{"id":96656,"date":"2025-08-20T11:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T11:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/96656\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T11:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T11:12:08","slug":"part-two-could-chamberlain-have-averaged-nearly-nine-blocks-a-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/96656\/","title":{"rendered":"Part Two: Could Chamberlain Have Averaged Nearly Nine Blocks a Game?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Maybe<\/a><\/p>\n

Maybe Wilt really did block 8+ shots per game.<\/p>\n

Yes, I\u2019m still writing about Wilt Chamberlain and blocked shots. It\u2019s the offseason, which is the time to dig into esoteric stuff like this. We\u2019ll return to regularly scheduled Statistical Doppelganger Machine articles soon.<\/p>\n

So, in the comments of part one<\/a>, ExPatDE sparked a couple ideas for different approaches to estimating blocks for Chamberlain. Estimates are the only thing we can do to get a read on numbers from those areas because the NBA didn\u2019t start tracking blocks (and steals) until 1973-74. They didn\u2019t record turnovers until 1977-78.<\/p>\n

When it comes to outlandish block numbers, Manute Bol is the all-time leader. Among his feats, he holds the all-time single season record for block percentage (percentage of opponent FGA blocked while on the floor) at 10.81%, which he did TWICE!<\/p>\n

The 10% mark has been surpassed only five times in recorded NBA history \u2014 three times by Bol, and twice by Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n

So, what if Chamberlain was just as good at blocking shots as Bol or Wembanyama? Apply that 10.8% block percentage to Chamberlain\u2019s era and minutes, and it translates to about 10.3 blocks per game over the course of his entire career. His peak could have been as high as 11.6 per game in 1960-61 and 1961-62. It\u2019s possible Chambrerlain averaged 50 points, 25 rebounds, and 11+ blocks per game that nutso 61-62 season.<\/p>\n

Now, is 10.8% block percentage applied over his entire career plausible? Kinda-sorta maybe. Manute\u2019s career average was 10.2%. That would work out to a career average of 9.7 per game, including around 8-9 blocks per game in the late 60s and early 70s (around that 112 game sample). And Bol did last 10 seasons, though he didn\u2019t play much his last couple years.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Chamberlain\u2019s modern day comp is usually Shaquille O\u2019Neal, who had a 4.6% block percentage. That equates to about 4.4 blocks per game in Chamberlain\u2019s era and minutes. Dwight Howard\u2019s career block percentage was 4.4%. When I last ran my era translator, the closest modern comp was Embiid…who had a 4.4% block percentage.<\/p>\n

A few other block percentages from dominant defensive big men and all-time shot blockers:<\/p>\n

Hakeem Olajuwon: 5.4%.David Robinson: 5.7%Ben Wallace: 5.0%Shawn Bradley: 7.8%Theo Ratliff: 7.2%Myles Turner: 6.6%Alonzo Mourning: 6.6%Dikembe Mutombo: 6.3%<\/p>\n

Now, it could be that Chamberlain blocked a lot more shots because there was no three-point shot, so everyone was trying to get to the rim pretty much all the time. And, even in the modern game, there\u2019s Wembanyama\u2019s two seasons with a 10+% block percentage in the three-point era.<\/p>\n

So, you know…I\u2019m not saying Chamberlain blocked 9+ blocks per game, but I think it\u2019s plausible that he did given the era differences (pace, three-point line, no illegal defense), and the physical\/athletic edge Chamberlain had.<\/p>\n

One more piece: I found an old study (probably published 20+ years ago) by Roland Beech showing that around 15% of \u201cclose up\u201d shots get blocked. Beech defined \u201cclose up\u201d as \u201cclose to the rim.\u201d He also had dunks in their own category, though he didn\u2019t say whether close up included or excluded dunks.<\/p>\n

There were likely deterrence effects \u2014 Chamberlain (and other bigs) could stay near the hoop to defend the game\u2019s most valuable space \u2014 which could have reduced his blocks. But if Chamberlain had a block percentage of 8-10%, blocking 8-9 per game wouldn\u2019t be out of the question given his playing time and the era differences.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maybe Wilt really did block 8+ shots per game. Yes, I\u2019m still writing about Wilt Chamberlain and blocked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99,63905],"class_list":["post-96656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-washington-wizards-statistical-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}