I agree about Thorpe. Also, most people don’t know that Wilt Chamberlain held the KU high jump record for years, ran the quarter mile in 48 seconds and put the shot 57 feet when the world record was 60.
People don't realize that in almost every contest with Bill Russell, he outperformed Russell.
The difference was their surrounding casts.
I love Walt Frazier's observation about today's NBA, re: if they interpreted traveling back then the same way they do now, he'd have averaged 100 PPG.