You have to wonder, though, how much of being a jerk is attributable to that same competitive drive...
You have no earthly idea what you are talking about. My guess is you aren't old enough to know any better. Regarding Thabeet, I doubt this helps him much. His problem is he's under-movitated and under-skilled. He doesn't have the passionate drive to work hard and make himself better. And, no, this brief session with Dream doesn't prove things are changing for him. What he does 365 days a year will determine how good he gets. The guy has to put in hours and hours of repetition in the gym and has to play with passion and intensity during games before he can make an impact in the NBA. Reading so much about how happy Thabeet was to be in the NBA after beating the odds of being from Africa made it seem as if he had already crossed the finish line and it was time to relax. Watching his pathetic performances in summer league reinforced that idea. Thabeet has complete bust written all over him.
Does Olajuwon charge players for these private sessions? It's hard for me to imagine he's doing all of this out of the kindness of his heart.
These sessions sound pretty informal to me. It would be hard for me to imagine that he's charging money for it. It makes him happy that other players are seeking him out for advice.
This makes it fairly obvious that if you watched Jordan play at all, you only watched him at the tail end of his career.
I think a lot of it. In any field in life, you don't get to be the best in the entire world by being nice all the time.
I disagree, particularly with the absoluteness of the bolded. Jordan did not invent every modern guard move. All the moves you mention were being done by West, Frazier, Monroe, Maravich, Hawkins, Erving, and others before Jordan got in the league. I do agree that he advanced some moves and his particular genius was in how he combined the moves and made them his own (even developing a style of play perhaps), but to say he invented modern guard play is a stretch. I also take issue with your last two sentences. I think Jordan was more like Newton (from whom the shoulder of giants quote originally came). Kobe is very much a refinement on Jordan, but I also think we're still waiting for Einstein. (Oh, by the way, the single greatest breakthrough in basketball history was the creation of the jump shot... just about every modern offensive breakthrough is the fruit of that revolution.)
replace Kareem w Wilt. Kareem was a high-post player; his unstoppable sky hook shots were from mid-range
...people obviously don't watch basketball Hakeem and McHale has much better post moves than Shaq/Kareem/Wilt
I know I'm late to the thread, but I will chime in. Jordan is the most skilled/athlete to ever play imo. Hakeem is 2nd. Kobe is a very skilled player and if anyone is close to jordan's competitive nature, its Kobe, but kobe had the luxury of playing with the best player and most dominant player of this era during his prrime. Jordan was the focus of the entire turn around in chicago. I've always respected kobe's effort to be great and this is another way to maintain his greatness. As I've before, you can never stop trying to get better. People want to talk about which players that can benefit from a few sessions by dream, how about shane? Anytime you're 6'8 and they can guard you with a pg, then you can use some pointers. Mcrgady could use some also to be frank. He doesn't get to the rim like he used to and he's still 6'9 or so, he could learn to use some of those hooks and pivots in the post. Bottomline is, a lot of guys can use pointer from dream when he's in the country.
Or how much it is attributable to the god-awful facial expressions he makes when he feels the need to show up a humble player like Shane Battier.
Kareem was an undeniable weapon on the low AND mid-post. Don't mistake his efficiency from the mid-post for a disdain or inability to perform in the low post.
Agreed. I used to think a 'Deke Lite' version was possible but it seems like hope for that is slipping by the day. Hakeem is wasting his time.
Photo of them two, courtesy of Facebook... http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=3481216&id=83212147639
