Will McGrady be the greatest Rocket ever? Better than Hakeem?

I chose "No, never, ever. Hakeem will always be the greatest"

Does anyone have video clips of Hakeem? I'd appreciate and love to watch and have them

But yeah it might be too early. Who knows what can happen

 

tracy mcgrady is an awesome player. it is a blessing that we get to watch a top 5 player in this league play his entire prime with us, health permitting. that's a rare treat and it's amazing we pulled it off. tmac is a great scorer. you would have to say one of the best ever, considering he has two scoring titles already, and his defense is improving.


but he will not be better that hakeem. this isn't about all this other BS people have been bringing up to rationalize one side of the argument, like how marketable they are nationally, or how great it was that they came first. this is about basketball ability, dominance, and impact. and barring some miracle, mcgrady will not ever equal hakeem in these respects.

from a pure scoring perspective and offensive dominance perspective, tracy probably surpasses hakeem pre-rudy. those 4 years where hakeem averaged 27 are better than what tmac is giving us now or may ever give (even if he averages 28 or 30). hakeem was the alpha and omega of the offense and he was almost never off. he either dominated his own man or got someone an open shot on ever possession. and he did it with 50+% shooting like only a center can. tmac has not shown that consistent, never a night off, never fails to dominate ability yet, though he is close.

defensively, this isn't even an argument and is unfair to tmac. tmac's D, while improved, is not scary. it is sufficient at this point and can be quite nice for an individual matchup at the end of a game. hakeem ruled the paint and the defensive end. the number 1 shotblocker of all time and number 7 (?) in steals. at least 5 different times he averaged a combined 6 steals and blocks. last year, not one person even averaged 5 combined blocks and steals. he is either the best defender ever or for those traditionalists who must put russell first, the second best ever. tmac would have to become a lock down, all-nba defender before we could even start discussing if his offensive advantage (if he has one) makes up for the defensive lacking.

to the big man versus little man argument. for this reason alone i'm not sure tmac could ever equal dream. tmac (and kobe) have not proven near as effective as shaq and duncan at carrying teams (though admittedly duncan and shaq have had better supporting casts) and hakeem is at the very least equal to shaq and duncan. lebron is the only current guard with the physical capabilities to dominate like a big man (the way jordan did). tmac and kobe lack that little extra lebron has.

tmac will never have the ability to lead a smith/horry/thorpe/maxwell team to a championship. and i think people discount how amazing hakeem was early on (like the person who said he had done nothing despite making the finals in his second year (hey, just like shaq and duncan)).

so in conclusion, i love having tmac on this team. i think he, an improved yao, and the caliber of role players we have now can win us a title, maybe even more than one. and one day someone may be a better rocket than hakeem, but it will not be tmac.


i would also like to add that i agree with CriscoKidd's post almost word for word except i think lebron won't need to scratch and claw, i think he'll make it. and i think tmac will be limited, not mentally, but physically. he's just not 7 foot.

 

As much as I love dream, he was not surrounded by "4 other guys". Especially the second championship - Clyde Drexler was one of the 50 greatest.


I think if T-mac brings three, I think people could argue he was greater then Hakeem.

Hakeem is unique and great in my book because of things few people appreciate, but whatever, I hope T-mac has the success to want to make people compare him to Hakeem.

 

I miss Hakeem's full court baseball passes to a streaking Kenny Smith.

Hakeem will always be the greatest.

 

Not until he gets 2 rings.

 

Apples and oranges.

T-mac with Yao can probably win more rings. But Hakeem was the pioneer, the first, the original...he was the Dream!

I view this topic the way the Rockets saw it in the 1984 draft.

Big man (Dream) or little man (MJ).

With all things being equal, I'd take the big man.

 

It's still too early to make the call; afterall it's only T-Mac's first year with us. I think there's a slight chance that T-Mac can surpass the Dream, but I still voted No. My reason is simply because Dream dominated on both ends of the floor, while T-Mac is just an offensive machine, while above average defense.

I think the best and quickest way for T-Mac to surpass Dream is to do another one of those 13 points in 33 seconds miracle in the deciding game of the championship round.

 

Dream is the greatest rocket player of all time.

TMAC can make a case for himself if he can only satisfy the following criterias:
- play for the city of houston for ten straight years
- lead the team to three championsips. Not neccesarrily consitive years
- win at least an mvp and a defensive player of the year. The dpoy may come after 5 - 7 years

- dominate in the play offs

- make lebron, kobe, wade and ray allen his b****es

Now were talking.

Nah. The dream is the houston rockets.

 

NO.

With each passing year people forget or never realize what a force and freak of nature Olajuwan was.

A couple years ago, people were posing the same question about Francis and Hakeem.

 

with a big man and swing man of equal capabilities i'll always take the big man.

he can dominate. he can be the work horse. he can last longer. he can board. he can dominate defensively.

 

francis 4 prez pretty much said everything tha i didn't want to type out.

anyone who even thinks that TMAC can even be a more valuable or better player than DREAM was really didn't watch him enough or doesn't understand the game of basketball very well.


It should be obvious by watching TMAC right now how good he can be. he's good, but not jordan good and never will be. and since he'll never be jordan good. we can't even compare him to hakeem.

 

NO
even tmac gives us 2 titles ..still no!!
because Hakeem played for cougars ,drafted by rox.he played nba finals 3 times. and he won 2 titles all with the rox
tmac has done nothing serious with rox yet !! 13/35 maybe

tmac has to win at least 3 titles for rox
and than we may start a thread like this
and than we can compare them..

 

Yeah, but he played like one, that's the point.

 

Hakeem redefined a position.

I love Tracy...and I think he's awesome. But Hakeem was revolutionary.

 

You don't remember Hakeem making David Robinson and another spurs looking like 2 dumb blond biatches with two fakes? If you don't know the move I'm talking about, buy Double Clutch. It was the most amazing move I've ever seen. It wasn't a great dunk, a great crossover, but it still made two guys look completely hopeless.

 

He was revolutionary indeed.

7th all time in points
11th all time in rebounds
1st all time in blocks, obviously
7th all time in steals! (and the only center in the top 30)

Talk about your all-around impact player.

And all in a Rockets uniform (sorry, his stint in Toronto is meaningless).

I''ve enjoyed recalling all these highlights of Hakeem's career. The guy was amazing and we shouldn't forget how lucky we were to watch him play. For those that weren't so lucky, try to get your hands on some old tapes or highlights -- you will not believe your eyes.

 

i could not disagree more. i have TONS of memories of Hakeem...he was here for virtually all of my lifetime when I cared about the Rockets. about 5th grade on until he retired. i remember:

1. the quadruple double
2. the block on KJ's breakaway
3. the last second shot in game 5 of the 95 series against the Suns
4. owning Robinson in the 95 WCF
5. the 3 pointer in Game 4 against the Magic of the 95 NBA Finals
6. amazing games vs. the Sonics in late 80's playoffs


that's just off the top of my head. there was an NBA video in the late 80's early 90's that had highlight reels of individual players. Hakeem's was set to Kool Moe Dee song! if you can find it, check it out. he was absolutely stunning. amazingly graceful for a big man. and yet still a huge force. about as complete a player as you could ever hope for.

after Rodman was awarded Defensive Player of the Year in 91 or something like that...I remember a teammate of Hakeem's saying something like, "yeah, Rodman is great at stopping the guy he's guarding. But Hakeem stops the whole other team."

 

I think the chance that Tmac and Yao together be crowned as the best duo in Rockets history is much better than that Tmac be recognized as the greatest Rocket ever.

 

sacreligious