You're so right! Points is more important than being the best player on a team that won 11 rings during his 13 year career, beating Wilt 7 out of 8 times in the playoffs, and averaging 25 boards a game in the playoffs!
Alright, first thing's first. The League MVPs are a joke. They were voted on by the players up until 79 and Russell was a hell of a lot more well liked than Wilt. Chamberlain after his rookie season (still only rookie to win MVP) was blackballed largely because of his mammoth dominance over a multitude of players.
I've used the Barry clip and others to substantiate the reverence players developed for Wilt after their blinding jealousy faded. This is why Wilt would garner 3 MVPs from 66-68.
Now keep in mind the 61-62 season when Russell won the MVP, Chamberlain averaged that monster 50PPG while Oscar Robertson maintained a triple double. To this day this is considered the worst MVP in any of the four major sports. Obviously flipping this one MVP would give Wilt 5 and Russell 4, but 3 of those other 4 MVPs are also very controversial in hindsight.
Russell's 57-58 MVP is arguably his most defensible.
Points aren't everything, but when you're consistently between 3rd and 4th on your team in that category, it paints the picture of being one-dimensional. Russell's disproportionate rebounding totals are indicative of his half-court play. While Chamberlain essentially did everything but rack up assists...as a C.
Now sure, Russell wasn't asked to score as much but when he was he was effective right? How bout that field goal percentage?
Russell in his best seasons couldn't break .500%, a career best .467% he broke .450 in only four seasons. Chamberlain's career low was .461% in his rookie year when he won MVP.
Now you want to talk about Russell "beating" Wilt. It's insane and unfounded. The fact Chamberlain averaged slightly less production against the Celtics than his regular season totals is indicative of facing THE BEST TEAM IN THE LEAGUE. If he just played the Celtics all regular season his averages wouldn't be as great but neither would Russell's rebounding totals.
Since some aren't getting the team concept of basketball, I'll break it down on a house-league level:
Team A
Great Center
Great Power Forward
Great Small Forward
Great Shooting Guard
Great Point Guard
Team B
Star Center
Mediocre Power Forward
Good Small Forward
Mediocre Shooting Guard
Decent Point Guards (Split time)
In 61-62, the year Chamberlain averaged those monster numbers of 50PPG, Paul Arizin was by far his best teammate, at 33 years old playing SF. The team went 49-31. They lost to Boston in 7 games. The head bashing rhetoric that Wilt was a crap teammate who cost his team wins by producing too much is blatantly false. Proven time and again. Look at the 61-62 Celtics roster here:
61-62 Celtics
Now the
61-62 Warriors.
Now I want you to take a look at something. Below is the rosters and performance of the 62-63 Warriors and the 63-64 Warriors:
62-63 Warriors
Guy Rodgers & Tom Meschery
Rodgers would make the Hall of Fame but remains one of its weakest members. That being said, he garnered most of his 4 all-star placements after the 62-63 season, though that season he DID lead the league in assists (feeding the ball to Chamberlain averaging 44PPG). Tom Meschery garnered his lone all-star appearance that 62-63 season, racking up points off Chamberlain's double teams and garbage time. The 62-63 squad was the only losing team Chamberlain was ever apart of and it's not hard to see why.
63-64 Warriors
Basically the same team now with Nate Thurmond, Chamberlain has even less help on the scoring front but that doesn't matter as he averages 22.3 rebounds and is .524% while the team improves by 17 wins. O. Robertson gets his only MVP that season.
I don't know how you people look at win shares, but they're suppose to be an indication of how much a player contributes to his team's wins. Chamberlain lead the league in this regard for 8 seasons. Jordan by comparison did 9 times. Russell never lead the league in win shares and his career high was 17.3, followed by 16.9 and 15.5
Chamberlain averaged over 20 his first 9 seasons.