Koko Lists
Start a new list
Log in
Sign up
← New random battle
Koko Battle
Tap your pick.
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilt Chamberlain's rookie season alone would be a career highlight for most players — he won MVP in 1960 after averaging staggering numbers, and by 1961-62 he was putting up a 50.4 points-per-game season average, still the highest scoring average in a single NBA season by a wide margin and one of the more untouchable records in the sport. The signature moment of that 1961-62 season came on March 2, 1962: a 100-point game against the New York Knicks, played at Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Chamberlain shot 36-for-63 from the field and 28-for-32 from the free-throw line to reach the total — a mark that's stood for over six decades with no player getting closer than about 20 points to it since. Chamberlain won two NBA championships, one with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967 and one with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972, where he was also named Finals MVP. He added four regular-season MVP awards, seven scoring titles, and eleven rebounding titles across his career, including an NBA-record 55 rebounds in a single game in November 1960. Chamberlain's combination of scale and stamina was as remarkable as any of his scoring totals — he averaged 48.53 minutes per game (more than a full 48-minute game, accounting for overtime) during that 1961-62 season and never fouled out of a single game in his entire career, an endurance record that's as unusual as any scoring number he ever put up.
VS
Bill Russell
Bill Russell played his entire 13-year NBA career with the Boston Celtics, and in that span won 11 NBA championships — a total unmatched by any player in any major North American professional sport, before or since. Two of those titles came while Russell was also serving as Boston's head coach, making him the first Black head coach in NBA history when he was appointed in 1966. Russell wasn't a dominant scorer by modern standards — 15.1 points per game for his career — but his defensive and rebounding impact reshaped how the sport was played. He averaged 22.5 rebounds per game across his career, led the league in rebounding four times, and won five regular-season MVP awards despite never leading the league in scoring, a genuinely rare combination that reflects how much of his value came from defense, rebounding, and winning rather than individual box-score totals. Before turning pro, Russell won two NCAA championships at the University of San Francisco and captained the gold-medal-winning 1956 U.S. Olympic team — an amateur résumé that already suggested the winning pattern that would define his professional career. Following Russell's death in 2022, the NBA retired his No. 6 jersey league-wide, the first time any number has been retired across every team simultaneously — a fitting, singular honor for a player whose championship total remains the standard nobody else has come close to touching.
Next battle
Full comparison
About Wilt Chamberlain
About Bill Russell
Popular Battles
1984 vs. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
1 votes
Friends vs. Curb Your Enthusiasm
1 votes
Ideogram vs. Sora
1 votes
Navy Pier vs. Bishop Museum
1 votes
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree vs. Skittles
1 votes
George Carlin vs. Oprah Winfrey
1 votes
