The Tape
Was Wilt Chamberlain better than Kevin Durant?
Wilt Chamberlain, 1959-1973, against Kevin Durant, 2007-present. 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 36.1 for Kevin Durant in 2013-14. That is a real gap of 12.3 points, not an era illusion — Wilt Chamberlain's league averaged 118.8 and Kevin Durant's averaged 101.
Wilt Chamberlain wins the glass by 18.3 rebounds a game (25.7 to 7.4), which in his era meant standing in traffic rather than waiting for a long one.
Kevin Durant is the passer: 5.5 assists a game to 2.4, and that is the difference between running an offense and finishing one.
Wilt Chamberlain: The largest statistical outlier in the sport, in the fastest league it has ever had. Kevin Durant: A 7-footer with a guard's jump shot, and the most efficient high-volume scorer of his generation.
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