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[espn -insult] Jordan or no Jordan, Olajuwon was great

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by tinman, Sep 5, 2008.

  1. H-Town Forever

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    You know i really wish we would have met in the finals. im sure it would have put alot of this "if MJ was in the league BS" away. I used to love watching the rockets BEAT the bulls during the regular season due to the bulls having no answer for DREAM and MadMax taking jordan on. Im sure Max used to circle the days on the calendar of when we played the bulls. He LOVED the challenge.

    P.S. F Adande
     
  2. Andy Sheets

    Andy Sheets Contributing Member

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    It has nothing to do with who's better than who. Adande's point is to use Hakeem's Hall of Fame induction to felate Jordan in print. Aside from being unnecessary, it's just obnoxious. I found the article to be such a backhanded compliment that it swung around to become a forehanded slap.
     
  3. tinman

    tinman Contributing Member
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    of course it annoys you cause you were there when the NBA wanted to pop the bottles for the Knicks and didn't get what they want. Bob Costas dropping Jordan's name when we won, Sports Illustrated not putting us on the cover when we won.

    non of the newer 'fans' know about that feeling of disrespect. I mean people feel disrespected now cause Yao gets mentioned in a free throw shooting article about LeBron. The Paris Hilton Rox fans don't know about true disrespect.
     
  4. TheyCallmeExMan

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    Where do you work that you can wear a jersey?
     
  5. tinman

    tinman Contributing Member
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    if you look at that game recap I posted, you'll noticed a very balanced attack for the Rockets.

    The 80s-early 90s Rockets were better than the 80s early 90s Bulls.
    Plus these eras were the ones where the Rockets were disrespected. Plus you need to throwout when Dream and Jordan were really old. Jordan with the Wizards was a good player, but nothing like the spectacle that was the 80s and early 90s one. The late 90s Jordan's Bulls were superior teams because they realized that needed more front court help to beat a team like Orlando with Shaq.

    The early 80s/90s Bulls could not handle the power front court of
    Dream/Sampson
    or
    Dream/Thorpe

    did you see the boxscore?
    Otis Thrope FG% = 69%

    Horace Grant? pleassssse
     
  6. BrooksBall

    BrooksBall Contributing Member

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    I didn't move to Houston until 2002, so I never had the chance to directly follow Hakeem or any of the pre-21st century Rockets teams. However, I do have a lot of family that has lived in Houston since the early 80s. One of my cousins, who is a couple of years older than me, has been a Rockets fan all of his life. When he starts talking about Hakeem, he actually sounds a lot like tinman, minus the whole alienating newer fans schtick.

    Based on what I did see of Olajuwon growing up, and the more I learn about him nowadays, I would definitely say that he was the most talented big man of all-time, even if guys like Chamberlain and Russell won more rings. It was a different era back in Wilt's days and, even then, you couldn't win championships without a good supporting cast.

    Olajuwon had an unparalleled and amazingly well-rounded game. He became one of only 4 players to ever record a quadruple-double when he recorded 18 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists and 11 blocks against Milwaukee in 1990.

    As good as a Tim Duncan or Kevin Garnett is, they don't even come close to Olajuwon's level. Not even close.

    I don't even try to compare Olajuwon to Jordan for two reasons. First, they played completely different positions so statistics don't really tell the story. Secondly, they were both such elite players that there is almost no way to undeniably prove that one was better than the other.

    If I really had to pick the greatest player of all time, I would hesitantly say Oscar Robertson, even though I wasn't even alive during his prime. The anecdotal evidence makes for a pretty strong case.
     
  7. BrooksBall

    BrooksBall Contributing Member

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    The game you cited in 92 was one of the 21 games they played head-to-head over their careers, all of which are listed in that link. I just figured it made more sense to show the complete picture.
     
  8. LoveRoxHateJazz

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    :mad:

    The NBA is a business, and I am glad we are the villains. Victory tastes that much sweeter.
     
  9. Air-Olajuwon

    Air-Olajuwon Member

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    I'm getting really tired at all people who claims that Hakeem only won his rings when Jordan wasn't there. First of all, Chicago always had a hard time against Houston, and as far as I now the Rockets are the only team to have a winning statistic against a Jordan-Bull team, right? And then to the fact that Jordan wasn't "rusty" at all when Hakeem won again in 95, Orlando was just better that year (and we all know what Dream and the Rockets did to Orlando in the finals). Jordan was in great shape and played great basketball but they weren't good enough after Horace left, which pretty much says it all, Jordan wasn't the whole team, without a good F-C the Bulls weren't really that good. Every time Jordan won he had an all-star caliber F-C on his team, the first 3 title-runs he had my main man, Horace Grant and when he left they didn't do ***** until Rodman came along.

    I'm not trying to take anything away from Jordan, I'm just giving some of the hype and myths and making it the truth.
     
  10. tinman

    tinman Contributing Member
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    You hit a point, you can't compare two different positions but you can compare teams. And if two teams never met in the playoffs you can assess on how they played in the regular seasons (i'm talking about all the games from 1984-92). The Rocket Teams were better, they were more balanced.

    There's no way to prove which team would have won on a what if situation, so its unfair to say that... unless you are biased like ESPN.

    didn't Jordan 'retire' after hitting that jumper in Utah? What about the teams who won after him?

    Jordan or no Jordan, Tim Duncan was Great
     
  11. Rover16

    Rover16 Member

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    I don't know why you guys take it so personally cause it's correct. If jordan didn't go off to play baseball, the bulls 8 peat. It's as simple as that. Pointing to regular season games to suggest otherwise if foolish cause we all know that the playoffs are different and regular season results are meaningless. Jordan is the greatest player of all time, and there's not doubt in my mind that the bulls would have beaten us.
     
  12. BrooksBall

    BrooksBall Contributing Member

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    I agree. The fact that the Hakeem Rockets won 11 times out of 21 against the Jordan Bulls speaks for itself.
     
  13. JBIIRockets

    JBIIRockets Contributing Member

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    I'll give you KG, but Tim Duncan is just as good as Hakeem. To say Duncan "doesn't come close" is not correct.
     
  14. Ikorose

    Ikorose Member

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    If those Rockets teams were better than Jordan's Bulls, why weren't they in the Finals 8 straight years!? They were beat by better teams, and those better team eventually lost to teams even better, and eventually that team lost to Jordan's Bulls.

    It just so happened that when the Rockets were at their best, the Bulls were at their worst, so nobody knows what would happen had both teams met at their best.

    To say the Rockets only won because Jordan wasn't there is absurd. But at the same time to make claims that the Rockets would do them in is equally absurd. Some people just need to get off their high horse.
     
  15. ToyYodaSender

    ToyYodaSender Member

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    I remember reading a similar quote from Jordan in a Slam mag interview a few years back. He gave Olajuwon the nod as the best center he has seen during his days.
     
  16. BrooksBall

    BrooksBall Contributing Member

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    I'm not even going to touch the first part of your post as I'm sure several others will take care of it.

    As far as Jordan being the greatest player of all-time, I'm not so sure he was even the greatest guard of all-time. I think Oscar Robertson was. He may not have played on better teams, other than possibly the championship season toward the end of his career when he was paired with Alcindor, but he was the more talented individual player in my book.
     
  17. tinman

    tinman Contributing Member
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    Dream is much quicker than Duncan, that would be Dream's edge.
    Dream is a better clutch free throw shooter than Duncan.
     
  18. yuantian

    yuantian Contributing Member

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    gosh, why are people still aruging about this. the bulls and the rockets did NOT meet in the finals. you can't claim who would win either way. just because rockets won, doesn't mean if they met the bulls they still would have won. people are always going to look at the 2 rockets championship differently because MJ was out 1st year, and partly out 2nd year.

    that's why, rockets need to win titles with 1, 11, '111'. nobody can argue about the new titles.
     
  19. tinman

    tinman Contributing Member
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    Jordan's Bulls didn't make it to the Finals in 1985.
    I believe The Bulls didn't make it 8 years in a row to the Finals.
    You know Jordan was with the Bulls in 1995? right rookie?
     
  20. rrj_gamz

    rrj_gamz Contributing Member

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    Jordan of course was great, and I always remember him giving props to Olajuwon...

    The Dream was a special player and made Houston a great place to be...
     

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