The Tape
Was Bill Walton better than Karl Malone?
Bill Walton, 1974-1987, against Karl Malone, 1985-2004. 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, Karl Malone is the bigger scorer: 33 a game in 1989-90 against 19.9 for Bill Walton in 1976-77. That is a real gap of 13.1 points, not an era illusion — Karl Malone's league averaged 107 and Bill Walton's averaged 106.5.
Bill Walton wins the glass by 3.3 rebounds a game (14.4 to 11.1), 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. Karl Malone: Second on the all-time scoring list for 19 years, on the same pick-and-roll run 30,000 times.
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