20 Years Ago: Rockets nearly trade Olajuwon to the Clippers

[NL Rocket]

Had clutchfans been around, it would've been shut down. Roberts even with Manning, especially in hindsight, does not even come close to Olajuwon! I cannot believe they couldn't get anything better. If I would've tried to trade Dream it would've been for another young center (Mutombo, Zo, Robinson), draft picks (young player just drafted + pick) and a veteran.

What I would've though to be fair is for example:
- Olajuwon & Sleepy for Mourning & Bogues + 1st round draft pick
- Olajuwon, Horry & Sleepy for Mutombo, Stith / Laphonz & future 1st round pick.
- Olajuwon & Sleepy for Robinson, Elliott & picks

[rockbox]

Originally Posted by rocketsjudoka Dream in 1992 wasn't quite the Dream of 1993 to 1997. From what I recall he had only rededicated himself to Islam and that made him calmer and helped him greatly improve his game. Looking back we can laugh at this but keeping Dream over Stanley Roberts wasn't quite the no brainer it is now. It's just like the what if of if the Rockets had traded Sampson in 1986 for Jordan. Sampson was the considered the best player in college ever and was changing the game. Jordan was a special player but not the GOAT that he would come to be known as.

He was still a 22 and 12 player. The problem is that he had no trust in his teammates at all. He was a ball stopper. The biggest thing Rudy did was convince Dream that he needed to share the ball even when he thought he had a better shot of making a FG. Sharing created space for Dream to operate. The post and repost was mostly because of Rudy.

[tie22fighter]

Originally Posted by rockbox He was still a 22 and 12 player. The problem is that he had no trust in his teammates at all. He was a ball stopper. The biggest thing Rudy did was convince Dream that he needed to share the ball even when he thought he had a better shot of making a FG. Sharing created space for Dream to operate. The post and repost was mostly because of Rudy.

This is what I remember also.

Stanley was Shaq's equal at LSU back then. Akeem was a great offensive and defensive player. But no team with him as the core will go deep in the playoff.

On offense, Akeem was just like Carmelo Anthony is today. Carmelo is selfish. Akeem just doesn't understand the game of basketball (He picked up basketball pretty late in this life).

So this trade was not so un-thinkable back then.

We just lucked out that a light bulb turned on in Akeem's head. If my memory served me correctly, Akeem was injured for a significantly amount of time and Rockets did very well in his absence. That allows Akeem to have more confidence in his teammates. That provides the impetus for Akeem to pass out more, and Rockets become a completely different team.

[Sweet Lou 4 2]

could you imagine what would be said about Dream in 1992 on this board?

People would be vilifying Hakeem.