The Tape
Was Bill Walton better than Dirk Nowitzki?
Bill Walton, 1974-1987, against Dirk Nowitzki, 1998-2019. 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, Dirk Nowitzki is the bigger scorer: 31.3 a game in 2005-06 against 19.9 for Bill Walton in 1976-77. That is a real gap of 11.4 points, not an era illusion — Dirk Nowitzki's league averaged 97 and Bill Walton's averaged 106.5.
Bill Walton wins the glass by 5.4 rebounds a game (14.4 to 9), which in his era meant standing in traffic rather than waiting for a long one.
Bill Walton: A passing center who won a title and an MVP in the only 2 healthy seasons he ever had. Dirk Nowitzki: The 7-footer who made the fadeaway jumper a franchise, 10 years before every big man had to shoot.
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