So beautiful. Seen it b4 but i had spotify on and it was playing social network soundtrack while horry was talking and then the grainy footage-so sweet. Man i really miss playing in those arenas. Spurs with the black-pink look. Orlando. SuperSonics....Phoenix. Those were the days. Something about those arenas on sundays. The NBA on NBC intro- the bright sunlight coming in through your window. Something about those games i remember it being so full of life. I can't explain it. Maybe i just miss being young. And i miss that NBA. Today its just so meh..It doesn't capture the same feeling. All these stupid trendy jersey designs and crazy looking courts. The players..man...the personalities. The stars today seem so forced, like they are trying so hard to be someone from back then.
Mchale would still claim he was sticky. Fans will never complain about his ISO because he took less than 10 seconds to finish his task. Unlike J....... Jeremy still got benched at the 4th quarter if in the same team because Rockets still did ISOs and did not need a PNR. The rest of his teammates still watched and stood in the courts without doing anything. ..............
i've seen this vid about 3-4x now and every time i see it again i ask myself "why am i not a post player again?" then i remember that i'm not hakeem. first player that ever inspired me to love basketball was dream.
lol..and uh why exactly wouldn't it work today? I think he meant 7'3 Mark Eaton. Played for the Jazz and Dream always struggled against him.
How do I neg rep? Can you please explain why that statement would even be remotely true? Judging by your signature tho.. not very good at evaluating talent "Patrick Patterson is the next Chris Webber 4/3/11"
Now I know where the Harlem shake originates from. Anthony Mason at the 9:45 mark. Will we ever see a player with post moves like Hakeem ever again? Probably not.
Yeah he corrected it later. As for the "struggles", please refer to post #30 in this thread. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=7937467&postcount=30
Hakeem was the reason I'm a Rockets fan. When I first started playing organized ball way back in elementary school, I was one of the bigger kids, made to play the center of the zone and get rebounds. While every kid I played with had Jordans and dreamed of being Mike (even moreso after Space Jam), I idolized Barkley and Dream. Sir Charles because of his "grab every rebound" mentality and antics with mascots, Hakeem for the way he seemed to be playing the middle of a zone the way he patrolled the lane. The '94 western semis were pretty much a battle for the soul of this front-running kid; Elie's Kiss of Death sealed my Rockets fandom. The fact that they actually united my two favorite players ever in '96 just cemented it in stone. Watching Hakeem's highlights always strikes me as to how much he looked to avoid the defender, rather than to make contact first and use it as leverage. His post game was amazingly basic in it's approach, going through the standard progression of moves and countermoves, but the speed at which he could both finish the move, and how quickly he could initiate the counter-move was absolutely frightening. Hakeem's strong side hook is so strange, in that he actually palms the ball frequently, bringing it up to the apex before dropping it in with a flick of the wrist. It's a move that very few humans have the dexterity and hand size to make; a shot that simply can't be taught to most centers these days; technically unsound, and yet unguardable because of it's unorthodoxy. Few can show the ball to the defender and then move the release point in the air to avoid the block. The natural counter to the jump hook is the turnaround fadeaway, a move that should be little more than a "show-me" move to keep the defense honest. Turnarounds take you out of rebounding position, rarely draw fouls, and if the defender has done his job before the catch, are normally taken from odd angles (behind the backboard, with a help defender pinching down). It's also a very difficult shot to make, because of the disharmony of body momentum and shot direction. It's a move that many can pull off, but few could convert at a sufficient rate to be worthwhile. Out of all the moves in Dream's arsenal, his up-and-under might be the only one that a mere mortal might be able to relatively master. One must consider that if the threat of an otherworldly fadeaway or an effortless hook is not present, it becomes much less effective. The dreamshake was the ultimate last ditch counter; a shot fake so ludicrously late that was only possible due to Olajuwon's incredible sense of balance. It was the logical extension of his progressive fakes; one more counterwrinkle that could be thrown on top of any of his previous moves. Hakeem was also able to utilize the simple quick baseline spin, a wonderful jump-stop fake half-spin towards the middle of the lane, and that devastating face-up crossover. 5 or 6 moves, all of them other-worldly, each with their corresponding countermove. I still incorporate the up-and-under and the baseline dreamshake into my own pickup game, but that baseline turnaround is still something I'm never comfortable doing. Out of all the myriad unpalatable options that Hakeem's offense offered a defender, you'd take that baseline jumper every day, the shot with the highest degree of difficulty, the one that even if you were a bit faked out, you could still recover and contest. And yet that was his favorite shot, the one that he felt most comfortable with. For all the ferocious dunks, the chasedown blocks, the embarrassing dreamshakes, it is that baseline turnaround that still leaves me in awe of Dream. For all of his technical mastery of footwork, it's a reminder that the legends of the game still must have that god-given talent to take and make the impossible. Thanks for the memories, Hakeem. -HI Mana
Really enjoyed watching all those. Such grace on the court. Even when you know you remember it all, you still tend to forget just how incredible the moves were until you see them again, and it's all so familiar then. Then you start thinking, "Damn, who plays like THAT anymore?" when the real question is "Who really has played like that EVER?" A one of a kind combination of offensive and defensive originality, efficiency and power. It was a pleasure to behold.
Didn't learn much the first training session. Dream was a different player with guard moves. Dwight needs to just power in for a dunk and many variations of a baby hook. Needs to watch Shaq footage all day long.
So spoiled we were having Dream as the Center of the team. Man those were some great moves done by The Dream.
One session is definitely not enough to learn such complicated moves. I mean, if Dwight comes to Houston and work constantly with Dream (and McHale) for two years, it'd be interesting.
Literally. "When the point guard throws me the ball, I jump to get the ball. But this jump is the set-up for the second move, the baseline move. I call it the 'touch landing.' The defender is waiting for me to come down because I jumped but I’m gone before I land. Defenders say 'Wow, he’s quick,' but they don’t know that where I’m going is predetermined. He’s basing it on quickness, but the jump is to set him up. Before I come down, I make my move. When you jump, you turn as you land. Boom! The defender can’t react because he’s waiting for you to come down to defend you. Now, the first time when you showed that quickness, he has to react to that quickness, so you can fake baseline and go the other way with your jump hook. All this is part of the Dream Shake. The Dream Shake is you dribble and then you jump; now you don’t have a pivot foot. When I dribble I move it so when I come here, I jump. By jumping, I don’t have a pivot foot now. I dribble so now I can use either foot. I can go this way or this way. So he’s frozen, he doesn’t know which way I’m going to go. That is the shake. You put him in the mix and you jump stop and now you have choice of pivot foot. He doesn’t know where you’re gonna turn and when." -Hakeem Olajuwon
