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Maybe the greatest basketball player of all time. It's too bad it took so long for us to put the right players around him.
Thanks a lot! Seriously, how is Olajuwon not widely seen as the most all-round player? There's not one facet of the game he didn't have down pat. His ability to read and react, coordinate, have several calculated moves and counters in not just post but also perimeter game is second to none. MJ might have more rings, but you cannot tell me he could do more than Dream and was as thorough in all aspects of the game.
There may never be another more uniquely talented big man or post player. I frankly don't get it either, even though the league shifted to guard centric ball hogging, hero ball...a guy who can dominate the post like this should still be the easiest way to build a championship caliber team. You either let Hakeem eat or you doubled him and gave shooters wide open looks at 3s. Genius.
Simply put, Hakeem redefined speed at the Center position. And big men who later matched it, Amare/Garnett, don't come close to having his post moves.
I think we had a good team. Seattle was just such a crappy match up for us. I have a gut feeling that if Denver didn't upset Seattle, we'd be sitting here with 0 championships instead of 2... without Seattle I think we could have gone all the way in 92-93 too!
When my friends or random strangers ask me.... Who is the best NBA player of all-time and I respond "Hakeem Olajuwon" without a hesitation or doubt. They all either laugh and/or respond wtf is wrong with you assuming I have no clue about NBA basketball. I then reply who do you think is the best they normally respond with MJ, Kobe, LBJ. Which I then laugh out loud because those 3 were the most marketable superstars we ever had. Media nutt-hugging/brainwashing is so unbearable. You watch 10 years from now the list will be MJ, Kobe, LBJ, Curry. Hakeem was the most un-marketable superstar to play the game. His goggles were unattractive, he could barely speak english plus he came from another country. Because of this, he is barely known as an all-time great or in the conversation of all-time greats. Now looking at these Hakeem "vintage" videos some of them are so damn blurry not even LBJ's high school videos were this bad. The next generation of superstars will never look up to Hakeem as a role model but instead bomb 3s like Curry. The post-game will be extinct if it hasn't already. In the end, no one will ever know how good Hakeem was without people like us (and the person who made this video) spreading the word and even telling our own kids how great he was so that hopefully they can do the same.
If you are just talking about moves, no one has ever come close to having Hakeem's post moves. Kareem only had one move. A great move, but only one. Wilt and Shaq were just bigger and stronger than anyone that tried to guard them. Bill Russell was more of a defensive player than an offensive one. Those players were all effective at what they did, but if you look at the sheer number and fluidity of moves in the post, no one comes close to Hakeem You mentioned Amare and Garnett as big men with speed, but didn't even mention David Robinson. Robinson in his prime had speed and athleticism and we all saw how that went during the 95 playoffs. I remember during one of the broadcasts, I don't remember the exact quote, but one of the analysts said something along the lines of "If Robinson can't keep up with him, then no one is going to be able to keep up with him!"
That video is beautiful. Dream had such an arsenal of moves and fakes and counter moves to go with that incredible footwork, speed, balance, and quickness not to mention the defensive instincts. We were spoiled to watch that year after year. As much as Dream gets short shrift, think about David Robinson. That guy was a straight up stud who would completely dominate not only the centers in this league but also most of the power forwards. Dream outplayed him so badly in that Western Finals series that DRob is basically on a milk carton... forever. I feel bad for the guy. He was a great player, people these days have no idea.
Agree about the Admiral, it's crazy how Olajuwon schooled a great center like that. It was pretty sad to see, but he finally got his ring though. Had he played in this era, he would obliterate all centers and PFs with ease! Towns is the only one who could be good enough to challenge him. Robinson was a monster and top 5 in my book of all big men, he was that good. Dwight would be an even greater joke if bigs like Dream and Admiral played now. DPOY my ass. He wouldn't know what hit him. Dwight might be strong, but Admiral would've shown him what strength means.
And Hakeem never went to play power forward to get away from the banging and physicality like those types. Hakeem adapted and evolved to beat it.
The thing is that it's easier to try to copy MJ/Kobe/Curry (skill varies) than to have a big man try to copy Hakeem's moves. No other big man since Hakeem has been able to do what Hakeem constantly did, which was move as fluid as a Guard while playing the Forward/Center position at the height that he was. I do agree that because Hakeem wasn't as marketable as the other players mentioned he doesn't receive the recognition he deserves. Hakeem was able to do those ball fakes so well because opponents had to respect him in every move he did, mainly because he was able to score in so many different ways so often. You take away one move, he'll turn you around with his next one. I will say this though, if any bigs tried some of the moves with their off arms exactly the same way Hakeem did the referees of today would call flops more often than back in the day when rules were different. Lastly, Hakeem as a big man was able to shoot 70-80% from the FT line (which is very uncommon, looking at you Dwight/Drummond/Jordan) so you definitely wouldn't want to foul him consistently. All these rules about trying to get coaches to not foul purposely to stop the game is shameful, why are we rewarding players who can't shoot free throws? There are many methods and techniques out there, if you have to shoot underhand do it in order to help the team. Anyways I hope we can see a healthy Dmo out there next season (if we end up resigning him), he's probably the closest thing to big man that can shake and bake with the other bigs in the league left on this team.
That being said we lost Game 7 in double overtime to those guys. That game could have went the other way just as easy didn't Max or Kenny miss a 15ft jumper that would have won the game in the first overtime. George Karl was able to use his illegal 1-3-1 zone and get away with it against the Rockets and we could never figure out a way to beat it during those years.
