I'm not sure if I heard that right but It sounds like Jordan is saying Hakeem is the 2nd best player all time only he's better? He's says "besides myself Hakeem" I mean what else could he be talking about other then who's the best player to ever play?
I gotta be honest ... that put a smile on my face. Hakeem was also extremely complimentary towards Jordan in his autobiography. Its cool to see that the respect was very much mutual.
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d8CO5y-Xl1A?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> More love for Hakeem
Hakeem is the Jordan of centers, it's a damn shame he doesn't get more notice for his accomplishments. Every guard tried to emulate Jordan's game and now every big tries to emulate dreams game.
He always picks Hakeem as his favorite big guy. He's always respected Hakeem from what I remember. I'm not sure how often he said it during his career, but after retiring, he's always picked Hakeem as his center on just about whatever team he was asked to assemble. Here's one from a couple of years ago where he was asked who would be on his pick-up team : <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Beq7jjtrsV0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Jordan generally picks players he played with or against for these teams. Unlike fans who go back in time 50 years and pick players they barely even saw play. lol.
Yeah, exactly! Jordan lived it and picks from real experience, some fans always try to one up the athletes... But for Jordan to pick Hakeem shows some huge respect to Hakeem, I'm so glad I was able to see Hakeem play several times in person and I definitely agree with Jordan (obviously I'm biased but Hakeem was amazing), Wilt was great but I think Hakeem and Jordan played in a harder era of bball.
The things Hakeem did on the court made your jaws drop. You couldn't believe what you were seeing. Jordan was the same. They just would take over the game and you couldn't stop it. My two favorites. Shaq had it in his prime. Kobe had it in his prime. Neither of them though reached the same level, close but never the same. LeBron is trying but hasnt either. If you are old enough to have watched Hakeem & Jordan, you know. If you only have seen them from highlights and grew up watching Kobe, shaq, and LeBron you can't understand. Just the same I never saw Dr. J, Wilt, Bird or Magic in their prime. I also know this, and I really liked Yao. He had the size and skills, a great person. But, he never played as big as Hakeem. Imo no one has.
We're with you on the Kwame Brown thing. But playing against a player in real time vs evaluating a college player for NBA action are 2 totally different things. Granted Being a great player does not translate into being a great GM and evaluator (ahem...Isaiah Thomas) Projecting a college player's abilities for NBA level is nothing like having actually played against that talent. But you have to take his assessment of Hakeem as legitimate when he actually went head to head with him. Surely Jordan (GOAT) had a good feel for how worthy his opponents were. And, if you watch the Clutch City vids, didn't Jordan make the comment that he was glad that his Bulls didn't have to match up with the Rockets because they would 'have no answer for that monster in the middle'? Somehow Kwame Brown makes that statement irrelevant?
While I respect Jordan and give him props for acknowledging the Dream; it really is a no brainer. During Jordan's era there was nobody even close to the level of Olajuwon at his peak. The Dream obliterated everyone.....so I guess what I'm saying is if Jordan picked anyone else, he'd look silly.
Kevc doesn't like players from the 90s. Hakeem gets respect from jordan because he faced hakeem in 80s and 90s. Only an idiot would think evaluating a draft pick vs playing head to head for many years is the same thing.
MRS: You were drafted number three. Did you have any idea before the draft where you were going to go? Were you surprised? Were you disappointed? JORDAN: At the time I committed to go pro, because of Coach Smith's research, I was projected to go to Philly because Philly was in the third spot. Back in those days, the draft was based on wins and losses. So at the time, Philly was in the third slot. Billy Cunningham was the coach, and he was a Carolina guy. He said based on where we are right now in the third slot, Michael won't go less than three because we'll take him at three. Coach Smith knew that plan. But Chicago started losing games. In those days, if you lost games, you could move up in the draft. So once Chicago moved into third place, Philly moved to fifth because Dallas was coming in as an expansion team and they had the fourth pick. I could have easily gone back to the fifth pick. But then we got assurance from Houston that if they lost the coin flip to Portland, they'd take me—it was a coin flip between the top two teams to determine the first pick. But if Houston won the coin flip, they said they were going to take Hakeem Olajuwon. And that's exactly what happened. Hakeem Olajuwon went to Houston, and Portland went to its fallback pick, which was Sam Bowie. If Portland had won the coin flip, they would have taken Hakeem, and I would have ended up in Houston. But the coin flip came up Houston, and that put me back to third with Chicago. Were we seriously a coin flip away from having Michael Jordan? Im not saying anything AT ALL against taking Hakeem, just think that's pretty crazy.
Fixed. Kwame Brown was in high school when he was drafted. He was the first ever player selected #1 in the NBA draft straight out of high school (Lebron James and Dwight Howard being the other 2). Not trying to say that Jordan gets a pass by selecting Brown, but it is much more difficult to select a 19 year old and predict how he will develop and mature over his career than it is to evaluate a player that you played against.
I have heard him pick Hakeem as a big. In this one he picks Hakeem as "any player of all time."....which is a much bigger compliment.
