Hakeem ranked lower than Shaq,Wilt, Russell and Kareem

Malone was a pretty good on-ball defensive player, but he was never much of a rim protector. Either way, and I hate saying this, Malone belongs above both Dirk and KG. The jacked up part of the PF list is that Duncan isn't #1.

Hakeem is a no-brainer at $1. Regardless of your exact ranking of the top centers, they are all neck and neck. With that little difference, you take the cheapest.

 

It's a team sport after all

 

I have heard this said a lot about Wilt as well. That he was just bigger and stronger and could dunk over the people that he played against.

But, for some reason, that is supposed to be a negative about him?

Let's look at a modern example: Shaq. He is obviously in the discussion for the top 5 greatest Centers ever. The early part of his career, he played against other great centers like Hakeem, Robinson, Ewing etc.

But what were Shaq's great post moves? He was huge and he was strong. He was able to position himself almost as close to the basket as he wanted, and back down almost any center that was trying to guard him until he was close enough to the basket for an easy shot, dunk or layup. His great 'talent' was his size, his strength and his relative mobility for the size that he was.

The definition of a great center isn't whether or not they had great post moves. It's how much were they able to dominate and take over the game. Hakeem could do that by his fluidity, his athleticism, his defense and his huge variety of post moves and counters. Shaq could do that with his size and strength. It doesn't matter how they dominate, just the fact that they did.

Wilt was bigger and stronger and more athletic than the competition that he faced. That is in no way a negative about him.

 

Dream
Duncan
King James
Wade
Magic

 

Duncan at 3 is the biggest joke honestly. You can at least make arguments for other C's, but chuck over Duncan?

 

Regardless of what the mental midget that made this wrote, we all know that Hakeem was the best in that list.

 

Big O
Jordan
Larry Legend
KG
Dream

 

Bill Russell = Ben Wallace without the biceps.

 

Hakeem should not be ranked lower than Shaq.

 

Lol at Malone and Barkley over Duncan. And also I have no problem with Russell, Wilt, and Kareem being over Hakeem. Shaq over Hakeem is very debatable.

 

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Sorry to disagree again, but we don't all know that Hakeem was the best. Hakeem is, far and away, my favorite but that is much different than the best.

If all of the centers were the exact same price, I personally would take Hakeem over Shaq, over Kareem, over Bill Russell. But if I am trying to be unbiased, I would take Wilt over Hakeem.

Kareem Abdul Jabbar is the career leader in points scored. He played 6 more seasons than Wilt did.
Hakeem is the career leader in blocks. Wilt played his entire career before blocked shots became an actual stat (blocks were first recorded the season after Wilt stopped playing in the NBA).

Wilt holds 71 NBA records, 62 of which he holds by himself. He has the most points scored in a game, most rebounds in a game, the most rebounds per game for the course of his career, most points per game for an entire season, highest field goal percentage for an entire season, and most minutes per game for an entire season. He scored 50 points or more 118 times in his career including 65 points or more 15 times.

In my own very humble opinion, Wilt Chamberlain was the most dominant center ever.

 

Stockton (2)
Jordan (5)
Lebron (5)
Dirk (2)
Olajuwon(1)


GREATEST TEAM

 

at the 4min mark - Wilt talks about playing Olajuwon, and Russell talks about defending Shaq

Wilt says he'll dominate the competition.

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PG: Magic Johnson
SG: Michael Jordan
SF: Kevin Durant
PF: Kevin Garnett
C: Hakeem Olajuwon

Give me my change by the way...

 

Your totally wrong about this bro. As a center, the only thing you can judge a center off, especially in different eras, is how would he get his shot off against different players. We know for a fact, Hakeem could score against ANYBODY. Kareem could get his shot off against ANYBODY. Although Shaq was huge, his dropstep was vicious. He also developed a baby jump hook. He wasn't just jumping over guys twice as litte. His postgame was unstoppable in his prime.

It's definitely no negative. But if you watch old Wilt games, there was nothin special about his footwork. He didn't have a go to move. Same for Russell. They were just bigger and stronger. When you put them above players who were just as big, more athletic, with BETTER footowork, it's no comparison. Who was guarding Wilt when he scored 100? What was the average size player guarding Russell when he dominated? C'mon now. I almost gurantee if Wilt tried to simply jump over today's center, he'd only average 10pts, 10 rebounds. Players like Hakeem, Shaq & Kareem were just overrall better players against better competition

 

Interesting clip. I think that was just pride talking when Wilt said he could score 60/game in today's NBA.

I like that Russell included Hakeem in his top 6 ever at any position. VERY high praise for Dream.

 

IMO, center is the position where there isn't a clear GOAT.

You could make an argument for all, but they were also flawed.

-Russell- great defense but limited offense
-Wilt- did everything but was he a winner? Also played in weak era
-Kareem- awesome and longevity, but weren't Bird and Magic considered better at the time? Not very well-liked personally either
-Hakeem- most skilled, best highlights by far, but had a stretch where his teams didn't contend. Greatest playoff performer of the group
-Shaq- dominant but also less skilled and didn't play great D

IMO, I'd put Kareem #1 and Hakeem #2.

 

Shaq, Dream, Durant, Jordan, Lebron

 

The league and the NBA talent pool has evolved and gotten better over time.

The talent pool is bigger and athletes are better than that era. Some of those who could make rosters back then wouldn't make them now. Those who dominated back then wouldn't be as dominate now.

It's just like how some players dominate in the regular season and then struggle in the playoffs against better teams & defenses (winning record teams, who game plan against a player for an entire series).

When competition improves, it separates players. The same is said for team support.

Russell, Wilt and even Kareem (early in his career) played against lesser competition before the ABA-NBA merger, a smaller talent pool and with beneficial rules like a smaller lane and no three point line to open up the game. It inflated their numbers and skews perception. I'll elaborate more on this later.

I won't blame them for dominating lesser competition like they were supposed to, but I also won't praise them and say they were better players than Hakeem because of it.

For example, a 21 year old Yao Ming (who wasn't as athletic as Wilt or Russell) Averaged 32 points, 19 rebounds on 72% FG in the Chinese Basketball Association.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yao_Ming

Yao played lesser competition and dominated in Wilt and Russell like fashion. With likely less inflated minutes per game.

The talent pool was smaller and the league was filled with many amateur players and few pros. So due to a lack of true depth many stars played longer minutes.

Many regular players back then didn't make the salaries they could now to live on, so many had second jobs and had to practice on weekends. The competition was very weak.

Look at the minutes played by the top ten from 1959 -75/76 (the year of the NBA-ABA merger). Most of the top ten all played over 40 - 46/47 mpg.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/mp_per_g_top_10.html

That is one player and team defenses have evolved.

Many times Wilt isn't doubled or receiving as much defensive pressure as he would in the modern era. Wilt had a height, weight and athleticism advantage over just about everyone including Russell (Russell couldn't stop Wilt).

Russell was mentally stronger and had a greater team impact though.

Look at he other teams and centers athletic ability he faced. The disparity is much greater than anything modern centers like Hakeem faced.

There were no international players, fewer total black players, lower salaries to provide incentive for the top athletes in the world to play basketball. NCAA basketball had a tournament bracket and few teams to feed the domestic talent pool. Add in the fact that many NBA players had second jobs and only practiced on weekends and yes, the talent was very weak.

Wilt, Russell impacts were inflated by those things as well as beneficial rules.

The big thing with Wilt and Russell's numbers are you have to also adjust for pace and inflated minutes per game.

A few more things, Wilt is documented as stat padding and his offense wasn't that great as competition increased. Especially when you include his FT% as a true shooting percentage for your offensive anchor.

The year he averaged 50 points in the RS (.50% FG. good, but 536 TS% bad), in the playoff against increased (but still weaker than Modern) completion his scoring dropped to 35 pts, .46% FG on .508 TS%.

Keep in mind, he was playing inflated minutes per game. If you take him down to a normal 36 per game the averages become much more realistic for a top 20 player.

RS 37.4 ppg, PO 26.2 ppg

This isn't even adjusting for pace which would lower his number even more.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/chambwi01.html