Wilt Chamberlain vs Shaquille O'Neal complete career comparison (thread):

The first thing to look at when comparing 2 all time great players are the stats, as they are the most objective way to measure how the game is played.

Throughout their career both have had amazing peaks, and down falls as all players inevitably do, so I will start with career.

Career:

Regular Season:

Wilt -
30.1 PPG (2nd all time)
22.9 RPG (1st all time)
4.4 APG (1st among Centers all time)
54.7 TS% (245th All Time)

Shaq -
23.7 PPG (23rd All Time)
10.85 RPG (39th All Time)
2.5 APG (N/A)
58.6 TS% (48th All Time)

It is shown through the regular season stats that Wilt was a much better scorer recording 6.4 PPG more than Shaq, and was not only a better rebounder than Shaq, but more than DOUBLED Shaq's career RPG. Wilt was also a better playmaker, while Shaq was a more efficient player.

The next measure of career stats throughout the regular season would be each player's advanced stats, since we don't have VORP numbers for Wilt we will be using PER and WS/48.

Wilt -
26.1 PER (6th All Time)
.248 WS/48 (3rd All Time)

Shaq -
26.4 PER (4th)
.2081 WS/48 (18th)

As mentioned before Shaq was the more efficient player than Wilt but not by a landslide posting a 0.3 higher PER. This difference in PER however is more than made up for by Wilt's large WS/48 difference.

Wilt average position: 4.5
Shaq average position: 11

The next way to measure production throughout their career will be to gather their career playoff stats, as I just did with the regular season stats.

Playoffs:

Wilt -
22.5 PPG (38th All Time)
24.5 RPG (2nd All Time)
4.2 APG (1st Among Centers)
52.4 TS% (219th All Time)

Shaq -
24.3 PPG (23rd All Time)
11.6 RPG (22nd All Time)
2.7 APG (N/A)
56.5 TS% (64th All Time)

The only difference in output here is the PPG as Wilt's dropped from his regular season averages and Shaq's rose. Wilt has incredible rebound numbers more than doubling Shaq's RPG yet again, and showing once again his playmaking ability over Shaq. Shaq is more efficient again.

Next we will measure their playoff advanced as we did with the regular season.

Wilt -
22.7 Playoff PER (20th All Time)
.1998 Playoff WS/48 (7th All Time)

Shaq -
26.1 Playoff PER (4th All Time)
.1842 Playoff WS/48 (21st All Time)

Very similar to regular season advanced.

A common argument that is used to push the narrative of Shaq over Wilt is Shaq's incredible peak as a Los Angeles Laker so I took both players' best 5 year statistical peak to compare to each other.

Wilt (1959-1964)
Shaq (1997-2002)

5 Year Peak:

Regular Season:

Wilt -
41.6 PPG
25.3 RPG
3 APG
52.7 TS%

Shaq -
28 PPG
11.8 RPG
3 APG
58.3 TS%

Wilt has by far the highest PPG of any peak ever at 41.6 PPG, 13.6 PPG higher than Shaq. Wilt again more than doubles Shaq's rebound numbers. Shaq was more efficient.

For the 5 year peak I again went into the advanced stats to see how they size up.

Wilt -
30.2 PER
.272 WS/48

Shaq -
30.0 PER
.254 WS/48

The big difference here is for the first time we see Wilt have a higher PER than Shaq on top of the WS/48 he commonly leads in.

For the 5 year peak I also dug into the Playoff stats to see how they match up.

Playoffs:

Wilt -
35 PPG
25.2 RPG
2.6 APG
51 TS%

Shaq -
29.3 PPG
13 RPG
2.9 APG
56.2 TS%

Wilt leads in PPG even in the playoffs during their peak, and almost doubles Shaq's RPG yet again.

Now for the 5 year peak playoff advanced stats.

Wilt -
28.7 Playoff PER
.266 Playoff WS/48

Shaq -
29.5 Playoff PER
.219 Playoff WS/48

Shaq leads in PER once again by a small margin of less than 1, while Wilt has a strong lead in WS/48 as he consistently does.

A lot of NBA fans consider accolades to be the most important way to compare NBA greats such as rings, MVPs, All-NBAs and more, so now we will compare the accolades between Wilt and Shaq.

Accolades:

Wilt - 13x All Star, 7x Scoring Champ, 11x Rebound Champ, 1x Assist Champ, 2x NBA Champ, 10x All-NBA, 2x All Defense, 1x FMVP, 4x MVP

Shaq - 15x All Star, 2x Scoring Champ, 4x NBA Champ, 14x All-NBA, 3x All-Defense, 3x FMVP, 1x MVP

Wilt leads Shaq in the following categories:
Scoring Titles, Rebound Titles, Assist Titles, MVPs

Shaq leads Wilt in the following categories:
All Stars, All-NBAs, Championships, FMVPs, All-Defense**

A big takeaway from the accolades is Wilt's clear individual dominance over Shaq on the stat sheet posting way more stat titles.

Also while Shaq has 1 more all-defensive appearance than Wilt, they were only recorded for the last 4 full seasons of Wilt’s career, hence the *'s.

Shaq does however lead in All-Star appearances and All-NBA appearances proving that he does have the longevity edge over Wilt.

Shaq does have 2 more titles than Wilt as well, but those need to be taken with context and timing as well as teammate production.

So with all of the data I have collected including career stats, peaks, accolades, and more we can determine the following:

Wilt had a way better statistical career than Shaq while having very similar total career accolades, while Shaq was more efficient with better longevity.

Wilt was EASILY the better:
-Scorer
-Rebounder
-Playmaker

Not only throughout their career, but in their statistical peak as well, proving that Wilt was not only better, but more DOMINANT than Shaq as well.