This has to be trolling. I refuse to believe somebody smart enough to sign up for a username on a message board and find out how to post stuff can possibly think this. Maybe he's having a stroke. Someone call an ambulance for OpenLayup-Why3?!
I can imitate him. I cannot, however, have his physical abilities. THE MAN was unique. Watch the video of the teachings to Dwight Howard. While DREAM's movements FLOW and look like SILK on concrete, Howard's imitations look like kids' blocks getting dropped onto a wooden floor. Furthermore, Dream's steps are methodically calculated, with grace and finesse touching the court, making the opponent believe he's going one way, then moving and skillfully releasing the shot, almost always going in. Dwight takes large, abrupt and almost grotesque movements, and his shoulders and extra muscular build do not allow him to look like he has fluidity.
I've figured out some of DREAM's moves, which you can learn if you watchi is "Hakeem Olajuwon teaches [anyone]" videos. Watch this, at 3:58, how DREAM takes the first step INSIDE the paint, towards the goal, then the little hop AWAY from the goal, and back out to fade and make the basket. His arms FLOW. NO defender will block that, unless they have extra long arms (which is rare). Howard, on the other hand, takes the step INSIDE the paint, towards the goal, then the little hop STAYS close to the goal, and then shoots just above. It looks grotesque. A tall defender right on his face will block that almost consistently. It looks TOO mechanical. https://youtu.be/COuQWiJa2w8?t=4m (at 4m)
Think of Hakeem as the ultimate contingency center. He comes up with alternate moves for every situation with on the fly adjustments.
My favorite quote about Hakeem came from Shaq (of all people). He said something to the effect of every great center has 4 patented moves, but Hakeem had 4 variations of each of his 4 patented moves.
This times a million. When Hakeem did that spin-move with fade-away in the Africa game, some posters labeled as a simple move and that people only praise it because it's Hakeem. The fluidity and footwork to do moves in that fashion is extremely difficult, especially for a big man.
What I remember is Dream made his move, then kind of hung suspended in the air for a second while he got his bearing, then finally released his shot right as he was starting to go back down. Most post players (those who actually have inside moves) release the shot as they're still going up or right when they get to the top. Dream always seemed to use another split second to take aim before he released it.
Let's play match the career shooting percentages to the player. I think you might get this one wrong even if you look up the facts. .582 .512 .518 .504 .516 .496 .497 .451 .559 Larry Bird Patrick Ewing Michael Jordan David Robinson Kareem Abdul-Jaabar Kobe Bryant Shaquille O'neal Hakeem Olajuwon Karl Malone
<a href="http://s304.photobucket.com/user/nbacardDOTnet/media/zz%20NBA%20Photo%20Gallery/VS/Rivalry/05%20The%20Dream%20VS%20Ewing/ED9598ED82B4EB8C80_EC9CA0EC9E899.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn200/nbacardDOTnet/zz%20NBA%20Photo%20Gallery/VS/Rivalry/05%20The%20Dream%20VS%20Ewing/ED9598ED82B4EB8C80_EC9CA0EC9E899.jpg~original" border="0" alt="Hakeem Olajuwon VS Patrick Ewing (BG : Robert Horry) photo ED9598ED82B4EB8C80_EC9CA0EC9E899.jpg"/></a>
Has anyone got a GIF of the free-throw? That's where it gets a little awkward to me, elbows out and almost pushing equally with both hands.
Gotta give it to Ewing, Robinson, Shaq and all the other great bigs in the 80's and 90's. Without them, there is no Hakeem who was better than all of them overall. The thing that amazes me is his footwork, not really his shot. He had a counter to every move. Unstoppable. But y'all knew that already. Still pissed he went to TOR at the end there. He deserved better.
