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Wilt Chamberlain Broke 90 Records and Nobody Noticed. Kareem Broke One and the World Stopped. Wilt Had Thoughts About That

Wilt Chamberlain was in Los Angeles at a Forum pregame ceremony when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke his all-time scoring record in Las Vegas.

He extended his best wishes. Then told the truth about how he actually felt.

"It's curious. It's really quite strange. If I had received half of the fanfare that Kareem is getting at this time, I wouldn't know what to do with myself."

He clarified immediately that none of it was about Kareem personally.

"It doesn't quite make any sense. I'm not demeaning what Kareem has done because he's fantastic, sensational. Kareem is the greatest scorer who ever played. He deserves it, but there are a few things that are bothering me about it. If this record is so great, well, it's only one of about 90 I held. I must be in a world by myself."

Then the part that genuinely hurt him.

"Maybe the reputation of Bill Russell as being the best defensive player wouldn't be so great because I blocked about twice as many shots as he did."

Offensive rebounds. Blocked shots. Two categories where Wilt was historically dominant. Neither was tracked as an official statistic until after he retired.

"Yet I didn't hear any attention focused on that at all. And I was still scoring a bunch of points and blocking a bunch of shots."

He described his greatest season as 1967-68 despite finishing third in scoring that year.

"I think that was really an exceptional feat, yet nobody was making any big hoorays then. You know, I broke somebody's record, too, for most points in a career, but the record didn't mean much then. I don't even know whose it was. Bob Pettit, I think."

New NBA Commissioner David Stern was a lifelong Wilt fan and acknowledged the complexity of the moment.

"In some ways, perhaps, we haven't bridged the gap well enough to realize the enormity of his deeds. You have to ask the question if anybody will ever again do what Wilt did. What Kareem is doing is great for Kareem, great for the game and brings back into focus just how spectacular Wilt's career really was."

The record was broken. The fanfare finally arrived.

Forty years too late for the man who set it.

Jerry West Called Oscar Robertson His Toughest Opponent Every Single Season for 12 Years. He Said You Can't Anticipate Him or Break His Rhythm

Jerry West was 34 years old in his 13th NBA season. Had just led the Lakers to the championship averaging 25.8 points and 9.7 assists. Received more All-Star votes than any player in the league.

He still had one answer when asked to name his toughest opponent.

Oscar Robertson. Every single season since 1960.

"Since he was traded from the Cincinnati Royals to the Milwaukee Bucks three seasons ago, Oscar has not concentrated on offense nearly as much as he used to. His scoring averages have gone down — he hit his career low of 17.4 points per year last season — but still runs a team as well as anyone in basketball. I rate him my toughest opponent, and have rated him this way ever since we entered the NBA together for the 1960-61 season."

Twelve years of competing against each other. West's verdict never changed.

Then he described what guarding Robertson actually felt like.

"Oscar is the strongest guard I've ever faced. He's 6-5, weighs 215 pounds, and uses his shoulders and legs to excellent advantage. He has all the moves and all the shots, and he does everything so efficiently and smoothly. Another player said once that he would be willing to pay to watch Oscar Robertson play basketball. That is the kind of player The Big O is."

Then the defensive breakdown that explained why Robertson was impossible to prepare for.

"When you're defending Oscar you just can't anticipate him or break up his rhythm. If you commit yourself too quickly, he'll go inside of you for an easy layup. And, if you play him loosely, he'll go up for an unimpeded jump shot. Oscar never takes a shot he doesn't want to take."

Never takes a shot he doesn't want to take.

Jerry West went to nine NBA Finals and won one championship. He was the logo of professional basketball. The most respected two-way guard of his generation.

He picked Oscar Robertson as his toughest opponent without hesitation.

Twelve years in a row.

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Blake Griffin Was Getting Hit on Every Single Possession and Getting Sick of It. Kobe Bryant Had One Solution. I'd Smack the F--k Out of Somebody. He Said He Learned It From Watching Shaq Do It in His First Year.

2012. Blake Griffin was in his sophomore season and getting fouled hard every single night.

Elbows. Shoulders. Cheap shots. The kind of physical punishment that comes when defenders realize they can't stop you any other way. He had picked up 11 technical fouls arguing with officials about calls that weren't coming.

He was done with it.

"I'm definitely sick of taking hard hits. There's a point I can't remember what game it was in my mind where I thought this is kind of ridiculous. I'm sick of it, but it's going to keep on happening."

Kobe Bryant watched all of it and had one piece of advice.

"I'd smack the f**k out of somebody."

Then the qualifier that made the whole thing work.

"I've known him for a while, and he's a really nice guy, so I don't know if he'd want to do that. But I would. I would've done it early in the year."

Then Kobe explained where the philosophy came from. He didn't develop it on his own. He learned it by watching the biggest man in basketball get targeted the same way Blake was getting targeted.

"I saw Shaq crack somebody his first year. I did it my first few years. Sometimes, people feel like they can take advantage of you, they hit you and this, that, and the other. Sometimes you have to say, 'Look, you're not going to do this to me. I'll take two games, but you're not going to put my health at risk by injuring me potentially. It's not going to happen.'"

The chain ran from Shaq to Kobe to Blake. One lesson passed down through generations of players who discovered that the only way to stop certain opponents from crossing a line was to make them understand there were consequences on the other side of it.

Blake Griffin was a nice guy.

Kobe Bryant was very clear that nice guys take more elbows than they should.

Michael Jordan Was 47 Years Old and Running the Charlotte Bobcats. He Got in the Scrimmage. Gerald Wallace Said They Hit Him. Then Jordan Hit a Game Winner and Destroyed Stephen Jackson on the Mic.

Michael Jordan became the majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats and decided the best way to teach his players what greatness looked like was to show them personally.

At 47 years old.

Gerald Wallace was on those teams. He described the arrangement simply.

"We don't treat him like no quarterback out here. We hit him."

No red jersey. No protection. Full contact basketball from professional NBA players against a nearly 50-year-old man who happened to have six championships.

Coach Paul Silas watched all of it and delivered his assessment with a smile.

"He can still shoot the basketball unbelievably and he can move well. But at his age, he couldn't do it for a long period of time. But short period of time, he can get it done, yeah. He's holding these guys accountable and it's great. I love him out here. He's teaching them how to protect the basketball, how to play hard on defense, how to talk. The guys work a little bit harder when he's out here and rightly so because he's working hard. You're not going to let him do a job on you if you've got any pride."

Wallace confirmed everything Silas said.

"He's Mike. He's been kicking our butts. He still has it. He doesn't have this quickness, but he can score; he's a shooter. The last thing to ever go is your jump shot and he has that."

Then came the Stephen Jackson moment.

Jordan jumped on the second team. Hit a game winner. Jackson had been talking about deserving an All-Star selection all season. When Jackson complained about a foul call that never came Jordan delivered the most Jordan line possible.

"The MFer ain't never been an All-Star but wants all the All-Star calls."

Gerald Henderson watched it all from the sideline.

"He looked like prime Michael Jordan without the quickness and the jumping ability. But it was just all MJ work. Talking smack the whole time."

Forty-seven years old. No quickness. No jumping ability. Still hitting game winners and destroying borderline All-Stars on the microphone.

The last thing to go was his jump shot. The very last thing to go was his mouth.

Neither one went quietly.

Joe Johnson Was 35 Years Old and Dribbling Through a Full Court Press in Slow Motion. Hassan Whiteside Said You Can't Steal the Ball From Him

The 2015-16 Miami Heat had more talent than anyone remembers.

No LeBron. No Big Three. Just a roster built around Dwyane Wade, Goran Dragic, and Hassan Whiteside trying to figure out if they were good enough to compete.

Then they added Joe Johnson at 35 years old off the Brooklyn Nets scrap heap.

Hassan Whiteside wasn't ready for what he saw.

"2016 was the most talent I've had on any team. You gotta think, we got Iso Joe, if you really wanna challenge yourself defensively, like literally I tell people you can't steal the ball from him. He would throw between his legs, some reason, when you reach, like his shoulder… I don't understand… It's pretty crazy."

Then came the Sacramento game.

Kings up 15. Full court press the entire possession. Miami couldn't move the ball. Wade got trapped. Dragic got trapped. Spoelstra looked at his bench and put Joe Johnson in.

"Joe Johnson was dribbling one baseline to the other baseline in slow motion, Coach Spo was like, 'How do you do that?'"

In slow motion. Through a full court press. Baseline to baseline. A 35-year-old man making a suffocating defense look like a recreational league inconvenience.

Johnson averaged 13.4 points in 24 regular season games with Miami. Then 12.1 points over 14 playoff appearances as the Heat pushed the Raptors to six games in the second round.

Six consecutive All-Star selections in Atlanta. Peak of 25 points per game. The most underrated two guard of his generation.

Erik Spoelstra has coached LeBron James to two championships. He watched Joe Johnson dribble through a full court press in slow motion and had nothing but a question.

That's Iso Joe. Never the fastest. Never the flashiest. Just completely quietly impossibly unstoppable.

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