Who are the best basketball players ever to play at UCLA?
There’s Alcindor, Walton, and then everyone else. John Wooden says that Alcindor is easily the most valuable player he ever had, but that Walton may have been slightly more skilled in all areas of the game. Alcindor is the greatest player in the history of college basketball. He won 3 straight national titles (would have had 4, but freshmen were ineligible to play varsity at that time). He was the NCAA tournament’s MVP all three years, and his career W/L record was 88-2. Doesn’t get any better than that. (Walton’s career W/L record at UCLA was 86-4, losing all 4 of those games in his senior year. Alcindor lost 1 game as a jr. and one as a senior). Walton became UCLA’s all time leading rebounder (3 more rebounds that Alcindor) in his final game, the consolation game of the 1974 NCAA final four. Today, that wouldn’t happen, since consolation games were discontinued some years ago. Walton finished with 1,370 rebounds and Alcindor 1,367 rebounds. Alcindor averaged 26.4 pts per game and 15.
