Shaq declares Hakeem the only center he could not defeat

I don't want to seem like a hater or anything, cause I'm not at ALL, but you can't compare a Dream in his prime to a young Shaq. Experience counts for a lot. Plus that series might have gone completely different had Nick Andersen not missed 4 consecutive free throws in Game 1. I think we still would have won, but in 6 games, not a sweep.

Whatever happened to the Shaq vs Olajuwon matchup? Anyone remember that?

 

I mean the Taco Bell (I think??) 1:1 dual.

 

The careers of Robert Horry and Sam Cassell showed that they were severely underrated when they were the Rockets.

Horry, Cassell, Mario Elie ended up helping other teams achieve success.

Penny ended up having chronic injuries, Dennis Scott and Nick Andersen fell off the map. Grant got too old.

95 Rockets were ultra talented and the clutchest team of all time

 

As a kid, I used to despise Shaq because of how dominant he was and how he'd seem unstoppable against my team and many others' teams.

I understand now that this reaction was just the early signs of being a hater and I'm glad I moved past it, because Shaq is a righteous dude.

I have a ton of respect for him as a player, but more respect for the person he is.

I'm glad he's still in the media spotlight.

 

Out of all the centers he played against, I can see why he'd consider Hakeem the toughest matchup. He played against David Robinson, Ewing, and Mutombo and none of them had the overall game that Hakeem did. Also, Hakeem was better than him in a number of areas- quicker, better outside shot, more moves, better passer, etc.

 

Yeah , I used to hear all the time , how all Shaq did was dunk!!!!.. My response was always "Can You Blame Him?".... Even when he eventually go post moves, people still were saying "he just uses his weight to get low post position"......My response always was "NO, to get low post position he uses his weight...Again CAN U blam Him?!!!....Funny how now people attach "skilled" to his name more since he won the championships...

 

I'm a big rockets fan and all but id start my franchise with jordan or shaq everytime. Hakeem is #3 though.

Only reason shaq isn't talking trash about hakeem is because hakeem won the ring and shaq didn't that year. Shaq still went toe to toe with hakeem and it was a stalemate, even at his young age

 

Shaq's kind words about Hakeem don't change the fact that I would start a team with Dream ten times out of ten.

Shaq was big and would overpower people, but Dream could out-athleticize and out-finesse them.

Dream was the ultimate everything, Jordan can eat it.

 

Jordan maybe, but pull Shaq's numbers and highlight how he was the most dominant in the game. We can stack his production against the likes of Bird, Magic and Hakeem. Go pull the playoff numbers from Shaq at his peak in 2000-2002 and they look the same as Dream's playoff numbers in 94/95. The only difference was one was done against 3 HOF centers and the other....

 

Hakeem is and will always be the best center in league history.

Hakeem is probably the best defender in NBA history as well.

 

97 Dream definitely wasn't as good as 94 Dream and it doesn't have anything to do with consistency either. 94 Dream was a much better defender, much more athletic, quicker in his moves, didn't take as much time with the ball to score and the biggest thing was his skill, athleticism and maturity all came together. He was unreal at his peak from 93-95 but he started declining after because he didn't work as much in the off-season, age and injuries took away his athleticism, specifically his quickness and Hakeem's offense was centered around his quickness which is why he was so damn good. That jumphook towards the middle use to be money but it was never there after 97. He became more of a jumpshooter after that knee surgery.

Dream was still good in 97 and the best center in the league but he wasn't the Dream we all knew. Even in the Jazz series, he played really well but you'd see when we needed a bucket late in game 6 to stop Utah's rally, Dream had his shot swatted by Ostertag. That doesn't happen to 93-95 Dream.

 

all a defender needed was strength to keep shaq from backing him down and then shaq became utterly useless. see: ben wallace.

also, haq-a-shaq defense. the league needed to step in and adjust the rules for a marketable player. without the favorable rule changes, shaq is a dumb scrub. FACT.

 

Dream is the greatest of all time. period.

 

take a time travel machine and a prime hakeem would destroy a "prime" shaq even worse than he did to young shaq. all shaq did was get fatter over the years. after 15 years he still never learned how to shoot a free throw. what a fu(king moron. shaq blows.

 

If this is facebook, I would click "Like". ROFL

 

That rule change wasn't just about Shaq, it could be used for Dwight, or Bogut, or basically any player in the nba whose not a good free throw shooter, but then, the real issue was...it made what should be the most marketable matchup of an nba season into something as ugly as watching a full season of the Spurs.

 

what the hell dude? you know Dream made to the Finals in his 2nd year right?

if Lloyd/Wiggins didn't get busted for cocaine or Ralph didn't bust his hip in Boston, the story would be very different.

 

Off topic, but after Hakeem changed from Akeem, and was the H still silent?

Yep I'm bored.

 

Dream at his peak can go toe-to-toe with anybody; the guy was vicious as hell.

But people forget Shaq played well during that Finals series too; he was just kind of inexperienced, and Andersen choked badly. It only takes one play, or one (or more) missed FTs to turn a whole series around. If Orlando won that game, we never know what the result would have been.

 

Obviously, Hakeem swept Shaquille in finals. But I believe both are muslim too. Maybe that's a factor in why Shaquille is very complimentary towards the dream considering he has a type of personality to rip others. Maybe.

Nonetheless, Hakeem doesn't get the due he deserves. Hakeem and Dirk were the last players in decades to win with a one star model. It's good to see another legend give him props.