Shot block data of Wilt Chamberlain's 112 NBA games might be his most impressive stat
Wilt Chamberlain is probably the best pure athlete ever. Standing at 7'1" and weighing in at around 300 pounds, Wilt was a force to be reckoned with who still holds numerous NBA records. A lot of them will probably never be broken, which proves how dominant of an athlete Wilt was in his time.
Shot block data
Wilt led the league in scoring and rebounding on multiple occasions, and it was believed he had several seasons where he averaged a triple-double by having more than ten blocks per game. Unfortunately, blocks were an official NBA stat until the 1973-74 season, one year after Chamberlain retired. Luckily there is data for blocked shots in 112 games Wilt has played in, and they show something pretty remarkable.
In those 112 games, Wilt has averaged 8.8 blocks per game. What is even crazier is that the blocks were recorded in the later stage of his career when he was already 35, 36 years old which shows how big of an impact he had on defense.
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Add to Wilt's unmatched statistical dominance
There are numerous games on this list in which Wilt recorded more than ten blocks, which would be an unofficial triple-double in the NBA books. Keep in mind this data is only for 112 games in Wilt's astonishing career in which he played 1045 regular-season games.
Of course, it should be considered that basketball was played differently in that era, with a lot of shots coming close from the basket. That enabled Wilt to have so many blocked shots, which would be much harder in today's game where most teams force the outside shooting more than ever before.
To put things into perspective, the NBA's all-time leader in blocked shots is Hakeem Olajuwon with 3830 blocks in his career, while Mark Eaton holds the records for total blocks and blocks per game with 5.5 during one season.
One thing's for sure; Wilt would've probably shattered all of these records if blocks were recorded from the beginning.
