NBA great Wilt Chamberlain was known for lots of things during his life.
He scored 100 points in a game. He claimed he slept with thousands of women. He starred in movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Aside from those things, he was also known as a player who always performed for the fans on the court. Chamberlain averaged nearly 46 minutes during his career. The fact caused Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson to criticize today’s load management NBA.
Robertson spoke about it during an appearance on the All The Smoke podcast.
“He played every minute,” Robertson said of Chamberlain. “You see guys today, they’re trying to worry about the minutes.”
In the past 10 years, the league shifted toward the load management era. Players take games off for “maintenance” purposes. It’s a rarity for anyone to play a full 82-game season. Chamberlain played at least 79 games 11 times in his career.
Robertson said there is no place in today’s game for sitting out. He feels players make too much money for that. They also owe it to the fans to play.
“I think if you’re making $50 million a year, there’s no load management,” Robertson said. “I think sometimes you owe it to the fans who come to see you play. The NBA owners and players are in this thing together. they’re not in it alone. they’ve got to understand that.”
Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Back In The Day Hoops. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com
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