The 1960s has a case to be one of the greatest decades in NBA History. That may be controversial to some people as Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics dominated the entire era. People also consider this to be the era of plumbers and electricians playing in the NBA, and players like Wilt Chamberlain and Bob Cousy (ahem JJ Redick) would not be successful in today’s NBA. This is factually incorrect as even though some are physically incapable to compete in today’s game, players such as Wilt Chamberlain would be able to dominate in any era, even including today’s game. Wilt Chamberlain may be the greatest athlete in all of sports. Yes. Even above Michael Jordan, Lebron James, or Kobe Bryant. Chamberlain could bench 500 pounds and also had the record in his home state of Pennsylvania for track and long jump. He could run a 100-yard dash in 3.8 seconds, which is faster than some NFL Players. Wilt was freakishly athletic and overall nonhuman, to say the least. He made the decade of 1960s basketball entertaining and Chamberlain seemed to be ahead of his time. His style of play revolutionized the sport of basketball forever.
Like Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, there would be other all-time great players that could essentially dominate in any era such as Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Bob Petit, and Sam Jones. Speaking of players, among these players that were especially overlooked was Jerry West. West was essentially a smaller Lebron James with less athleticism and was an underrated defensive player as well. Bill Russell established and revolutionized the way defense is played in the NBA, and he is considered the greatest defender in NBA History as well as one of the greatest defenders in NBA History. Russell would dominate in today’s NBA and also was an underrated passer. Chamberlain was all about Stats (The Man averaged 50 a season and dropped 100 points in a single game, like DAMN), while Russell was all about team basketball and winning (Won 11 titles in 13 years). Russell was also the first player to jump when blocking an opposing player’s shots. Players didn’t jump when they shot or blocked a shot. It’s hard to say whether or not Bill Russell had a stacked team, but at the same time, there wasn’t any talent in this era. There was definitely less talent in the 1960s than in today’s game, but we also have to acknowledge the fact that there were fewer teams. All the best players were crammed into 12 teams rather than 30 in today’s game. Hence back then, only the best out of the best players played in the NBA back then since there were fewer teams and fewer players. It would be easier to get rid of the less talented players. Teams generally had good players and did not have any scrubs.
Again, I’m going to emphasize that this era was not full of scrubs, plumbers, and electricians (ahem JJ Redick). Wilt Chamberlain went from being the most dominant player of all time to a player who could drop 50 points on any given night, becoming a player who can play defense and also become a team player as he averaged 7 assists in one of the latter stages of his career. He went from playing with scrubs on the Philadelphia Warriors to winning championships with Jerry West on the Lakers. Everyone including famous people like Arnold Schwarzenegger talked about Chamberlain. Youngbloods and casuals don’t realize that any great player could be dominant in any era.
On the other hand, Bill Russel’s Celtics were very similar to the 2014 San Antonio Spurs led by Tim Duncan. The 2014 Spurs were full of great players who weren’t the best in the League. The team consisted of an old Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard, Patty Mills, Boris Diaw, Marco Belinelli, Matt Bonner, and Tiago Splitter. None of these players were the best in the league. During the 1960s, the best player was Wilt Chamberlain, while in 2014 the best player was either Lebron James on the Miami Heat or Kevin Durant on the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Celtics similar to the Spurs played fantastic basketball. In my past blogs, I said that Bill Russell was revolutionary and monumental for African Americans as he played during the times of the Civil Rights Movement and protests. When Bill Russell was drafted in 1956 by the St. Louis Hawks, a team that consisted only of white players, eventually traded him to the Boston Celtics since the Hawks only wanted a team consisting of white-only players. I also previously mentioned that in his last season, Russell led the Celtics to the championship as a player coach.
There were other greats in the league such as Elgin Baylor and Oscar Robertson, who I think is a better and selfless version of Russell Westbrook. The 1960s also consisted of underrated players such as Sam Jones, Walt Bellemy, and Nate Thurmond. Overall, the 1960s was an extremely talented era that gets overlooked by many sports and basketball fans, and how these players significantly impacted and changed the game today. Some people consider the 1980s, which I’ll talk about in future blog posts, the era that significantly changed basketball and the NBA forever. Even though that is true, people tend to skim over and overlook the 1960s for the same reason. The 1960s was the time when basketball started to get popular across the US, and eventually some areas in the whole world.
Players started to get freedom and had their voices heard in the 1960s with the NBA’s first all-star game. Significant players such as Bill Russell refused to play in it unless black players were prohibited to talk to front offices, which was something only white players had the luxury to do. Front Offices addressed black players by calling them racial slurs and the black players were able to fix this problem so that all players could have a say in their lives and get reasonable wages. Players during that time could only travel in buses and not in private jets/planes as players in today’s NBA do. During the 1960s, players did not have advantages in medication, science, diets, and other luxuries that people have in the world today. Players just as good sat on buses for 12 hours to get to games, slept in 2-star hotels, and had to face issues based on their race in which black players couldn’t stay in certain hotels or travel in certain buses.
Overall, the issues players and people in general faced such as racial discrimination are well known. The NBA in the 1960s was dominated by teams such as the Celtics and the 76ers, in which the Celtics had the top-heavy players. Bill Russel’s titles were an outstanding accomplishment but since only one team, like the Celtics, was winning all the time and being popular, other fans didn’t get interested in watching the sport. This is what happened to me when the Warriors dominated the NBA in recent times. I stopped watching the NBA a couple of years back when they won 3 out of the 4 NBA Championships and also a little bit last year when the Warriors once again won the title in 2022. The Celtics and 76ers dominated the 1960s as the Warriors had dominated the NBA in recent times. Wilt Chamberlain was always dominant in the regular season but when it came to playoffs, he always choked or underperformed. In recent memories, he’s kind of like James Harden or Joel Embiid (ahem just a couple of days ago). It was disheartening to see the best player in the league like Embiid this year underperform in the playoffs. Back then, the playoffs were not even four rounds as the first seed had a bye. This is the reason why Bill Russell and the Celtics have a ton of records for the finals and not the playoffs itself because they didn’t play as many games. Nowadays, teams need to win twice as many games to make the finals and potentially lift the NBA Championship.
Overall, the 1960s was a revolutionary period for the NBA, and if we look back at it now, it was way boring in hindsight. It did not have the advancements sports have today and also did not have a three-point line, which won’t even show up until the 1980s. There were teams such as the Celtics and 76ers that dominated everyone else. The 1960s were not full of talented NBA Players as basketball was still recent and nowhere near as popular and big as the sport it is today. People who don’t know about basketball will say that the 1960s NBA was full of plumbers and electricians who wouldn’t succeed in today’s game. I have to say, again, the bottom line is that great players will be successful in any era under any circumstances. Players like Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Elgin Baylor would still be amazing even in today’s game.
