Rebounding: Wilt v. Rodman

With all due respect to Bill Russell, Moses Malone, or anybody else, I've always considered Wilt Chamberlain and Dennis Rodman the two greatest rebounders in NBA history. Who is the best?

Wilt has superior numbers (he edges Russell for the career rebounds per game record, he's got the three best and six of the best seven rebounding per game seasons, and he has the record with 55 rebounds in a single game, which he achieved against Russell), but then, he played in a different era: all statistics from the 1960s are inflated due to rule differences, style of play, etc. According to Wikipedia, Rodman's '95 "rebound rate" was the best of all-time, but rebound rate data doesn't go back to Wilt's prime. It is hard, then, to compare how different eras reflect the different numbers for Wilt and Rodman.

Wilt did lead the NBA in rebounds per game a record 11 times, while Rodman is second with 7 rebounding titles. Wilt carried his dominance on longer, which is worth something.

Wilt faced competition as the greatest rebounder in the league from Bill Russell--Russell led the league in rebounds per game during two of Wilt's years, and was often a close second. Nobody was really close to Rodman: In his prime, Rodman was far superior at rebounding to the next best in the league. But let's not just hold it against Wilt that he played in the same era as Russell. Let's look at each year that Wilt and Rodman won rebounding titles, and compare the % over the #2 and #5 rebounder each year. Then we will see who dominated his particular era more.

Wilt's rebounding titles
1960: 12.5% over #2, 90% over #5
Wilt: 27 rpg
#2 (Bill Russell): 24 rpg
#5 (Willy Nauls)" 14.2 rpg

1961: 13.8% over #2, 88.8% over #5
Wilt: 27.2
#2 (Bill Russell): 23.9
#5 (Bailey Howell): 14.4

1962: 8.8% over #2, 74.8% over #5
Wilt: 25.7
#2 (Bill Russell): 23.6
#5 (Red Kerr): 14.7

1963: 2.9% over #2, 69.9% over #5
Wilt: 24.3
#2 (Bill Russell): 23.6
#5 (Elgin Baylor): 14.3

1966: 7.9% over #2, 56.7% over #5
Wilt: 24.6
#2 (Bill Russell): 22.8
#5 (Walt Bellamy): 15.7

1967: 15.2% over #2, 65.7% over #5
Wilt: 24.2
#2 (Bill Russell): 21.0
#5 (Willis Reed): 14.6

1968: 25.3% over #2, 73.7% over #5
Wilt: 23.8
#2 (Jerry Lucas): 19.0
#5 (Ray Scott): 13.7

1969: 7.1% over #2, 15.9% over #5
Wilt: 21.1
#2 (Nate Thurmond): 19.7
#5 (Wes Unseld): 18.2

1971: 7.7% over #2, 15.2% over #5
Wilt: 18.2
#2 (Wes Unseld): 16.9
#5 (Jerry Lucas): 15.8

1972: 9% over #2, 26.3 over #5
Wilt: 19.2
#2 (Wes Unseld): 17.6
#5 (Dave Cowens): 15.2

1973: 8.8% over #2, 17% over #5
Wilt: 18.6
#2 (Nate Thurmond): 17.1
#5 (Wes Unseld): 15.9

Rodman's Rebounding Titles
1992: 20.6% over #2, 50.4% over #5
Worm: 18.7
#2 (Kevin Willis): 15.5
#5 (Hakeem Olajuwon): 12.1

1993: 31.7% over #2, 41.9% over #5
Worm: 18.3
#2 (Shaquille O'Neal): 13.9
#5 (Kevin Willis): 12.9

1994: 31% over #2, 45.4% over #5
Worm: 17.3
#2 (Shaquille O'Neal): 13.2
#5 (Olden Polynice): 11.9

1995: 34.4% over #2, 54.1% over #5
Worm: 16.8
#2 (Dikembe Mutombo): 12.5
#5 (Tyrone Hill): 10.9

1996: 22.1% over #2, 30.7% over #5
Worm: 14.9
#2 (David Robinson): 12.2
#5 (Shawn Kemp): 11.4

1997: 38.9% over #2, 50.5% over #5
Worm: 16.1
#2 (Dikembe Mutombo): 11.6
#5 (Patrick Ewing): 10.7

1998: 10.3% over #2, 41.5% over #5
Worm: 15.0
#2 (Jayson Williams): 13.6
#5 (David Robinson): 10.6

What do we see? At his best, Wilt Chamberlain was 25.3% better than the next best rebounder in the league. At Rodman's best, he was 38.9% better than the next best rebounder. In fact, Rodman had four seasons in which he was at least 31% better than the next best rebounder.

Again, though, can we hold it against Wilt that he played with Russell during his prime? That's why I somewhat arbitrarily decided to compare each with the 5th best rebounder in the league. Forget the next best--how do Wilt and Rodman compare to rebounders a bit further behind?

At his best, Will was a stunning 90% better than the fifth best rebounder. In another season he was 88.8% better. He also has two other seasons at 70% better than the fifth best rebounder, two other seasons over 60% better than the fifth best rebounder, and another season at over 50% better than the fifth best. There were two seasons in which three players averaged better than 20 rebounds per game ('61 and '66), but usually Wilt and Russell were far above everybody else. Meanwhile, the best Rodman ever did over the fifth best rebounder in the league was 54%.

I always thought Rodman was more superior to his contemporaries than Wilt was to his contemporaries. But when you look beyond Bill Russell's stunning numbers, Wilt was much, much better than everybody else in his era. Rodman had no #2 to compete with him at all; however, beyond the #2, Rodman was never so superior above the rest of the league as Wilt was.

I'm convinced: Wilt Chamberlain is the best rebounder ever to play basketball. Dennis Rodman is the second most dominant rebounder, but looking at the numbers, I'm not even sure I'm comfortable saying he's better than Russell. Wilt and Russell are far above everybody else in career rebounds per game (Wilt at 22.89 and Russell at 22.45), and together they have the best 19 rebounding seasons ever. We may have to accept the fact that the best and second best rebounders ever happened to play against each other, and the third best rebounder came along later.

(I'm no statistician or mathemetician: I'm sure brighter mathematical minds than mine can pick apart this "study." I'm not trying to give a statistically comprehensive conclusion; I'm merely looking at particular numbers and presenting them as circumstantial).