Kareem Abdul Jabbar was the greatest center of all-time. He actually had the most indefensible shot in the history of the game. He was a great passer and rebounder and a good if not great defender. Wilt couldn’t do anything but finger roll and dunk. When the centers caught up size wise his offense deteriorated. Jabbar was great all the way until the end. Hakeem was a better all around player than Wilt, although the difference in eras makes it difficult to pick one over the other. Wilt and Shaq were pretty much identical in their physical dominance for their eras. If Wilt played in the same era as Shaq and Hakeem he would be in the 2nd tier of centers. I saw them all play by the way and was a huge LA fan through the Wilt and Jabbar years.
Whilst Dream will always be my GOAT, I actually can't argue with this. I actually think Kareem gets disrespected a lot being left out of the GOAT conversation. When you look at it he matches up against Jordan a lot better than Lebron does on the accolades in the NBA years and beats them all in his college years. I'm too young to have seen it happen but Kareem really is that dude on paper...
This guy, a Jordan fan, objectively proves Dream is the GOAT. https://hickamsdictum.com/the-g-o-a-t-who-is-the-best-basketball-player-of-all-time-e43c7e53a9a7
Everybody credits showtime and Magic for their dominance, but Kareem was nails in the half-court. Anytime they needed a crucial basket they looked to Kareem on the right low block. His great passing ability made it their go to play 50% of the time. I also think Magic was the best PG of all time. Talk about a loaded team.
Yeah I must admit I was surprised when I looked at the numbers (obviously I've gone back and watched all the big playoff runs etc, but it's not the same as having lived it as a contemporary) and Kareem is still a superstar player, I was expecting more like an ageing past it kind of numbers but Kareem has an MVP in 80, Finals MVP in 85, All NBA and All Defense throughout the 80's and never averaged less than 20 pts until the 86/87 season. Absolute monster numbers on paper, especially when you consider he didn't shoot 3's. 20 years in the league and he stayed a top tier player through the vast majority of it. Impressive when you consider he did that when medical/sports science was nothing compared to today, he had none of those things helping him the way today's athletes do, he did that in a time when players really didn't play forever like that.
Kareem was incredible. At an age when most NBA players were working hard in an attempt to stretch out their time in the NBA, looking for an assistant's job to stay on the bench and in the league, or retired? Kareem was Finals MVP in 1985, at age 38, adding another championship to his collection. The next season the Rockets eliminated the Lakers in the WC finals in 5 games, closing them out with Sampson's "The Shot." Years later, Jabbar was asked who he considered the 6 toughest players to go up against. Rockets fans will enjoy this:
He played from 1959 to 1973. I saw him play many times during that period. His dominance was surreal.
Sometimes I still "Youtube" Hakeem Olajuwon undressing MVP Robinson (all due respect to an all-around decent guy, but thanks for not mentioning Dream in your acceptance speech, D-Rob) in the too-long-ago WC Finals.
Whew boy, focused on other real life priorities but I'll have to drop in this thread later on. One thing with Kareem, some folks never really dig deep into his flaws or weaknesses over decades. I have him as the offensive yin to Hakeem's defensive yang as similar in impact. But yes Hakeem is slightly better overall as well. I respect his words for Hakeem, didn't know he said that in an interview he was one of the toughest he faced. That's a good look and secure of him to praise, Dream had praise for Kareem as well.
Prime Hakeem is the best Center of all time - without a doubt. I can see how other Centers may be rated ahead of him in terms of the totality of their career - guys like Kareem and even Shaq were dominant over longer stretches of time, some guys were better offensively or defensively -but at his peak, there isn't a center out there that was as good as Hakeem was at every facet of the game. Similar to Jordan he had a number of ways he could get a stop or get a score when needed. Similar to Jordan, there were no weaknesses at his peak in any area of the position he played. I think unfortunately for Hakeem - it took him time to round into that complete player and while he was very good at a lot of things the entirety of his career - he wasn't the dominant force on both sides of the ball but for a 3 or 4 year period of which Jordan was out for two of those and sadly some discredit Houston's achievements while Jordan was out serving time for gambling on games - lol.
I'd argue there hasn't been a better defensive player in the 3P era actually. Hakeem was just ridiculous on that end throughout most of his career. I don't know about before the 3P era, not old enough to have watched guys like Bill Russell. I agree though that where you rank him all time depends a lot on how you weigh the importance of best peak versus overall career performance versus accolades/championships. I think he has an argument to be as high as #3 or as low as #10, but anyone putting him outside the top 10 is crazy.
Yeah - I mean it's hard to argue with a guy leading the NBA all time in blocks and who is also 10th all time at steals while the next closest center(David Robinson) is ranked 69th. I also thought in his prime he was a true unicorn who could guard 1-5 effectively although obviously he didn't live in the "switch everything" era of NBA defenses so that skill wasn't on display every night like it was for lets say Draymond Green. I agree that Hakeem doesn't belong anywhere beneath 10th all time and Shaq often benefits from being ranked higher because of his affable public image and reminding people he is the greatest center of all time on TV for the last 25+ years...actually you could say Lakers PR has something to do with that as 6 Lakers are on Bleacher Reports top 100 ahead of Hakeem....although Bleacher Report is truly awful but their ranking doesn't look all that dissimilar from other rankings.
which one played tall baddie vs bruce lee? was it wilt or kareem? either way whoever it was, is still 2nd to hadream.
