So I actually obtained the final regular season game of the Dream and he was very good, until he came back in the 4th because of fan demand, he was 9/11 for 20 points, 7 rebounds and a block. The introduction was a small 20 second clip of Worrell taking us on a journey from earl days to championship to the “twilight of his career”. Now fans all seemed to treat it as his retirement / final game, though Worrell only mentions they don’t know yet what Hakeem will do at some point. So I was wondering: what was that last season like? Were there lots of rumors, was Dream asked about it, if you were there, did you and other fans believe retirement was a serious option? Any inclination Toronto was on his radar? And at that point did you feel it was time to move on, was he holding the team back, was benching him a serious option if he were to stay? In any case, it was nice to see and maybe if anyone is willing, we can upload it somewhere to do a re-watch. It’s not the most entertaining game, but Dream has some great moments, there are some very nice dunks and it’s against KG’s Timberwolves.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200104170HOU.html No.9-12 24 points. Facts wrong /thread Stupid
Fun fact: Hakeem had a 20.7 PER his last Rockets season. Which is HIGHER than Alperen Sengun's career average, and Dwight Howard's Rockets only average. So still near All Star level in reduced minutes. I think the "vibe" then was Hakeem felt stronger about his contributions as a player at the time, than the team thought about him. That maybe they treated him too much as the fading nostalgia man among the "youth movement". Though old man Dream was still 10 times better than Kelvin Cato. But he just couldn't stay injury free anymore.
I think the Raptor Season did not go well, he had like 8 and 6 and the injury (I guess his back) forced him to retire......
I consider his last Rockets year a decent "still got it" bounce back year. Maybe today they're more accepting of a "load managed" Kawhi Leonard, Joel Embiid 63%. But thats around Tmac, Yao availability. For respect, Rockets maybe coulda brought Hakeem back. But his reduced play in Toronto prroved it was the right decision that Hakeem physically would break down. Maybe best not seeing Hakeem that way in Houston, go out relatively high note lol
I was a season ticket holder. It was like two seasons. Oct-Jan he looked done. Slow. Losing his dream shake. Missing dunks at the rim, and shlt. But Let’s not forget he was 38yrs old. then, Feb 5th home game vs the Knicks happened. He was back. Like he was proving something to Rudy. We were so surprised. Toyota Center went electric. That crowd noise hadn’t happen since ‘99 playoffs. He kept it up rest of year, except they sat him for arrhythmia again (or his leg pain—can’t remember which). I came to believe that was really a sign of him being disgruntled — a special Rudy doghouse where they didn’t talk about it. As for trade talk, re-signing, benching … all that talk began prior year when Rockets started off 2-10, Clutch posted a thread titled “Either Barkley or Hakeem have to go now”. Ie, get on with the youth movement. So all that chatter was already in place. And continued until that Knicks game. Again, like I said before, it seemed to me like Dream wanted to prove something. Also, Les wanted Dream to do a last year retirement tour through the league, which totally would have been against Hakeem’s, beliefs in being humble. Fans here at cfnet knew he wouldn’t do a tour like that. Each team honoring him b4 the game, and such. so that by itself might have been why he left. To avoid it, since Les seemed to be clueless and selfish to want it, others will remember the board scene Summer prior to TOR better than me. But, I think most wanted him to retire a Rocket for sure.
