The block was at the end of game 6, where Starks was smoking hot and scored 27. I'm 100% sure he would have won the series for the Knicks right there if Hakeem hadn't grazed his shot.
Yeah, I was so young back then I didn't really fully appreciate just how great Dream and those championship runs were until I was older. As a kid I thought all superstar centers could develop into that. We drafted Yao and I expected him to become like Dream, Yao who I'm a big fan of and actually met once, was a true HOF player and a class act, but there was no comparison. To be fair Hakeem had no weaknesses and after really watching all the film and data I could on the great centers he outshines all of them imo. Some people described his freak athleticism as cat like agility, but also he was very strong, had an extremely high BBIQ with 15+ counter variation moves offensively, was a defensive genius and was a monster under pressure, check his game 7 stats or elimination games in his career.
I always say to people, I'll accept that we can't call Dream the GOAT because of the accolades, but I think he's the most complete basketball player ever. There wasn't a hole in his game to exploit. Sure, there are others who are up there with him, but I've never seen another player who is that much of a savant on both ends of the court. He really does give meaning to "poetry in motion" at his best.
Since we don't do historical NBA threads that often, for those who enjoy learning about NBA history and perspectives of past eras, here is a 1994 article from Sports Illustrated Vault right before the series as well. TOGETHER AGAIN TWO OLD RIVALS, KNICK PATRICK EWING AND ROCKET HAKEEM OLAJUWON, MEET IN THE FINALS TO DUEL FOR THE TITLE BOTH HAVE LONGED TO WIN. "It was so much easier the first time they met. With nothing to be won or lost, they quickly found common ground. The time was the summer of 1983, the place a Phoenix hotel, and University of Houston senior Akeem Olajuwon was listening to a tape of reggae musician Peter Tosh on his cassette deck when the fellow staying in the room next door stopped by. Georgetown junior Patrick Ewing introduced himself and declared his fondness for reggae, which reminded him of his childhood days in Jamaica. The Nigerian-born Olajuwon invited Ewing in, and together they listened and talked about music, not basketball, as the Caribbean sounds filled the room. They were teammates of a sort at the time, traveling on an NCAA-sponsored antidrug campaign, and it would be the last time they would meet with so little at stake. The next year they would play for the NCAA championship; Ewing would score 10 points, Olajuwon 15, but the Hoyas would get the better of the Cougars, 84-75. Thus began a decade in which they have been noble adversaries. The years have given them more in common than just taste in music, and much of what links them has to do with championships—or the absence of them. They both lost what appeared to be certain college titles in stunning upsets, Olajuwon to North Carolina State in 1983 and Ewing to Villanova in '85. They both had brief periods of discontent in the NBA, during which each wanted to leave his team for one with a better chance of winning a championship. And although both are perennial All-Stars and have accumulated their share of honors—that NCAA championship and two Olympic gold medals for Ewing, this season's MVP honors and two Defensive Player of the Year awards for Olajuwon—their strongest bond is not what they have but what they lack. After years of hard NBA labor, 10 for Olajuwon (who since 1991 has been known as Hakeem) with the Houston Rockets and nine for Ewing with the New York Knicks, the two are meeting again, in the NBA Finals, which began Wednesday at the Summit in Houston. This is Ewing's first Finals appearance, Olajuwon's second. There is an NBA championship trophy to be had, but unlike that reggae tape, Ewing and Olajuwon cannot share it. "And that is the shame of it," says Dikembe Mutombo of the Denver Nuggets, who was born in Zaire and followed Ewing as a Hoya center. "I pull for Patrick because we share Georgetown, but I pull for Hakeem because we share Africa. They both deserve it so much. They have both waited so long. It is as if two men have been in the desert and they come upon one glass of water. There is only enough for one of them to drink. When you watch them, do you not wish there could be two glasses of water?" Of course, both had hoped to sip from the glass by now. Ewing, the first pick of the 1985 draft, was supposed to return the Knicks to glory long ago, but instead of championships there was only instability, with five coaches and a constantly changing cast of teammates in his first six seasons. He eventually became so frustrated that he tried to use a loophole in his contract to become a free agent in '91 before agreeing to a two-year contract extension with New York. Olajuwon, the top choice in '84, did get that earlier visit to the NBA Finals, in '86, but Houston lost to the Boston Celtics. By '92 the Rockets were floundering, and Olajuwon was feuding with management and seeking a trade. New coach Rudy Tomjanovich discouraged a deal; the next year Olajuwon resolved his differences with the front office and signed a contract that will keep him in Houston through the 1998-99 season. But all that unhappiness seems like ancient history now that Ewing and Olajuwon are only a step away from a championship. What makes their confrontation fascinating is that only one of them will finally quench his thirst, and to do so he will have to snatch the glass from the other's lips. Ewing and Olajuwon, both 31, both listed as 7'0" (though Olajuwon may in fact be closer to 6'10"), have even more in common than their age and height. They are both foreign-born big men who came to the game relatively late in life, Olajuwon at 15, Ewing at 13. And they both are members of that group of stars in their 30's—Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Clyde Drexler, John Stockton, Chris Mullin, Dominique Wilkins—still searching for their first NBA title. "When I look at Hakeem I see the same need to win that I have," Ewing says. "He's a great player, and I'm a great player. We've both done just about everything there is to do in this league but win a championship, and we've got that same look in our eye now. All we want to do is win." The Olajuwon-Ewing battle is unlike the marquee matchups from NBA Finals of the recent past, such as the confrontations between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, or the one in '91 that pitted Magic against Michael Jordan. This time the two combatants play the same position and will spend most of the series matched against each other. Thus those head-to-head statistics that NBC is sure to flash throughout the series will provide a fairer comparison than they usually do." https://vault.si.com/vault/1994/06/...to-duel-for-the-title-both-have-longed-to-win
Right on both. Mason was like a stronger Draymond that way. Adding Mark Eaton to that. Who they notoriously described as too stiff to even react to Hakeem's moves, his slowness actually helped him stay in position just using his length to bother Hakeem's shots lol. Plus the thin Utah air on Hakeem was a factor.
I was small PG size, but with some inside game. I patterned more on Hakeem than Jordan lol. I could hit some turnarounds & fadeaways. I had bad handles. Playing 2 on 2 ball, and playing "21" inventing shots to stay ahead negated use for handles. Same with having shooting range from free throw & in. So I had something of an Only-Right-Hand interior game out to middy. But without the size to do it. I got faster & twitchier from young to defend. But I didn't get taller. So once I got outsized and my handle & left hand didn't develop, ball wasn't fun anymore lol. But I might can hit 4 out 14 mock "dream shakes" in the driveway now and consider that a "still got it"
Indeed, he ran amok with his elbows. The huge surprise? Kevin never fouled out of an NBA game. I looked it up after your comment and that nugget surprised me.
