- "In his prime, hakeem...."
lets talk about Hakeem's prime. I'll call his prime 87-97. That should HELP him because it negates his biggest fall off seasons and his earliest as he honed his game. This man:
- Was not elected to the all star game in 91 to kevin duckworth
- Lost in the 1st round 4 years in a row [i'll discuss the health of those teams shortly]
- was basically .500 until he got don cheney fired, and...
- missed the playoffs in 92 [the afformentioned blazers with duckworth went to the finals btw]
- won 1 mvp
- was a perennial defensive 1st teamer and 2x DPOY [definitely deserved]
these are not world beater accolades. these are not wilt chaimberlain, shaq, baylor status achievements.
- Hakeem had no help
sounds good. But lets look at his actual team.
- The 91 rockets had 3 players that averaged 17ppg [maxwell, thorpe, kenny smith, hakeem] AND a 6th man who averaged 12. And they all were subservient to hakeem's game. They get swept in the 1st rd.
- 93 rockets have the same team virtually and add horry, lose to seattle who would lose to phoenix
- the 94 rockets have the same crew, and are still taken to 7 games twice including in the finals to the knicks....the knicks.
- 95 rockets, a borderline .500 team until they get glide. In the playoffs they go 5, 7, 6 games before facing the 'in over their head' magic. Nobody remembers that, and just waxes poetic about the dream shake.
- The 96-97 rockets had 3 hall of famers; 33, 33, and 34 years old respectively [this is the same age bracket as the 08-10 celtics, btw]. Barkley averaged 19-13-4 that year. Clyde averaged 18-6-4. Dream 23-9-2blk. Taken to the distance by seattle, and got that work by a jazz team with way less depth, led by a malone and stockton just as old. So, don't talk to me about him being some martyr. He had support.
I fully expect to get gifs and YT videos of hakeem shakin fools; and understandably, he was a phenomenal talent on both ends, but this love affair with hakeem as a top 5 player all time is just ridiculous.
He is outstanding but barkley, malone, the sonics, the spurs, used to not just give him a challenge, they beat him...then they'd go and get worked by eastern conference champs...
Great timing to make this thread since Clutch City coming on tonight.
What did barkley malone and the sonics ever win? They rockets got took to game 7 but they won. The magic werent over their head when they beat the bulls in 95. Nick Anderson should have hit his free throws maybe we have a different series.
Hakeem did have help i agree. He had good role players on his team.
And accolades mean nothing. It's about winning. AS dominant as Shaq and Wilt were they should have more rings. And baylor won nothing.
Hakeem raised his game to another level in them years which none of them guys didnt.
IMO Hakeem the goat center.
