The Tape
Was Wilt Chamberlain better than Bernard King?
Wilt Chamberlain, 1959-1973, against Bernard King, 1977-1993. The numbers levelled to one league, then the call.
Method, stated plainly: scoring is adjusted to a league averaging 114 points per team per game. Rebounds and assists are printed as they were recorded, with the league scoring rate beside them, because a rebound in 1962 came out of a different number of missed shots and we will not pretend one multiplier fixes that. Career lines for active players run through 2024-25.
What the numbers say
Adjusted to a league averaging 114 points a game, Wilt Chamberlain is the bigger scorer: 48.4 a game in 1961-62 against 33.9 for Bernard King in 1984-85. That is a real gap of 14.5 points, not an era illusion — Wilt Chamberlain's league averaged 118.8 and Bernard King's averaged 110.8.
Wilt Chamberlain wins the glass by 20.5 rebounds a game (25.7 to 5.2), which in his era meant standing in traffic rather than waiting for a long one.
Wilt Chamberlain: The largest statistical outlier in the sport, in the fastest league it has ever had. Bernard King: A scoring title at 53.0% from the field, almost entirely from inside 18 feet, and a comeback from a torn ACL nobody else had made.
The numbers are free. The verdict is in the Vault.
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Read the file: Wilt ChamberlainBernard King
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