Get ready for an epic showdown. The All-Time Golden State Warriors vs. All-Time Toronto Raptors promises to electrify…ok, I can’t do it. I’m not going to waste anyone’s time here.
Results
Warriors sweep 4-0.
Next Round
Golden State faces the winner of the All-Time Rockets vs. All-Time Suns.
Instead of the usual breakdown, I’m going to use this space to try to contextualize Wilt Chamberlain’s absurd scoring averages with the Warriors.
Here are the 15 highest scoring seasons in NBA history, by points per game. Not surprisingly, Wilt’s six years with the Warriors are all included here. Rick Barry’s second season with Golden State (then San Francisco), when he averaged an otherworldly 35.6 points per game, a record for an NBA forward, is also included; making Golden State by far the most represented team on the list.
Basketball-reference.com lists an estimate for each team’s number of possessions per 48 minutes, by year (called Pace Factor). However, this information is only available since 1973-74; other estimates were used for team pace prior to this date. These estimates help us understand how much the game has changed since Wilt’s heyday. In his record-breaking 1961-62 season, the estimate for the Warriors’ pace was 131.1, and the average team scored 118.8 points per game. Compare that to Kobe Bryant’s 2005-06 season, when he averaged 35.4 points per game with a team pace of 90.9, and a league scoring average of 97.0. Also of note is Bob McAdoo’s underrated 1974-75 season, when he averaged 34.5 points per game with a team pace of 107.3 and a league scoring average of 107.6.
In addition, basketball-reference.com has a year-by-year breakdown of the top 10 players in true shooting percentage. True shooting takes into account three-point field goals and free throws; however, it’s important to note that the NBA did not adopt the three-point line until the 1979-80 season. This benefited players who played close to the basket, like Chamberlain, and hurt long-range shooters, like Pete Maravich, who would have thrived with a three point line. Regardless, we see that in Wilt’s three highest scoring seasons, he ranked in the top 6 in the league in true shooting percentage. Barry ranked ninth in his breakout 1966-67 season. Remarkably, Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were both able to surpass a .600 true shooting percentage in high-scoring seasons; Jabbar ranked 2nd in the league in 1971-72, while Michael ranked just outside of the top-10 in 1987-88, his first MVP season.
Finally, we can see how far ahead of the competition each player was in his prolific scoring season(s). Elgin Baylor is the only player on the list who did not lead the league in scoring; in both 1960-61 and 1962-63, he averaged 34 points per game plus, but did not win the scoring title because of Chamberlain. Speaking of Wilt, in his 1961-62 season, he was 18.8 points ahead of the league’s next leading scorer. It’s safe to say that this type of disparity will never be approached again.
This data shows that Wilt scored efficiently with the Warriors, and was a monster in relation to his competition. However, the league was much different back then, and he benefited from an absurdly fast-paced environment. Even though nobody will ever approach his raw averages again, we have seen players put up scoring numbers that, when considering context, were nearly as impressive.