I think most people would agree that Jordan is considered the greatest player ever. When Jordan was asked who he would start a team with his reply was (outside of himself) he'd take the Dream. NOT Duncan, NOT Kareem, NOT Bird, NOT Magic, NOT Wilt, NOT Russell, but Hakeem "THE FREAKIN DREAM" Olajuwon!!!! That is all.
@HR Dept I'm not saying that he is the prototypical stretch as we know them now. He didn't quite step it out to the three, but he may be noted as a pioneer. Back in the day Centers played inside the paint. Hakeem was fading away on em' from far outside the paint. Also, Hakeem was 6'10, and played away from the paint. Not the protypical "center" of his time. Robert Horry was polly the 1st prototypical stretch 4 as we know them today.
It's a team game and it's no surprise T-Mac ranks very high as one of the greatest playoff performers despite the lack of series wins because it is a TEAM game. It's a shame his career averages went way down because he rode the bench as an injured player his last few seasons. But, you can say that for a lot of players. Some players had better NBA careers due to team help, but we know others were just flat out better basketball players. I still argue David Robinson is the better basketball player when compared to Tim Duncan, but stats back both players up so it's a win-win where only ring talk matters and that isn't fair given that both had different careers at different times with different coaches and teammates and rules. The rest of the list is not surprising to me. Hakeem had the least help of any player that's considered top 10. Younger fans see that he had Drexler, Chuck and Pippen as teammates and think he had more help than others which is the thing I hate most about the younger generation of fans. They never look at context. Same thing they argue against MJ. Rodman was 34,35,36 years old as his teammate and some dummies on YouTube still think Rodman was there all 6 titles. Pippen was the 1 and only all-star teammate of MJ's career. Kobe is not a surprise to me. He was a career volume scorer who went off of reputation for defense kind of like LeBron today. Just because they can and choose to sometimes play lockdown defense doesn't make them lockdown defenders for their career compared to others who consistently did play great defense. "LeBron can guard every position!!" No..no he can't. He can guard guys out of position in today's positionless era, but he can't guard traditional Centers, Power Forwards and again, just because he guarded DRose that one time in the playoffs doesn't mean he's done it his whole career. There's a reason he hasn't. People want to believe he can because he's big and strong and athletic, but his lateral quickness is nothing special for staying with the elite athlete point guards. Back to Kobe. He had prime Shaq his whole youth leading into his very own prime. Then had what? 2 seasons of nobodies except Lamar Odom before he got Pau Gasol and they went to 3 straight Finals and in each of those 3 seasons, Pau Gasol led in regular season and playoff Win Shares. Kobe's 5 titles are on the backs of a dominant front court be it Shaq's dominance or Gasol/Odom/Bynum/Artest length and defense and rebounding. Kobe was just so different. So many players who never get mentioned as some of the greatest are statistically better than Kobe, but Kobe had longevity and an amazing compilation of career highlights that are hard to forget. Sure, you only see the crazy shots he made and not all the horrible shots he took and missed, but he built up enough of those career highlights over a long period of time in the biggest market team to be considered one of the greatest ever even if he IMO should only have 1 FMVP and 0 regular season MVP's. Kobe would have had Dominque Wilkins career had he ended up playing for the Hornets and not secretly telling the NBA he would only play for one of the best organizations in all of sports. Funny to see Chuck consistently ranked better than he is perceived in the GOAT list when it comes to advanced stats when he hates it and doesn't believe in it. He was an absolute monster and the stats will always back him up. Kids and fools can throw the zero ring jokes at him all they want, but it's a team game and the man had less help than many others who are considered all time greats. I still think Barkley is GOAT PF.
Jordan, Kareem, Russell, Magic, Kobe, Duncan, Bird just to name a few. I have the Dream in my top 10, but top 5 is us being blinded by being homers.
How can you say Kobe isn't top 10? Like Hakeem, best player on 2 title teams as well integral to three more titles. You can say the same for Bird ( 3 titles) and Magic (3 or 4).
Real question - At what point does Harden surpass Hakeem as the greatest Rocket ever? 3 rings and an 1 MVP? Or does it take more than that considering Hakeem brought the first 2 Championship (and only) to Houston in the major 3 sports.
This is a hypothetical obviously but I think Harden is a clear number 2 at this point as far as Rocket greats.
Not going to happen. Hakeem is and will always be the #1 athlete Houston has ever had. List of greatest Houston athletes as of today is below. Harden has a chance to surpass Drexler outright for #2 with a MVP 1. Dream 2. Drexler / Harden 3. Harden / Drexler 4. Rudy T 5. Moses Malone 6. Calvin Murphy 7. Yao Ming . . . . . .. 101. JJ Fatt
Because Hakeem was a far better defensive player and a better offensive player in the playoffs. Hakeem impacted the game way more.
All you need to know about Dream is that he was drafted BEFORE Michael Jordan......and no one has ever questioned it. Not even the national media. What other player could you say that about?
Dream is top 10 but hard to have him top 5 with the likes of Jordon, Bird, Magic, Wilt, Kareem, Russell, Kobe, King James and even Oscar and Dr. J
Yeah...I don't see Harden ever passing up Hakeem solely based on the fact that Hakeem was dominant on both ends. Harden's only chance would be to play the next 6 years at this Magic Johnson with more scoring level plus surpassing 2 titles. Don't see it happening. I don't even see Harden a Rocket much longer. I can already see him wearing a Lakers uniform along with Paul George. Harden right now ranks #3 behind Moses and Dream IMO. Drexler played just 219 games in 4 seasons out of his prime for us which equates to about a little over 2.5 seasons. I think whenever anyone lists Drexler over Moses, it's due to the career he built in Portland.
And was 2 games away from the Finals in 77 his first year in Houston too, though that was more of a supporting role i guess.
