Hakeem at 31 is better than any Rocket now at any age til the end of time

You're misunderstanding me... Go back and read my posts. I haven't once said that MJ wouldn't still be dominant. Ive always argued that, for the most part, legends would be legends regardless. But I can't stand to hear guys like you act like the league was tougher in the 90's when thats simply not true. And, like I said before, that's no knock on the players from the 90's. They were the best players in the world at the time. But the non legends (the all stars, the role players, and SOME HOFers) would be role players today. If you can't see that by simply watching the games, then you just don't know basketball very well. You can look up the best highlights from the entire decade and you'll see a handful of plays that happen on a nightly bases in today's NBA (Example: Dr. J's reverse layup against LA, a great move that happens a handful of times each season today). To use a couple of players that you mentioned, Devin Booker makes Joe Dumars look like a regular on Saturday mornings at the local YMCA. Eric Gordon does everything better than John Starks did. As far as teams are concerned, offenses and defenses were WAY more simple in previous eras. Teams weren't even really allowed to play help defense, which you cannot deny made it easier for some guys to score a lot of points.

And I don't think you understand me when I say I have studied past era's. I don't know how old you are or how much basketball you have watched, but I would be shocked if you have seen as much, from any era, as I have. I have done everything I can do to be informed on this topic by watching an absurd amount of old basketball games, as well as todays games (I've missed maybe 4 rockets games in the Harden era, I've seen 100+ Hakeem and MJ games on DVD's and online). I appreciate the history of this league immensely. I was born in 93, my first memories of watching the NBA was a Rockets vs Bulls game in 98, my only memories of a title come from my dad telling me about it a few years later. I'm incredibly jealous that I haven't gotten to see my team win a title. Always have been, so growing up I tried to watch everything I could so that I could get an ounce of understanding what it was like to watch the rockets win a title. In doing this, MJ became my idol. In addition, I fell in love with the NBA and became pretty knowledgeable. I never thought anyone would pass MJ, in the early 2000's I needed a new favorite player, I liked watching Tmac play when he was with the Magic, so he became my favorite player before he was ever traded to Houston. When he was traded to Houston, I was ecstatic, however, Tmacs teams never accomplished what they should have. As a young teenager, I didn't let "my era" get in the way of the facts. A few years after I became a Tmac fan, I remember hearing about LeBron when he was a Jr. in high school. My grandpa told me he was supposed to be the next MJ, I called BS. As he started to grow into his prime in Cleveland, I realized the dude was legit and thought he could probably be better than anyone but MJ, then he had the Pistons game, took a trash ass roster to the finals as a 21 year old kid. Then he took a step back his first year in Miami... The next year he has the Boston series and gets his first ring, then the next year he beats an all time great Spurs team in the finals. Then two years in a row gets to the finals with injured rosters, losing to great teams. At this point I considered him the 2nd best player ever. Then 2016 happened, LeBron's performance against the greatest regular season team of all time put him ahead of MJ for me. He does things on the basketball court that nobody has ever done, he just needed more team success to pass MJ. IMO 3 rings and 7 (about to be 8) strait trips to the finals is enough team success. At this point in MJs career (15 years), he was putting up good numbers on a bad Wizards team, which was incredible given his age. In LeBrons 15th year, he's still by far the best in the league. He's currently playing probably better than he's ever played in the playoffs. And the clutch argument has shifted in his favor, two buzzer beaters in the past week! MJ had 4 for his CAREER. What I think really separates Lebron from MJ is simply longevity. Which no body can deny is in Lebrun's favor.

I said all that to prove that I am objective on this topic. My childhood hero's were MJ and Tmac, and with both them I was able to put my fandom aside and face reality. Im as much of a Hakeem fan as I am Harden, I can 100%, objectively say that Hakeem was the greater player. However, I will be objective if/when the facts say that Harden has passed him. Idk if that will happen, but it is a possibility. If you can't admit that, you're not being objective. You're doing exactly what you're accusing me of.