How many of those goats had to play while observing Ramadan? Hakeem Olajuwon’s five most impressive Ramadan performances (theundefeated.com)
I always thought it amazing that Hakeem could play at that level while observing Ramadan. The man had a well of energy that he drew on when he needed to. Always did. I wish more around here had seen the respect, the admiration, heck, the amazingly positive media coverage the Rockets got once we drafted Sampson and then Olajuwon the next year in the early '80's. We were the anointed dynasty that would take over from the Lakers and the Celtics as our team matured. It looked like we weren't prepared to wait when we knocked off the defending champion Lakers in the 1985/86 Western Conference Finals in Los Angeles, then lost to an incredible Boston team, arguably one of the best in league history, in six. That was after the consensus, even in the Houston media, was that we'd never make it past LA because we were too young, we weren't ready. Heck, we didn't really have a point guard, thanks to John Lucas being cut loose earlier in the season, thanks to drugs and alcohol. Beating the Lakers and giving Boston a tough series cemented Houston in the mind of the media as a contending team for the next decade. Had it all not been blown apart with drugs and Sampson's injury, and the Rockets had made several Finals appearances and won a couple of titles, instead of "wandering in the wilderness" during much of Dream's prime, Hakeem would be viewed with a different lens today, in my opinion. What's really frustrating is that it wasn't all hype. For a brief stretch we were that good.
The Backpicks Top 40 list was a pretty thorough examination of many players, and it had Hakeem at number 6: https://backpicks.com/2017/12/11/the-backpicks-goat-the-40-best-careers-in-nba-history/
Dream at his peak was MJ in a center's body, therefore he IS the GOAT. IMO He didn't have the teammates and coaching* that MJ had and played in Houston, so he is generally, as others have said, criminally underrated. *correction: except for Rudy T obviously, who was brilliant.
He’s almost always discussed as a candidate for top 10 and usually included.… and just because I saw it commented on the first page, he’s definitely better then Kobe. You could put him in the top 5 and not be laughed at.
This was from Ben who used to post as El Gee in another forum. I respect his analysis as he actually watched film and went in depth. One thing I disagree with was he weights longevity higher than peak play. (which is partially why he has Kareem is so high over Jordan), until recently values regular season about equal with playoff performance and is heavily impact stats based (why Garnett is so high) Hakeem doesn't have impact stats beyond 97, missing many dominant peak years to compare. I value peak and longevity equally within reason and playoffs over regular. So basically using similar criteria with different values I have Hakeem as slightly better than Kareem as the GOAT center or #3 all time. Also ESPN changed staff and had Hakeem #10 in 2016. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/nbarank10/all-nbarank-10 With respect to how great he was, Kobe at 9 in 2020 is definitely an appease the fans pick after recent events, ESPN can be more popularity based.
If Garnett had stayed in Minnesota we wouldn't be talking about his longevity either. He would have been worn down just as quickly as dream was. Winning Defensive player of the year MVP and Finals MVP takes a toll on the body. He played like that every night from the day he was drafted. He just finally got the recognition he earned/ deserved in 93-94. Garnett's career got prolonged by going to boston and getting to play with Ray Allen, Pierce, Rondo, and so forth...
i'm typically b****in bc he's listed in the back half of the top 10... lol! Simple truth is that despite his personal greatness, his teams had a lot of mediocre seasons... The guys running Houston sports teams have often been a joke... fire Bum Phillips? I wanted to break my foot off in Bud Adams butt! lol
A really interesting read. Thanks, @durvasa. I'll toss in this quote from the description of Hakeem: "he’s arguably the quickest and fastest center ever, possessing cat-like reflexes and the ability to guard almost anyone."
I never understood why people talk about Top players of all time rather than top positional players. It is simply ridiculous to compare Jordan to Dream when their physical attributes gave them different duties to perform. People often ask which player would you choose to rebuild your franchise is another dumb question because all information about the player is after the fact which simply does not happen in the real world. Hakeem will always be the top center of all time in my opinion because he showed how good he was against other top centers like Shaq, Ewing, Robinson, etc while being in the top 10 in 5 stat category for a center in a season or multiple seasons.
dream is top 3 goat at worst in all of sports. all of sports! this includes bowling, darts, and poker since they're on espn.
I see it is time for my annual statement. For two magical years, Dream was the best player there ever was.
Garnett was an all time PF but I have Hakeem as better offensively, defensively and much better in the playoffs where Dream got better and Garnett got worse. But both guys had bad supporting casts and coaching during thier young primes and later had upgrades allowing them team success. I personally don't rank individual players by team based accolades, as it takes all great players having talent around them to be successful, that would be ranking teams imo. I respect Hakeem more because he won in 94 without an allstar or HOF player and all the others in the top 10 had much better casts during thier primes. None, even Jordan, Kareem or LeBron could win without another all star, GOAT coach or HOF caliber player next to them.
