Wilt Chamberlain vs Bill Russell

 In the first era, George Mikan dominated the league with the Lakers with little to no competition for who the best player was. In this era, however, there was an argument to be made for two players, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. A rivalry birthed from the two’s skill and not from negative will for each other, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell were pitted against each other as rivals since they both were in the conversation as the best player in the league and both played on teams with championship aspirations (Taylor, 2006). 

I described both players as monoliths since they both had great stature, Russell at 6’10 and Chamberlain at 7’1, and they both stood above the rest as singular unstoppable forces. Since both appeared to be unstoppable, when they played against each other, it was treated as a clash of titans. Since the better player was disputed, these matchups were heavily valued. These photographs demonstrate how basketball fandom and culture valued these matchups historically, enshrine the two players as important figures in basketball history, and mark an influential moment where fandom valued marquee matchups of players from this point forward into the modern NBA.

Look at the original caption and see how both Russell and Chamberlain are depicted. Russell was a quiet figure associated with the Civil Rights Movement while Chamberlain was known for having a personality as big as his 7'1 stature. While the photo depicts Russell as being apart of the argument as much as Chamberlain, the caption paints the picture that Russell "turns a deaf ear." An interesting observation, since there seems to be a dissonance between what the photograph shows, the perspective of the caption writer, and the true events.