Loved watching Bill at 6foot9 battle Chamberlain at 7 feet on the old ABC Sunday afternoon game from 1 to 3 central time. Lakers with Jerry West and Elgin Baylor were great. Old Bill used to control Chamberlain for the most part. Bill was not a big scorer, but a great Def player and rebounder.
If Chamberlain could actually shoot Free Throws, might have been a different story. But if you knew you could get away with fouling him, it made him less effective than he should have been.
Russell talks about the control here:
https://www.sportscasting.com/bill-russell-let-wilt-chamberlain-score-pad-stats/
note that wilt still out stat’d russell in head to head...
“Bill was not a big scorer, but a great Def player and rebounder.”
You only saw him in the NBA I guess. In his college career he was averaging around if not over 20 ppg. When Auerbach watched Russell play, he didn’t see a scorer for his machine. He saw a rebounder and how to get the Boston weapon running, the fast break.
Many don’t know that what turned into the basket interference rule in the nba and later other leagues and international basketball was created because of Russell. If there was no time on the clock, and Boston had the ball in forecourt, to include out of bounds, a pick would be set and Russell would curl to the rim tipping the ball through when it was tossed over it. Almost zero time was used and the rim would keep defenders from getting to Russell’s tip.
But his main job was rebounding and clearing to the outside to head down court. He could score, but Red found it more successful for the team to use Russell in this way. And 11 nba championships in 13 years is clearly successful.
wy69