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When you think of great individual rivalries in the NBA, two immediately come to mind – Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson in the 1980s (which was credited with reviving the league’s sagging popularity) and before that, the original great rivalry of Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell in the 1960s. As towering giants of the NBA’s early days (both literally and figuratively), Chamberlain and Russell dominated the game in extraordinary fashion, an ongoing head-to-head clash between the former’s individual brilliance and the latter’s championship greatness with the Boston Celtics. More than half a century after each player’s prime, the two legends continue to hold a revered place in the upper echelons of basketball immortality and the comparison remains timeless:
Who was better – Wilt Chamberlain or Bill Russell?
The Beginning
Though they entered college with very different expectations, both Chamberlain and Russell dominated the college game and were highly sought-after NBA prospects; neither player disappointed, immediately becoming dominant big men on their way to Hall of Fame careers.
Growing up as one of nine children in Philadelphia, Chamberlain was originally a track and field star before shifting his focus to basketball given his natural height advantage (he was already 6’11” upon entering high school). Following a dominant high school basketball career, he was recruited by essentially every major college, ultimately choosing to attend the University of Kansas; Chamberlain was just as dominant as a collegian, earning back-to-back First Team All-American selections as a sophomore and junior. Moreover, as a sophomore in 1957, he led the Jayhawks to the NCAA Finals and earned Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four despite falling to North Carolina in the championship. At the time, college basketball players could not join the NBA until after their senior year graduation, so Chamberlain opted to join the Harlem Globetrotters for a season and even went to play in the Soviet Union. As a 1959 territorial draft pick of his hometown Philadelphia Warriors, he immediately became the league’s highest-paid player; joining a team with future Hall of Famers Paul Arizin and Tom Gola, he did not disappoint as a rookie – by averaging 37.6 points (46.1% shooting) and 27.0 rebounds per game in 1959-1960, Chamberlain was not only Rookie of the Year, but he also led the league in both scoring (first of six straight scoring titles and seven overall) and rebounding (first of four straight rebounding crowns and 11x overall), earned the first of 13 All-Star and seven First Team All-NBA selections, and won the first of his four career MVP awards.
Meanwhile, Russell was born in Louisiana, but moved to Oakland, California as a child; he took up basketball in junior high and gradually became an excellent player, leading his high school to back-to-back state championships. However, he was not highly recruited by colleges (perhaps due to his race) and thus accepted a scholarship to play at the nearby University of San Francisco (USF), which would be the first major college basketball program to start three African-American players. Russell led the Dons to back-to-back NCAA titles in 1955 and 1956, individually earning All-American and Helms Player of the Year honors both years, Most Outstanding Player in 1955, and UPI College Player of the Year in 1956. In the 1956 NBA Draft, he was selected second overall by the St. Louis Hawks, but subsequently traded to the Boston Celtics for All-Star center Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan; the Celtics also used their territorial pick on Tommy Heinsohn and drafted K.C. Jones (Russell’s teammate at USF), thus selecting three future Hall of Famers in one draft. After captaining the US Basketball Team to a gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Russell joined the Celtics midway through the 1956-1957 season and averaged 14.7 points (42.7% shooting) and 19.6 rebounds per game to win the first of three straight rebounding titles (five overall).
Career Comparison
Throughout the 1960s, Chamberlain and Russell were the preeminent players in the game, putting up monster numbers while alternating First Team All-NBA and MVP honors; moreover, they captivated fans with their head-to-head matchups, though Russell’s Celtics would usually come out on top.
An iron man throughout his playing days (averaged 45.8 minutes per game for his career), Chamberlain was absolutely unstoppable in his first half-dozen or so NBA seasons; in each of his first seven years, he averaged 30+ points and 20+ rebounds per game and was both an All-Star and All-NBA selection – notably:
- 1960-1961: 38.4 points (on 50.9% shooting) and a single-season NBA record 27.2 rebounds per game
- 1961-1962: an NBA-record 50.4 points (50.6% shooting) and 25.7 rebounds per game, including his record-setting 100-point game on March 2, 1962 vs. the New York Knicks
The following season, the Warriors relocated to San Francisco, where Chamberlain would continue his overpowering play with 44.8 points (52.8% shooting) and 24.3 rebounds per game in 1962-1963. However, as the team struggled collectively, he was traded at the 1965 All-Star break back to Philadelphia to the 76ers (formerly the Syracuse Nationals) for Paul Neumann, Connie Dierking, Lee Shaffer, and $150K in cash.
Playing on a 76ers team with future Hall of Fame guard Hal Greer, Chamberlain won his second MVP award in his first full season with Philadelphia in 1965-1966, averaging 33.5 points (on 54.0% shooting) and 24.6 rebounds per game; though this was his last scoring title, Wilt would again embark on another four year run as the league’s rebounding champion. Moreover, he would three-peat as league MVP – though his scoring average trended downwards, he did become a more efficient shooter and remained a vacuum when it came to rebounding:
- 1966-1967: 24.1 points (68.3% shooting) and 24.2 rebounds per game
- 1967-1968: 24.3 points (59.5% shooting) and 23.8 rebounds per game
Due to a deteriorating relationship with the team’s owners, Chamberlain requested a trade and was thus sent to the Los Angeles Lakers for Darrall Imhoff, Archie Clark, and Jerry Chambers, the first time in NBA history that a reigning MVP was traded.
In joining a Lakers team that included fellow superstars Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, Chamberlain remained productive in his first year in Los Angeles (20.5 points per game on 58.3% shooting and 21.1 rebounds per game). Unfortunately, in his second year with the team, he ruptured his right patella tendon and missed all but 12 games, which resulted in his only season not being an All-Star and his first averaging less than 20 points per game. Nevertheless, Chamberlain would return from this injury and play three more years with the Lakers, winning three straight rebounding titles despite never averaging 20+ rebounds per game again. At the same time, his scoring dipped from 20.7 points to 14.8 points and finally, 13.2 points per game, though he did shoot a career-best 72.7% in his final NBA season in 1972-1973. Ahead of the 1973-1974 season, Chamberlain signed as a player-coach with the San Diego Conquistadors of the upstart American Basketball Association (ABA), but could not actually play due to NBA contractual obligations and retired officially at season’s end from professional basketball.
As for Russell, he built upon his abbreviated rookie year and was an All-Star for every season of his career thereafter, as well as a First or Second Team All-NBA selection for 11 of those years (alternating spots with Chamberlain). Between the 1957-1958 and 1966-1967 seasons, he averaged at least 12 points and 20 rebounds per game each year and was a 5x MVP, tied with Michael Jordan for second-most all-time behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (6x). In fact, during that time, the only times when either Russell or Chamberlain did not win MVP were 1958-1959 (Bob Pettit) and 1963-1964 (Oscar Robertson).
Though he was never a prolific scorer like Chamberlain and only shot 44.0% from the field for his career (including never better than 46.7% in a single season), Russell was an equally dominant rebounder as well as a ferocious defender. In his first MVP campaign in 1957-1958, he averaged 16.6 points (44.2% shooting) and 22.7 rebounds per game; later on, during his MVP three-peat from 1960-1961 to 1962-1963, Russell averaged 23+ rebounds per game each year and also added a career-high 18.9 points per game in 1961-1962. Starting with the 1963-1964 season, Russell won back-to-back rebounding crowns with 15.0 points per game (43.3% shooting) and a career-high 24.7 rebounds per game, followed by 14.1 points (on 43.8% shooting) and 24.1 rebounds per game in his fifth and final MVP season in 1965-1965.
Ahead of the 1966-1967 season, legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach retired, thus paving the way for Russell to become Boston’s player-coach and the first black coach in NBA history. With his advancing age and additional duties, he took a bit of a backseat to some of the team’s younger stars – 1967-1968 would be his first season since his rookie year under 20 rebounds per game (18.6). More broadly, Russell was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the state of the country, particularly with the assassinations of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. After averaging only 9.9 points per game on 43.3% shooting to go with 19.3 rebounds per game in 1968-1969, Russell abruptly retired from the NBA after winning another championship.
Overall, Chamberlain and Russell played in the Association for a similar number of years and games, with the former playing exactly one current regular season’s worth of additional games (82). Statistically, Chamberlain has the edge in essentially every single counting category (points, rebounds, and assists) and was also a better shooter, though slightly inferior from the free throw line. However, though Chamberlain also holds the edge in All-Star selections (13x to 12x), Russell actually leads in terms of All-NBA selections (11x vs. 10x) and perhaps more importantly, MVPs (5x to 4x), no doubt helped by being the anchor of so many championship teams. From an advanced statistics perspective, Chamberlain holds significant edges in both Player Efficiency Rating (26.1 to 18.9) and career Win-Shares (247.3 to 163.5). As two of the goliaths of basketball, both were unsurprisingly first ballot Hall of Famers, Russell in 1975 followed by Chamberlain in 1979.
Regular Season Statistics
| Wilt Chamberlain | Player | Bill Russell |
| 14 (1959-1973) | Seasons | 13 (1956-1969) |
| 1,045 | Games Played | 963 |
| 30.1 | Points | 15.1 |
| 22.9 | Rebounds | 22.5 |
| 4.4 | Assists | 4.3 |
| 54.0% | Field Goal % | 44.0% |
| 51.1% | Free Throw % | 56.1% |
| 26.1 | PER | 18.9 |
| 247.3 | Win Shares | 163.5 |
| 13x | All-Star Games | 12x |
| 10x | All-NBA | 11x |
| 4x | MVP | 5x |
| 2x | NBA Titles | 11x |
| 1x | NBA Finals MVP | – |
| ROY, 2x All-Defensive | Other Awards | 1x All-Defensive |
| 1979 | Hall of Fame Induction | 1975 |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
During their careers, Chamberlain and Russell met many times in the playoffs; whereas the former is best known for his incredible individual feats, the latter is in contrast remembered for being perhaps the NBA’s ultimate winner.
In 13 playoff appearances across the Warriors, 76ers, and Lakers, Chamberlain averaged well over 20-and-20 for his postseason career, but team success was often thwarted by Russell and the Celtics (more on that shortly). While playing in the East, his only NBA title came in 1966-1967 as his 76ers finally beat the Celtics in five games in the Eastern Division Finals to end Boston’s streak of eight straight titles (Chamberlain averaged 21.6 points and an astounding 32.0 rebounds per game for the series); then, in a Finals matchup with his old team the San Francisco Warriors, Chamberlain put up 17.7 points and 28.5 rebounds per game to help Philadelphia win the title in six games. Later on, during the 1971-1972 season, he was named MVP of the Finals with 19.4 points and 23.2 rebounds per game as the Lakers beat the Knicks in five games to avenge a title loss from a couple seasons back.
Playing on Celtics teams that included fellow Hall of Famers such as Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, K.C. Jones, Sam Jones, Tommy Heinsohn, and John Havlicek, Russell elevated his performance in his playoffs to average 16.2 points and 24.9 rebounds per game for his career. Over the course of 13 NBA seasons, he won 11 titles, including eight straight from 1958-1959 to 1965-1966; in those 11 titles runs, Boston beat their longtime rival Lakers in the Finals on seven occasions. Overall, Russell is tied with Henri Richard of the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens for most titles across the four major North American sports leagues (11x each), followed closely by Yogi Berra of baseball’s New York Yankees (10x).
As previously mentioned, Chamberlain and Russell are remembered for their fierce head-to-head battles, facing off in 143 regular season and postseason games. In 94 regular season matchups, Chamberlain had the better individual numbers (29.9 points (48.8% shooting) and 28.2 rebounds per game vs. 14.3 points (on only 37.0% shooting) and 22.9 rebounds per game for Russell), but Russell’s teams dominated with a 57-37 edge. Furthermore, across 49 playoff games spanning eight seasons/matchups, including the 1964 and 1969 NBA Finals, the Celtics had a 29-20 edge – though many of the matchups went the full distance of seven games, Chamberlain’s team only won series (the aforementioned Eastern Division Finals in 1967); individually, Chamberlain again had the upper hand, averaging 25.7 points (50.8% shooting) and 28.0 rebounds per game to Russell’s 14.9 points (41.7% shooting) and 24.7 rebounds per game.
Playoff Statistics
| Wilt Chamberlain | Player | Bill Russell |
| 160 | Games Played | 165 |
| 22.5 | Points | 16.2 |
| 24.5 | Rebounds | 24.9 |
| 4.2 | Assists | 4.7 |
| 52.2% | Field Goal % | 43.0% |
| 46.5% | Free Throw % | 60.3% |
| 22.7 | PER | 19.4 |
| 31.5 | Win Shares | 27.8 |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; as dominant as each player was in his prime, Chamberlain and Russell each showed obvious decline towards the end of their careers, though were still highly productive players. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Wilt Chamberlain | Player | Bill Russell |
| 1959-1969 | Decade of Dominance | 1957-1967 |
| 787 | Games Played | 760 |
| 34.4 | Points | 15.9 |
| 24.3 | Rebounds | 23.3 |
| 4.5 | Assists | 4.3 |
| 53.0% | Field Goal % | 44.2% |
| 51.4% | Free Throw % | 57.1% |
| 28.1 | PER | 19.3 |
| 198.3 | Win Shares | 138.1 |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
No surprise here that across their decades of dominance, Chamberlain still has the statistical edge over Russell – while the former was putting up monster numbers night in and night out, the latter was leading the Celtics on one of the greatest stretches of dominance in sports history.
My Thoughts
The rivalry between Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell is the stuff of legends – between the otherworldly individual talent in Chamberlain vs. the anchor of one of sports’ greatest dynasties in Russell, you could not script a more compelling battle in contrasts. An interesting thought experiment – if Chamberlain had been on the Celtics, would they have won so many titles (probably, or close to it)? In contrast, if Russell had not been on the Celtics, he likely still would have been a great defender and rebounder, but would not have won so many rings (most likely) – would he still have won as many MVPs and been regarded as Chamberlain’s equal (maybe, maybe not)? While no one can deny that Russell is the greatest winner in NBA history, I believe that as an individual, Chamberlain reigned supreme and that we may never see one player dominate so thoroughly again.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Wilt Chamberlain
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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