wilt believes he would have had that title on one condition.

“People don’t remember that my first seven years I scored a lot of points, then I stopped scoring on my whole volition. I tried to do other things as I was asked to do other things.

“And that’s what I did. So if I had continued to score I would probably average 40 points for my whole lifetime. Does that make me the best scorer?

“I really don’t know but one thing I do know, that all the years I was usually scoring all those points I was leading the league in percentile shooting and that’s also important because if you take all the shots then you should be making the highest percentage.

“When they compare me to Michael, Michael’s averaging 31 points for his lifetime, I averaged about 30 points of a lifetime, but I stopped scoring.”

It is a well-known fact that many new rules were invented due to Wilt’s dominance. Chamberlain used this fact to further bolster his case for the GOAT.

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“Mike, until you are so great that they start changing the game to stop your greatness. Then I don’t think you have the right to make that accolades in that particular way.”

Wilt made some very compelling points for him being the GOAT. But at the end of the day, many people still believe Jordan is better than him.

What are your thoughts on these claims by Wilt? Who is the GOAT in your opinion, Wilt Chamberlain or Michael Jordan?

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Written by:

Aikansh Chaudhary

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Aikansh Chaudhary is an NBA columnist for Essentially Sports. Previously, he helped rank various websites using the latest SEO techniques, and wrote over 2000 articles during his stint as a freelance writer. A die hard Lakers fan, Aikansh will forever uphold LeBron James as the GOAT.
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