This, I'd think he leaves after a few years and the realization that the Rockets FO won't guarantee him a ring. So in hindsight you'd still take Hakeem as he stuck with the team and brought us two championships. And people have to remember Jordan's championship teams, much bigger talent and depth than what Hakeem had to play with for years.
Glad you brought up Godwin's Law...merely my attempt to bring that discussion to an end ...still, the part about ppl being entitled to their own opinion without being attacked should not be discarded - Godwin himself would agree with that!
Growing up I thought Hakeem was the GOAT. As a kid I wore his jersey every chance I had. I mean yes Jordan was amazing, but Hakeem could do everything. And that was impressive considering his size. He was so smooth. Only other athletic phoneme like that was Magic. To this day he remains my favorite athlete of all time and one of my favorite human beings. His work ethic and the way he matured as an unselfish humain being really pushes me everyday to get better. To some extent I think JJ Watt, though he has ways to go, has that potential. Still very "cocky" in the way he presents himself to the media, but you see that deep down he's a great guy with a relentless motor.
The move on draft night that should have happened was to trade Ralph Sampson to Portland (who needed a center) for the 2nd pick and take Hakeem and M. Jordon.
http://ballislife.com/bull-draft-jordan/ Spoiler After winning the Naismith and Wooden College Player of the Year awards and even having a sandwich named after him at the Chapel Hill Four Corners restaurant (crab salad on a pita?). Michael Jordan decided to skip his senior year at UNC to enter the 1984 NBA draft along with teammate Sam Perkins. The 84 draft would become infamous for a historic “blunder” but that “blunder” is arguably the biggest misconception in sports. The big questions are always “How did 2 teams pass up on Jordan” and “Why was Sam Bowie picked before him.” Truth is, it made sense for Houston and Portland to pass on him and the Bulls only drafted him because they couldn’t get a big man. The Rockets had the first pick and they had no second doubts about drafting Akeem before the H was added. The Blazers had the second pick and unlike most bad teams that needed a big man to win games, they were a winning team that needed a big man to win a championship. Sam Bowie was clearly the most talented big man available. He was the American version of Sabonis, but the red flag on him was if his broken leg could hold up in the NBA. The Blazers did run tests on Bowie and his legs and in a 2012 documentary called “Going Big,” Sam Bowie admitted to lying to the Blazers about the pain in his knee. I’m sure if they would have known that Bowie’s tibia was still hurting him they would have reconsidered. But also consider that the Blazers had Clyde Drexler who was clearly a star in the making, so it didn’t make much sense to draft a player like Jordan that was arguably no better than the existing player that played the same position on a team. So the Blazers selected Sam Bowie. The 3rd pick belonged to the Bulls and this is where the biggest “blunder” in draft history was almost made. The Bulls only selected Jordan because the top two big men were gone and they were unable to trade the pick that would be Jordan for centers Jack Sikma or Tree Rollins. There was even a 3 way trade involving the pick going to the LA Clippers for Terry Cummings that fell through a week before the draft. Try explaining those trades to historians as Michael Jordan becomes the best Dallas Maverick (they had the 4th pick) ever. Now there was a very interesting trade that was rumored around that time which is my favorite all-time “What If?” trade. According to Hakeem in his biography, the Blazers offered the Rockets the #2 pick and Drexler for Ralph Sampson. The Rockets declined and the birth of the “Twin Towers” happened, but what if the Rockets would have accepted the trade and for some reason taken Jordan with that pick? Hakeem, Clyde Drexler and Michael Jordan on the same team! I’m not sure Air and Glide would have been able to co-exist back then but I’m sure it would have been pretty exciting to watch them try. What combo eventually did happen with great results is the combo of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in Chicago. So yeah, I don’t think the Bulls have any regrets about what they ended up with on June 19th of 1984. The truth is simple. The Rockets and the Bulls wouldve never been able to harness the true greatness of each player if they didnt go their separate ways. The 80's was an era for big man, and everything was centered around getting the big first and then going from there. Its why the Rockets tanked... If you are a true Clutch City fan, you can NOT even fathom talking about Rockets history without what Hakeem meant/means to our city. If Ralph stayed healthy and the epidemic of addiction didn't destroy our team, we wouldve had a terrific team in the late 80's. Jordan maybe the GOAT, but Hakeem is why this site exists...
Michael Jordan all day! Jordan revolutionized the NBA, not Hakeem. However, we brought the idea of "Inside Out" play, which is all due to the dominance of Hakeem for that stretch of years
People actin like it some insult to Hakeem and Houston if you choose the greatest player to ever live smh
It's obvious the so called rockets fans who are here who would pick jordan know nothing of that era and don't give two craps about the city of houston. Also it's suspicious that someone dropped this in clutch's beautiful article about Hakeem's africa game. Ask yourself why this place is called clutch fans , if you truly understand that, then you are a rockets fan
People still don't get it. The blazers would have put hakeem and drexler together if jordan went number one. The bulls had the number 3 pick. Sam bowie you idiots not hakeem will be on the bulls.
And tmac fans are still stupid. If people are talking about hakeem and jordan, that means you have idea how good these players are because your favorite player is so far away from them. How far? Jump to the deepest part of the ocean and try to find the moon.
Tinman, I'm saddened that you haven't joined my campaign to make all polls public. Let the Rocket World see just who votes in all our polls, instead of hiding behind the anonymity that allows some of them to "vote" simply as a joke or to troll. I no longer vote in non-public polls, unless they are started by Clutch. Join me in the effort. I can answer the poll here, however. I'd have selected Hakeem everyday of the week and twice on Sunday over Jordan. It's an easy choice to make.
It's really not necessary to call people idiots because it takes away from what's actually a very solid point. If Jordan went to Houston, then Hakeem would go to Portland setting up a potential dynasty. If Hakeem and Drexler won one much later in their careers, imagine if they had been together in their 20s. I think most here feel that Houston was mediocre at best(and had some poor luck - especially with Ralph Sampson) at surrounding Hakeem with talent for most of his career. It raises the following questions: - Would Jordan have been able to be the GOAT if Houston wasn't surrounding him with a foture HOF like Pippen - Would Pippen even be a future HOFer if he played with Bowie instead of perfecting his craft against the greatest SG of all time? That's how both he and Jordan got good - by playing each other hard every day trying to out best the other. ...and that's why I think you can't switch Hakeem with Jordan and expect the same level of success Jordan had with the Bulls if he played with the Rockets. I'll take Hakeem every time. I still think Jordan was GOAT for his career, but to me, Hakeem's peak was even better than Jordan's peak - like near quadruple double peak(Hakeem was one of only 4 who got a quadruple double and he missed out by a single assist on being on that list twice!) ...the other fun game you guys should play is what if Joe Dumars fell to Houston in 85. Dumars and Hakeem would have been a hell of a team...or what if Houston drafted Rodman the following year.
It is, at the very least, an interesting question. But asking the question and then insulting anyone that disagrees with you and saying they aren't real Rockets fans really doesn't get anywhere. Hindsight is 20/20. The media constantly tells us the Michael Jordan was the best basketball player to ever play in the NBA. If that was true, then sure, you would draft Jordan over anyone. The best player to ever play in the NBA would be better to draft than any other really, really, really good player that isn't quite the best. However, this debate is more difficult than that for a couple of reasons. Is Jordan really the greatest player ever? That's hard to say. Sometimes I think that the 'legend' of Jordan has far, far surpassed him as the actual player. You know, I honestly think that the legacy of Air Jordans and Like Mike Gatorade commercials and SpaceJam made Jordan out to be far greater than he actually was. Meanwhile, Hakeem was wearing Spaldings and doing Taco Bell commercials with Shaq and trying to make his "H20" bottled water. Additionally, we don't know what would have happened to Hakeem's or Jordan's career if they were in different situations. With different teammates and different coaches, how would they have fared? Would Jordan have been as good without Pippen? What if the Rockets selected Jordan and paired him with Ralph Sampson? Would Olajuwon have been even better if he was with Drexler? And finally, today's NBA is much, much different than the NBA of the 80's when those players were drafted. Today, the play of guards and perimeter players is much more important. The 3-point shot (which, coincidentally, was one of Jordan's weaknesses- even when the NBA moved the 3-point line closer) is much more important. If we are looking at this question through the lens of what is important in today's NBA, then that would be much different than if we were drafting in the 80's NBA, when you built a team from the inside out. All of that said, I think it is at the very least an interesting question and debate. Not one to just dismiss someone else if they disagree with you.
Dude, It's pretty damn suspicious that the poster with a very new join date repeatedly spams clutch's dream in africa thread with jordan crap. Doesn't take a true detective to find this yellow king
