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Kobe Bryant Was In Awe Of Wilt Chamberlain Averaging 50 Points And 25 Rebounds: "It Was A Different Game, Still 50 Points And 25 Rebounds Are 50 Points And 25 Rebounds"


 


Kobe Bryant was one of the most prolific players of all time during his prime in the league, very few players managed to put up the sort of numbers he did. Kobe carried the Lakers on his back as a scorer in the latter half of his career, managing to win two championships as the main offensive threat. This is a man that once scored 81 points in a single NBA game, so when he talked about truly dominant players, he had quite a bit of credibility.


And there is one player that has records that even Kobe couldn't come close to despite his obvious qualities. Wilt Chamberlain has some of the most incredible records in NBA history, having scored 100 points in a single game, and having averaged 50.7 points and 25.7 rebounds per game throughout an entire season. 


Kobe was in awe of Wilt's amazing achievements, talking about it in an interview during his playing days. His respect for Chamberlain and his achievements was quite high. 



Reporter: "It seems incredible now to think about it, he averaged 50 points."


Kobe Bryant: "Yeah, and 25 rebounds. That's amazing."


Reporter: "Times were different, it was a different game."


Kobe Bryant: "It was a different game. Still. 50 points and 25 rebounds is 50 points and 25 rebounds. It's a credit to what a physical specimen he was and how talented he was."


Wilt Chamberlain can be considered the most individually dominant player of all time, even though it didn't often translate into championships for him throughout his career. However, as an individual, he was almost peerless, and having his records to chase is part of what drove Kobe Bryant to be as great as he was. 


Kobe was someone that always someone that gave credit to the greats that had gone before him, so it's no surprise to see how complimentary he was about Wilt. Both greats are unfortunately no longer with us, but their records will always exist for the next generation of stars to try and follow. 



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