Russell played with more HOFers than either Steph or Lebron, but he was always the best player on every single one of the 11 championships he won. Imagine if Lebron won all 9 championships he played, he would be on Russell's level. But cannot put Shaq, Duncan or Kobe in top 10 over Dream. Dream was the most physically skilled and dominant big man since Wilt. And all 3 were on stacked teams their entire careers, especially in their primes. Lebron may be top 10 but not over Dream IMO.
Just watched ESPN rank Dirk ahead of Hakeem as the best foreign born player of all time... haven't watched ESPN in months, I'm going back to that
What the ****? I’ve never even heard of any kind of ranking that puts Dirk close to Hakeem. To actually have the balls to come out and rank him ahead is just flat out disrespectful. I don’t even think Mavs fans are this dumb. Dirk is awesome, a top 25 player of all time, but you might as well compare Steve Francis to Dream. There’s no legitimate argument to be made.
**** that article. They can’t even compliment Dream without this: “If someone made the most of Jordan’s first retirement that was Hakeem Olajuwon”
What cements hakeems place in the top 10 of all time is the 2nd title run, beating the likes of Barkley Kj a 59 win team, humiliating Robinson’s 60 win team, beating Stockton and Malone another 60 win team and sweeping the 57 win team magic in the finals. There is no other better playoff run than that in the history of the nba.
A recent ESPN list ranked Olajuwon as the NBA’s No. 12 player of all-time, though some former players immediately said that was too low. Even so, it was still moderately higher than Nowitzki, who came in at No. 19. https://rocketswire.usatoday.com/20...anking-of-dirk-nowitzki-over-hakeem-olajuwon/
I'll take it a step further. Outside of Jordan, I'd put him #2. Hakeem was a monster on both sides of the floor. He didnt do it with a super team either. He actually did make guys better & added to his game each year. Till this day there is nobody with his footwork or skillset