Brian, I agree. There are a host of guys who were stars back in the day whose games probably wouldn’t translate due to physical limitations (Bob Cousy and Bill Bradley are two quick examples I can think of). I think it’s fair to say that guys like Oscar and Petit would translate, but wouldn’t be quite as dominant as they were back then. And it’s dumb to say things like Elgin was better than LeBron.

But the guys with elite physical tools/measurables and high IQs that were dominant back then would be just as great today if not greater. Wilt, Russell, West, Havlicek, Kareem, etc. were timelessly transcendent. And there are some guys that actually mignt have benefited from playing today: West, Jerry Lucas, etc. would have LOVED the 3-pt era.

There were some extreme obstacles back then. Sports Medicine. Training regimens. Diet. Fitness technology. Footwear. Travel. Schedule. Coaching. Refereeing. Contract leverage. Lack of access to skill role models when growing up (e.g. LeBron and Kobe emulating MJ). College requirements. As Brian said, none of these stars would be the skinny guys who got 3-4 years of dictatorial coaching and who would be murdered if they tried to be hot dogs or took positional liberties. Players today complain about playing back to backs. Wilt played all 48 minutes in every game of a back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back! In Converse All-stars!

Wilt was ahead of his time, he was a Ruthian player in that he was like 10 years ahead of everybody else. Of course he would have succeeded in any era. It’s just a useless and dumb argument to say “Well if Johnny Unitas stepped out of the time machine and tried to QB the Patriots he’d totes suck.”

Let’s also remember his central role in a Knicks tradition: his 100 pt game came against us.

If you think Bill Russell and Wilt couldn’t translate… Get the F out of here.

Mitch will make his lane and hopefully it will be in a Knicks uniform. Obviously if he becomes an all time great we can discuss this more but lots of us are getting ahead of ourselves.

Look at a dude like Wayne Embry. You’re telling me Wayne Embry, a dude who was all about the pick and roll back in the day, wouldn’t be able to adjust to the modern game just because he’s short for a center? Come on, these guys were too talented. It’s just a different game. I mention Wayne Embry because he’s such a relatively obscure dude (I looked at the 1964 All Star Game to see who was one of the more obscure guys for modern fans who was still an All Star in multiple years).

It’s the average players where the huge difference lies between the NBA of 1964 versus the NBA of 2019. The lesser guys definitely pale compared to nowadays. The stars would be stars in any time.

It’s also important to remember that back then, without the 3-pt shot, there was no spacing in the post. you didn’t have to worry that some journeyman was spotting up in the corner for a 36% 3-pointer. Big men would routinely get double-teamed.

There are so many different areas where the guys of the past wouldn’t just, like, give up on because things are different now. They would simply adjust to the modern style. There are certainly players who would have a harder time adjusting to the modern era than others, but guys like Russell wouldn’t have an issue. It’s the secondary rung players who would all be fucked. Not the legends of the game.

Except Camby didn’t average 4.3 assists a game for his career like Russell did.

I think on the low end if he played today, Bill Russell would have a career like Ben Wallace or Dennis Rodman, which is basically a Hall of Fame career. That’s on the low end. On the high end, I think he would have adapted his game to the modern era so he would be almost unrecognizable to the Russell of the 1960s. It’s like how obviously pretty much every famous NBA player of the past would be shooting threes nowadays if they came up now. I mean, just to take a Knick legend, Patrick Ewing would probably be averaging six threes a game if the played in the NBA today.

So I have no doubt that Bill Russell would be a dominant modern NBA player. Wilt, of course, is obvious. Wilt’s skills and height all translate wonderfully to the modern NBA.