Would Wilt play as much today? Brett Brown says 'it's a different game' now

On a day when the 76ers honored Wilt Chamberlain, Brett Brown was asked a pertinent question Saturday. The Sixers coach gave what he feels is an obvious answer.

The coach was asked why some current NBA players have their playing time restricted or sit out games to rest when Chamberlain rarely came off the court. The Hall of Famer averaged an NBA-record 45.8 minutes over his 14-year career with Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Sixers, and the Los Angeles Lakers.

"It's a different game," Brown said, comparing today's NBA to the 1960s and early 1970s. "It's funny when you just look at their pictures, their photos, just look at their bodies. It's different.

"You are rolling out now the world's best athletes, to me, the highest-conditioned collection of athletes. The definition of people's bodies is completely different."

Back then, players rarely lifted weights — if they lifted them at all. Nor did teams utilize sports science, which helps athletes improve their performance.

Plus, the average weight in 1973 — Chamberlain's final NBA season — was about 199 pounds, according to SeatSmart. Players averaged 224.8 pounds in 2011. The number dropped to 216.1 in 2015, the last year SeatSmart took data.

"It just is a different sport played, played at a different speed, played by different athletes," Brown said. "I think we would all be not telling the entire truth if we didn't factor that in, too. Like … how could they go so hard and so long and they can't do it now? It's an unfair comparison based on those facts."

Chamberlain averaged a league-record 48.53 minutes during the 1961-62 season with the Philadelphia Warriors. A regulation NBA basketball game is 48 minutes long.

That season, Chamberlain played 3,882 minutes out of his team's possible 3,890.

The Sixers unveiled a statue of him Saturday morning at their practice facility in Camden.

Don't believe the height

Brown shot down reports that Ben Simmons grew two inches and is 7 feet tall or a shade under that.

"No, he is not [7 feet tall]," Brown said. "I don't believe so. I feel like I've shrunk. I can feel comfortable saying no, he has not grown to 7 feet. I wish he had."

Simmons, who is listed at 6-10, was the first overall pick of the 2016 draft. The point guard missed this season with a Jones fracture in his right foot.

Former Sixer World B. Free told the Cleveland Cavaliers broadcast team on March 31 that "it seemed like Ben Simmons grew about another two inches since he's been here." Free, also a former Cavalier, was honored during the Sixers-Cavs game in Cleveland for being a Cavs legend.

His comments, however, led to several reports that Simmons grew two inches.