Bill Russell vs. Wilt Chamberlain: The NBA's defining rivalry and what the numbers miss

In the early years of the NBA, two men defined what it means to be truly great at the center position: Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.

While Russell and Chamberlain developed a strong friendship during their careers, they put their feelings to the side when they hit the court.

Chamberlain was a scoring machine with eye-popping statistics. Russell was a defensive genius with an unmatched desire to win.

Here’s the big question: Which legendary big man was the better player?

Head-to-head matchups: What happened when they actually played

As expected, Chamberlain and Russell brought out the best in one another. Russell won five MVP awards, while Chamberlain won four.

In 1959, the two met for the first time. Chamberlain scored 30 points and had 28 rebounds, and Russell scored 22 points and had 35 rebounds. Russell’s Boston Celtics beat Chamberlain’s Philadelphia Warriors, 115-106.

Overall, Russell had a 57-37 regular-season record and 29-20 edge in the playoffs against Chamberlain. In those matchups, Chamberlain averaged 30.0 points and 28.1 rebounds per game, while Russell averaged 14.2 points and 22.9 rebounds per game.

In the 1969 NBA Finals, Russell won the last championship of his illustrious career with the Celtics, defeating Chamberlain and the Lakers, 4-3. Chamberlain was the ultimate scorer, while Russell ended up being the ultimate winner.

Winning vs. stats: Why Russell’s teams kept coming out on top

Russell’s Celtics routinely came out on top against Chamberlain’s squads because Russell was the rare center who could at least physically challenge Chamberlain. He also knew how to play mind games better than anyone.

Russell once told Kobe Bryant that he would occasionally let Chamberlain score because he didn’t “want to activate Wilt.”

“So Bill felt if he could appease Wilt, let him score once in a while, then Wilt would remain satisfied and Bill could keep him at bay,” Bryant told Jackie MacMullan in 2016.

Of course, Russell also had a lot of help from terrific teammates like Bob Cousy, K.C. Jones, Sam Jones and John Havlicek. Russell never worried about his own stats, and he knew that focusing on defense would lead to wins.

“People say ‘Bill Russell can’t score,'” Russell told Bryant. “Well, I could score plenty, but we had other guys who were better at it, so I let them do it. Sometimes you have to step back to allow others to step forward.”

The lasting legacy of Russell vs. Wilt in NBA history

Though the NBA has seen plenty of rivalries come and go, it was Chamberlain and Russell who initially set the bar for what an intense basketball rivalry should be.

You can see the legacy of Chamberlain vs. Russell all over the league’s history books. Just think of LeBron James vs. Stephen Curry and Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird.

Beyond the stats and records, their level of competitiveness is the standard.