old school NBA rebounds stat question

suns rival

why is it that players in the 50's & 60's had a monstrous rebounding stat?

for instance:
wilt chamberlain for his career averaged 22.9 rebounds per game.
bill russell averaged 22.5 rebs for his career.
bob pettitt averaged 16.2 in his career.
elgin baylor at 6'5" even averaged 13.5 in his career.

players today are far from these stats in their respective careers.

what were the NBA rules then?

markymark550

Having grown up in the 1980s and 1990s and never actually seen some of the players from the 50s and 60s play, this is all just purely my opinion.....

I do know that in the early years of the NBA, there was the perception that big and tall players couldn't posess the agility needed to play basketball. George Mikan helped to refute that perception as he was the first truly dominating big man in the NBA.

There are 2 main factors on why I think players like Russell and Chamberlain were so dominating back then. 1) It seems that there was a lack of what we would consider true post players back then. That would make it easier for a 7'1" Chamberlain or 6'9" Russell to get more rebounds than a shorter competition. 2) The quality of athlete isn't as good as today's athlete. I don't mean this to be a knock on the players back then. However, when a sport first starts out professionally, the players and their skill sets aren't necessarily the best that they can be. So, if you get a person who is just leaps and bounds better than the competition at the time, it's easier for that person to be a dominating player.

As the number of true centers playing basketball has grown and the quality and abilities of athletes has gotten better, it has become increasingly difficult to produce monstrous stats like 20+ rebounds per game.

rearviewmiror

They used to play a faster style too. I mean when you're jackig up so many shots there will be more boards to grab.

Take a look at the scores, it was way more wide open then now.

AllNiteThing

markymark550 wrote:

Having grown up in the 1980s and 1990s and never actually seen some of the players from the 50s and 60s play, this is all just purely my opinion.....

I do know that in the early years of the NBA, there was the perception that big and tall players couldn't posess the agility needed to play basketball. George Mikan helped to refute that perception as he was the first truly dominating big man in the NBA.

There are 2 main factors on why I think players like Russell and Chamberlain were so dominating back then. 1) It seems that there was a lack of what we would consider true post players back then. That would make it easier for a 7'1" Chamberlain or 6'9" Russell to get more rebounds than a shorter competition. 2) The quality of athlete isn't as good as today's athlete. I don't mean this to be a knock on the players back then. However, when a sport first starts out professionally, the players and their skill sets aren't necessarily the best that they can be. So, if you get a person who is just leaps and bounds better than the competition at the time, it's easier for that person to be a dominating player.

As the number of true centers playing basketball has grown and the quality and abilities of athletes has gotten better, it has become increasingly difficult to produce monstrous stats like 20+ rebounds per game.

I agree completely with this, along with the faster, more wide open style of play. More shots = more rebounds. Plus some of those guys were just head and shoulders above the competition of the time. I don't think they would be as dominating now, but the rest of the league wasn't up to their skill level then. Just like Jordan in the 80's/early 90's. Nowadays he would still be in the upper echelon, but so many players have his skill set that didn't back when he played, thus he dominated. I think only Kobe and Lebron are ahead of the pack today, but not by as wide a margin as past superstars.

harrymanback

Great question. First i thought there could have been some rule changes:

Here are some changes from the 60's that could have had an impact:

1964-65
• Lane widened from 12 to 16 feet
1966-67
• The following language was added to the Zone Defense Rule: "After the offensive team has advanced the ball to its front court, a defensive player may not station himself in the key area longer than three seconds if it is apparent he is making no effort to play an opponent. The three second count starts when the offensive team is in clear control in the front court."

but as a whole, the rebounding numbers for the league did not change that much.

then i saw the number ... 46 ... while averaging almost 23 boards per game, wilt also averaged 46 minutes per game. not only was he a freak in size, he was a freak of a competitor. for comparisons on minutes per game,
david robinson, patrick ewing, hakeem and shaq all about averaged 36 minutes per game and 10-11 rebounds. sure the extra minutes played a part in wilts numbers, but the extra minutes also show me how much of a competitor he was ... something that makes up the mindset of getting everyball he he could. think about rodman ... wilt had the same rebounding mindset as rodman ... something you will never see again from someone who can also average over 30 pts per game.

the other crazy stat about wilt is that he never fouled out of a game.

Solat13

harrymanback wrote:

Great question. First i thought there could have been some rule changes:

Here are some changes from the 60's that could have had an impact:

1964-65
• Lane widened from 12 to 16 feet
1966-67
• The following language was added to the Zone Defense Rule: "After the offensive team has advanced the ball to its front court, a defensive player may not station himself in the key area longer than three seconds if it is apparent he is making no effort to play an opponent. The three second count starts when the offensive team is in clear control in the front court."

but as a whole, the rebounding numbers for the league did not change that much.

then i saw the number ... 46 ... while averaging almost 23 boards per game, wilt also averaged 46 minutes per game. not only was he a freak in size, he was a freak of a competitor. for comparisons on minutes per game,
david robinson, patrick ewing, hakeem and shaq all about averaged 36 minutes per game and 10-11 rebounds. sure the extra minutes played a part in wilts numbers, but the extra minutes also show me how much of a competitor he was ... something that makes up the mindset of getting everyball he he could. think about rodman ... wilt had the same rebounding mindset as rodman ... something you will never see again from someone who can also average over 30 pts per game.

the other crazy stat about wilt is that he never fouled out of a game.

Wilt also averaged one season 48.5 minutes a game which is just insane.

He's also the only person ever to lead the league in scoring, rebounds and assists for a season. I forget what year it was, but someone in the offseason bet him he couldn't lead the league in assists and he decided to prove that guy wrong.