Bill Russell: The Greatest Shot Blocker of All Time

August 6th, 2010 by Richard JT Leave a reply »


"The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot."

The quote speaks for itself.

Speaking about shot blocking, almost all of you will know Hakeem Olajuwon's name, since he holds the records for most blocked shots of all time.

Well, sorry to break it to Olajuwon fans, but keep in mind that blocked shots (and steals) weren't an official NBA stat during the careers of Russell and Chamberlain—otherwise, they'd be No. One and Two (or Two and One) in that category.

While blocks were not an official stat, newspaper accounts of games involving Wilt and Russell would often mention how many shots they blocked—it was not unusual for them to block six to eight shots in a typical game.

I'm not saying that's what they averaged. I'm just mentioning that it was common for them to have numbers like that. Both players and referees confirmed those numbers in subsequent interviews over the years.

Both official scorers and sportswriters would frequently count the number of blocks that Chamberlain and Russell had during their games for reporting p ...

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