Minnesota Sports Forum

FNG wrote: ↑Mon Oct 28, 2024 4:40 pm After reading wildwolf's post, it seems like this board is divided into three categories. The smallest category consists of fans who dislike Ant's behaviors so much that it has pushed then away from the Wolves. A larger category (and one that I'm in) consists of fans who really detest some things that Ant has done and worry about whether his behaviors might have a detrimental impact on the Wolves, but continue to cheer for him because he is the key to our chances for a championship and he's so damn talented. And the third category care little or not at all about anything he does...they just see him as a basketball player.

I'm not saying any of these categories is more correct than any other...just different takes.

And people in the 3rd category are generally the silent ones...

FNG wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2024 8:56 am

And I've ben making the same case for over a year now...my concern is that Ant might love the "NBA life" more than he loves winning, and this may hold him back. I contrasted his on-court behavior during the Laker game with that of two real winners...Davis and James. Ant seemed more interested in yakking it up with his summer Olympic teammates than he did in winning...and they in contrast seemed to be swatting him away like an annoying bug. I've said it before and I'll say it again...I worry that Ant may lack the gravitas needed to reach his enormous ceiling. I look back at the behavior of the top 100 players of all time, and Ant seems different to me. Wilt for example may have been banging a different woman ever night, but when he got on the court, he was all business. You never saw him chatting up his opponents on the court during he game...he just wanted to destroy him.

No. NO. NO!

He was not. The guy has a laundry list of pettiness, selfishness, and aloofness that largely defined him as a player who never won as often as he should have. I'm willing to share examples if you want... there are many.

For example, he demanded to live in NY while playing in Philadelphia... and refused to wake up early enough to make the commute for timely practices. Instead, he demanded 4:00 p.m. practices... which was a huge problem for his teammates.

In the 1966 playoffs, he just flat-out refused to practice between games or even show up for film or strategy sessions.

Ironically, a new coach arrived and nearly got into a fistfight with Wilt after calling him out in the team's first meeting. But the new coach didn't back down... and he even convinced Wilt to play "more like Bill Russell" which led to his first of two NBA championships... and only one as the team's best player.

Then, the next season, Wilt decided he wanted to win the assist title... even though it made the team worse. He wanted that individual record. In the end, he got his assist title. Title be damned. Heck, in the playoffs... his team was up 3 - 1 and lost. And Wilt didn't even take a shot in the 2nd half of game 7.

Once again, his on-court selfishness and petulance was more powerful than his abundant talent.

Wilt was controversial to say the least. And yet somehow despite all of his dalliances, Wilt averaged 30/23/4.4...for his career! And he played until he was 36 and played in all 82 games each of his last three seasons. If Ant can get close to those numbers, this thread will be shut down. I was lucky to see Wilt live during his Philly days and on TV during his Laker days, and I never saw him fraternizing with opponents or taking plays off...he just wanted to kill them. He was so dominant (and frankly ornery in personality) that he was constantly criticized. But based on his results, criticizing Wilt reminds me of what Lincoln said when Grant critics complained about his drinking. "If he's drunk as he's winning all those battles, send me a barrel of whatever he's drinking!".

FNG wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2024 2:39 pm Wilt was controversial to say the least. And yet somehow despite all of his dalliances, Wilt averaged 30/23/4.4...for his career! And he played until he was 36 and played in all 82 games each of his last three seasons. If Ant can get close to those numbers, this thread will be shut down. I was lucky to see Wilt live during his Philly days and on TV during his Laker days, and I never saw him fraternizing with opponents or taking plays off...he just wanted to kill them. He was so dominant (and frankly ornery in personality) that he was constantly criticized. But based on his results, criticizing Wilt reminds me of what Lincoln said when Grant critics complained about his drinking. "If he's drunk as he's winning all those battles, send me a barrel of whatever he's drinking!".

I think any "Wilt was a tough SOB who only cared about results" gets smashed to smithereens when he's compared to his greatest rival, Bill Russell.

It's literally the story (written and chronicled many times for decades, even by the players themselves) that separates them as "winners."