After seeing the Road to Rocketsville tournament and the upset brewing. I have to see if it's just casual fans or does everyone feel the same, even here. Who was the better player ?
Dream knows playoffs.... Seeing as he has the capability to notch his game up against the best of the best, I'll take the "playoff nightmare" till the day I die. Man, he is one for the books... That being said, Barkley is fun to watch... yada yada.. I miss watching bulked up professionals like Barkley that trully made early entry rookies get put in place. He sheds defenders like they are not even there. But my favorite memory is Barkley putting the nephlem (Shaq) in his place and slamming him on his back when Shaq got out of line. but memories and bias aside... Barkley is a better player now (insert conditioning here) than the Dream. Remember that Barkley was in line for the Rebound Title the year he retired off the injury.
I don't know why people are doing that poll, Barkley wasn't with the Rockets long enough to do a greatest Rocket ever. He had an effect, but having Barkley vs Dream now like having Barkley in his prime in Phoenix and throwing Hakeem from 4 years ago on that team. Obviously Barkley is the better player when you use that scenerio. I like Charles but Hakeem was the better player. But Barkley could create his shot better then Dream. Apple and oranges.
Road to Rocketsville will become the laughing stock of all the other team sites when Matt Bullard somehow wins it all. I have a feeling Hakeem will make a strong comeback against Barkley. B
In a one on one game, I would favor Barkley. Both players are unstopable in the post, but Barkley was the better rebounder and had more range on his shot. He was not blocked very often so he could probably neutralize the Dream's big advantage.
by benefit of the fact that, unless you were trying to take a pickle off his hamburger, barkley never in his whole career learned to play any defense. . . I think hakeem is the clear answer here. offensively, maybe they're a push [even though I don't think barkley was ever as unstoppable as hakeem was]. but defensively, how can it even be a competition?
Barkley's man on man defense was underrated, he only really struggled with team defense. Since the premise of the Road to Rocketville was one on one, team defense is irrelevent.
"In a one on one game, I would favor Barkley. Both players are unstopable in the post, but Barkley was the better rebounder and had more range on his shot. " Barkley wouldn't even be able to get his shot off against Hakeem. As for defense, Barkley could barely contend with Chucky Brown, much less someone like Hakeem. "Barkley's man on man defense was underrated" -Ludicrous. The man couldn't play defense, period. Never gave a damn about it. As for Barkley's career vs. Hakeem's career, there's no comparison really. Hakeem by a landslide.
People forget that Barkley was fast as hell, pretty much a fatter shorter Gasol as far as running the court goes. He also had great dribbling and passing skills. Not to mention that he averaged close to 2 blocks a game one year in Philly. He was one of the first PF's who were capable of going coast to coast after a rebound. If he weren't so big, he could have been a decent PG. Skill wise and athleticism-wise Barkley was better. However, Olajuwon was much taller, and was able to be more dominant. If Olajuwon were 6 ft 4, and 250, he wouldn't be half the player Barkley was. But Olajuwon is 6-10 or whatever and did what he did, so I'd give the slight edge to Olajuwon. If we had Barkley in his prime in Houston, there would be many more people who would vote Barkley.
Watch the Two championship videos and the Hakeem the Dream video. Hakeem stayed on too long so we have all forgotten how dominant Hakeem was. Hakeem was, is and always will be better than Barkley. The Hakeem video has a segment where they talk about Hakeem and U of H going to play Barkely and Auburn at home. Barkley talked all sorts of noise about how the first thing he was going to do was dunk on Hakeem. He tried four times, Hakeem had four blocks. Olajuwon vs. Barkley is a complete mismatch. Barkley was fast but remember Hakeem runnning down Strickland in the playoffs to block his shot after an errant pass? Or his sick block of KJ's breakaway dunk? Remeber 95 when Hakeem dismantled everyone - Shaq, Robinson, Malone, Barkley to lead us to a title? Don't belittle Dream's legacy bc he stayed on too long. His first 15 or so years - he was the MAN. If not for Sampson's injury and the drug probs of Lucas, Lloyd, etc. Hakeem would have some serious hardware.
Remember in '93 when Barkley ran over everyone on the way to the finals, eventually losing in 6 to the Jordan led Bulls, the team that was perfectly designed to beat the Barkley Suns? As a Houston fan you may not have seen much of the Round Mound from his early days, but even as far back as the '84 olympic trials, everyone thought Barkley was the best player out there, a trials that included Jordan, Perkins, et al. He had injury problems earlier than Hakeem, mostly due to his weight and the pounding he took in the post at 6'4", but in their primes, I would say that Barkley just had more weapons than Olajuwon, especially if travelling was called closely in the game.
There is absolutely no comparison between Hakeem and Barkley. Hakeem played too long AND SO DID BARKLEY. Sir Charles wasn't exactly a dominator when he retired. In their primes, Charles was no match to Hakeem. Hakeem had an all-around game. His offense was as stellar as his defense. Charles had a good offense, but his defense was a joke. Hakeem beats Charles here like Reagan beat Mondale in 1984.
"Remember in '93 when Barkley ran over everyone on the way to the finals, eventually losing in 6 to the Jordan led Bulls, the team that was perfectly designed to beat the Barkley Suns? " -How bout in 94 and 95 when Barkley had a PG on his side scoring 40 a night against the Rockets in the playoffs and still couldn't get past Hakeem, who was simply humilating the Suns and harassing Barkley into terrible shooting nights. "but in their primes, I would say that Barkley just had more weapons than Olajuwon, especially if travelling was called closely in the game. " -No offense but anyone who thinks Barkley had more offensive weapons than Olajuwon just doesn't know basketball. Hakeem had many more post moves than Barkley. The only area where Barkley was ever better than Hakeem was passing. Hakeem was LIGHT YEAR's better than Barkley defensively, exhibited much better shot selection (didn't shoot ridiculous low % 3's at critical junctures like the Round Mound), and most importantly was much more effective in the clutch. He also didn't alienate teammates like Barkley tended to do (remember how he single handedly drove Drexler to early retirement) -Incidentally, if you want to try to criticize Hakeem for travelling, it's only appropriate that you acknowledge Barkley was the originator of the "Dislodge" move, not Shaquille O'Neal. Sorry, but it's not really even close. Hakeem in his prime was way better than Barkley in his, especially when you consider defense (or lack thereof in Barkley's case).
It doesn't matter how many post moves he had, Barkley could not be stopped in the post. He also had much longer range on his jumper. That is what I mean by more weapons. He can handle, shoot, pass, post up. If there is an element of the offensive game, Chuck had it. Dream had a million post moves but I never wanted to see him shooting a 20 footer. As for '94 and '95, I think you meant Robert Horry frustrated Barkley and Dream humiliated West. Like the Bulls, the Rockets had a great defender to put on Charles and their best offensive players played away from him. The Suns did not have a dominant defender to play against Hakeem or Jordan, thus, no championships. To try to blame Sir Charles for not getting a ring is overlooking 11 other factors. As for Kevin Johnson, many people around here can tell you that a dominant big man trumps a dominant little man.
That's the difference between the two -- Hakeem could never be slowed by a single defender, while Barkley could be, especially in the clutch. I always remember wanting Barkley to have the ball in his hands in the clutch whenever the Rockets played Phoenix -- I always knew he'd screw it up, and he usually did.
