[grantland]Robert Horry Says Hakeem Was the Best Center in History

You said Wilt but you mean Kareem.

That or you are very confused.

 

Probably the one fact that is usually forgotten is his steals. He is number 8 all time in steals ...that to me is a ridiculous stat!!! A center number 8 in steals ...clyde is number 7

 

lol you are right, i meant kareem, butyou got the gist. thanks for point it out

 

^^^pointing
i need an edit button

 

You can edit if you contribute to the tip jar.

As for Kareem's championships, its not like the other guys won championships without him.

 

the last cuple, magic pretty much carried an old kareem. he still put up great numbers even while old, but they were ll easy buckets set up by magic. They were talking about this yesterday during the haltime of the rockets game-magic, jalen, simmons and wilbon

 

Horry is great man, his stories are always so interesting....

 

In terms of absolute skill level, Hakeem was far away and the best. Compared to Russell, Wilt, Shaq, and Kareem, Hakeem was the best dribbler, had the best footwork, had the best post moves, was the most versatile, and was the fastest and most athletic.

It's difficult to compare to Russell and Wilt, considering that they physically dominated their era, and never had any need to learn the kinds of footwork, dribbling, and jumpshooting that Hakeem did.

The only real comparison is Kareem, whose skyhook remains the greatest move in NBA history. You can't deny the skill it takes to make 12 foot hook shots seem like layups. Not as pretty as the dream shake, but completely unguardable by anyone except Hakeem and a few others.

 

yeah, well he was old. Kareem carried Big O in his first one. That's how it works with old and young players, even superstar ones. Still, Kareem was important to winning that championship, at wasn't just old, but ridiculously old!

I'm not a fan of longevity for longevity sake. Favre did not need to keep coming back, especially when you knew it would just end poorly - as it did ever year (with him throwing a critical pick).

While Kareem was clearly a shell of his former self, he was still very very serviceable. He played almost 30 mpg at the age of 40

 

Thank you. Im over here heated. No one can touch the DREAM period. Shaq would eat Wilts ass up and the DREAM owned Shaq. He still has nightmares of bangin against the DREAM and the DREAM pullin the chair and stealin the ball.

 

Hakeem did not own Shaq. their head to heads can be found here:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=onealsh01&p2=olajuha01

Shaq had better stats and a better record against Hakeem in the regular season.
Hakeem had a better record in the playoffs, but Shaq had better all around stats.

Of course, stats are stats, and even then its probably better to look at games where both were still relatively in their primes. During which time they seem pretty fairly matched.

Don't get me wrong, I rank Hakeem ahead of Shaq on an overall basis, but let's not act like Hakeem owned Shaq when an unbiased observer might if anything say the opposite was closer to the truth.

All of which also ignores the fact that no one can definitely say Shaq would eat Wilt alive either. I agree that Wilt and Russell both benefit enormously from their era, though.

 

I certainly watched Jabbar play and I saw Moses Malone mop the floor with his ass when the Rockets beat the Lakers in the 1980 play-offs and then again during the finals with the 76ers in 83.

In 1986 I saw Hakeem wipe the floor with his ass in the WCF.

I'm sure there is no disagreement there. Hakeem is the best center in the history of the Rockets and Jabbar was not even as good as Moses Malone who was the only the 2nd best center in the history of the Rockets.

 

Hakeem was better than Shaq. A lot of their head to heads came when Hakeem was in the twighlight of his career. Hakeem kicked the **** out of Shaq the only time it really mattered, during the NBA Finals.

 

shaq has stated on numerous occasions that dream ranks higher than him on the all-time list.

 

Wilt was the most dominant PLAYER of all time.

Dream was the BEST CENTER of all time.

Wilt was just a freak of nature. No one could stop him. He just score from 3 feet out because no one was there to impede him...until Bill Russell came along.

But today, in the modern NBA. If you were to pick a rookie center to build a team around. You'd have to go with Dream - the only guy I ever saw block Jabbar's sky hook.

Anyone who thinks that's crazy can read my sig.

 

that is an excellent suggestion!!!

Make it happen!!! Better still, just get rid of Bullard....

 

Stats may not tell the story, but Hakeem owned Shaq mentally. And that's ownage. Man, Shaq pretty much says it now in interviews, and the man is so protective of his legacy he's always bigging himself up on tnt, so for him to acknowledge Hakeem is basically the better centre, it's ownage.

 

This is a year old and has been posted and discussed before but still cool I guess.

 

Meh, Horry just being a homer.