I need to address 2 specific talking points about HAKEEM OLAJUWON...

[Barry Sanders]

Haha...what kind of dope u smoke? Hakeem at his best doesn't last 4 games against the Shaq 2000 Lakers.

im drug free. he met a stacked magic team and swept them.

 

[R=G]

im drug free. he met a stacked magic team and swept them.

Stacked my ass..those nyggas went completely ghost on Shaq in that series.

 

[Barry Sanders]

If the Magic won, it still wouldn't change the fact that anyone who won without beating the defending champion Bulls were just PAPER CHAMPIONS.

mj retired thats no one fault. people to this day think mj can come back and play. he came back in washington and didnt make the playoffs.

 

[Barry Sanders]

Stacked my ass..those nyggas went completely ghost on Shaq in that series.

nick anderson should have hit his free throws in game 1. that team had penny,nick,shaq,dennis scott and horace grant.

 

[Ed MOTHEREFFING G]

i'm not here to bury you @Barry Sanders but you can't say its about winning and then say shaq and wilt are inferior to dream

 

[Barry Sanders]

i'm not here to bury you @Barry Sanders but you can't say its about winning and then say shaq and wilt are inferior to dream

i contradicted sue me.

Hakeem still the goat center imo. you can make your cases for wilt or and shaq of course.

 

[R=G]

nick anderson should have hit his free throws in game 1. that team had penny,nick,shaq,dennis scott and horace grant.

Except for Shaq and Grant, those guys are losers in history.

 

[jadillac]

Great point......I remember that.

Sonics put an end to their run in '96.

The Sonics defense that series

You mean their ILLEGAL defense that entire series.

Sonics were the better team, but they weren't that much(sweep) better. Playing illegal d and rarely getting called for it made it so Olajuwon couldn't get the ball in the post.

skill prime is on the player. shaq's physical prime was from 95->04 [by 04 he was still logging like 45 minutes a game in the finals]. "Skill prime" doesn't make sense to compare because it automatically favors whomever your subject is. It moves the goalposts in a favorable direction.

Lol. Before I reply,let's preface this with I will NEVER agree with u or anyone on any slander of Hakeem Olajuwon, unless its absurd. Ie saying he's the goat or a top 5 player all time.

With that said, you simply cannot ignore ones journey to become the best player they can be. Jordan fell out of his physical prime during his 93-95 retirement.

When he came back for the full 95-96 season he relied on and had perfected the fadeaway bc his raw athleticism wasn't effective anymore.

Lebron is better now than he's ever been but physically he's not who he was 4-5 years ago.

Prime Hakeem is 92-96/97, period....with those front years being the absolute best.

 

[R=G]

mj retired thats no one fault. people to this day think mj can come back and play. he came back in washington and didnt make the playoffs.

People who thought a 41 year old man was gonna return and win was fukking with u back then..you can't be that naive. But a man who was unbeatable ending his run for two years while a inferior team won his titles. That's just how the cookie crumbled.

 

[TheNig]

What's really troubling about the Hakeem nostalgia is that it really seems that he's being placed over Wilt, Kareem, Shaq just because he had nice moves. All his history prior to (and proceeding) his two Finals are written away. It's alot like how Dirk is getting overrated since he won a Finals.

He was in GodMode for two years. Appreciate for what it was, don't extend it to something else.

I watched that Hakeem on a nightly basis as a youth and I believe he is better than all of those centers.

 

[Edub]

He had CRAZY HOT YEARS... so hot a couple of rings were won and a hall of fame seat awaits, but Hakeem was a non factor in the Magic Bird Isaiah Jordan years(which spans most of his career)...facts



Without the rings Iverson Barkley Ewing Wilkins Miller and (almost ringless)Drexler are in the same conversation as him

 

[MJ Truth]

Shaq beat that Bulls team... not the fukking Rockets..lmao. Hakeem would of never been champion had Jordan's father not got killed.

The Rockets won the title dummy. Thats what the question was... It's not Hakeem's fault Jordan choked against the Magic.

 

[R=G]

The Rockets won the title dummy. Thats what the question was... It's not Hakeem's fault Jordan choked against the Magic.

Look, you wack prick, the nygga wouldn't have won shyt had Jordan not retired in the first place. Very easy to understand that..even for a lowlife dolt.

 

[I.V.]

I fundamentally disagree with this thread, and think it's giving CRAZY amounts of credit to Cedric Maxwell, Otis Thorpe, and Kenny Smith....


But @Ed MOTHEREFFING G is my homie, so we can disagree amicably.

In 93-94, for example - Thorpe averaged 14, maxwell 13, and kenny 12. ... and they actually DROPPED in the playoffs.

Dream remains one of the only players in modern basketball to win a championship as the only star-level talent on his team. Dream, Duncan, Dirk.

That's the list.

He was a world class defender from the moment he stepped into the league, and averaged 23/12/3/2/2 over his first three years, shooting more than 50% from the floor, and mid 60's from the line. So yeah, he was a project that improved as his career went on... but he was a force from the very beginning.


Do I think he's one of the five greatest players ever? That's tougher... but do I think he has an argument for greatest center ever? Sure.

 

[Brozay]

I can't take Hakeem over Shaq, I just can't. Defense doesn't offset Shaqs pure, sustained offensive dominance for me