Best Hall of Fame Superstars: Willie Mays and Wilt Chamberlain in San Francisco

What do you think was the best case of two Hall of Fame Superstars playing on two different sports franchises in the same city at the same time?

I'll nominate one that you don't often think about:

Willie Mays of the Giants and Wilt Chamberlain of the Warriors both played in San Francisco from 1962-1965. Mays and Chamberlain are both Hall of Famers considered to be among the greatest players in their respective sports.

Amazingly, they were both playing in San Francisco for a few years in the early 60's while they were at the top of their games.

Willie Mays hit between 38 and 52 HR for the San Francisco Giants in those years at his peak, ages 31-34, and was National League MVP in 1965.

Wilt Chamberlain, ages 26-28, was averaging between 36-44 points per game and about 23 rebounds per game. He won the NBA's MVP Award in '65-'66 after being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers.

And, amazingly, the fans in San Francisco were slow to embrace Willie and hated Wilt who was traded to Philly midyear in '64-'65 for a whole bunch of nothing.

Another pair that comes close is the Boston duo of Bill Russell of the Celtics and Ted Williams of the Red Sox. Both were tremendous stars in their respective leagues. However, the period of their overlap was at the beginning of Russell's NBA career and the end of William's baseball career. Russell was averaging 14-18 points per game and Williams was still an incredible hitter, but long past his peak in the 40's.

While they were both in Boston at the same time, they did not have the dominance in their respective leagues at that time that Mays and Chamberlain had in the early 60's.

A case could be made for Jerry Rice and Steve Young of the NFL San Francisco 49ers who overlapped with Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants from 1993 to 2000. Young won an NFL MVP Award in 1994 with the 49ers and he and Rice were among the best players in the league. Bonds certainly dominated the National League as a hitter in that period, winning one of his 7 NL MVP awards in 1993 with the Giants. However, his very best seasons were after 2000, when Rice and Young had both left San Francisco.

Overall, I would have to give the edge to Willie Mays and Wilt Chamberlain for being the most dominant duo in their leagues at the time they overlapped.

Who would you rate as the best two sport duo in one city?

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