Among the many words written about the wonderful DJ, there was this gem: "Among the 65 players in NBA history who played at least 800 games in the regular season and 15 games in the Finals, only two had a larger increase in their Finals ppg average over their regular-season mark than Johnson's 4.2: Hakeem Olajuwon, who was plus 5.7 (21.8 to 27.5), and James Worthy, who was plus 4.6 (17.6 to 22.2)." http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime
Of course, I know how great Hakeem was, but I was too young to REALLY know. I really gotta get me those Clutch City videos. Then I'll be able to compare Clutch City I to Clutch City II ('07).
I suggest "Hakeem the Dream" video. You can probably only find it on VHS but I have it and have to watch it a couple times a year for good luck. Watching it will give you a good idea of how much a monster Hakeem was and what you like to see out of Yao.
Hakeem had talent...a lot of it, but talent can only take you so far. Steve Francis is as talented as anybody who ever played. But Hakeem made shots from his heart. His will to win was unbelievable.
Thanks for the suggestion. Then again, all I really need to see is the famous abusing of D-Rob on that play in the '95 WCF. Just put that on infinite repeat; it just about sums up all his greatness.
You really were too young to remeber... technically that'd be Clutch City III that you're comparing to I & II.
Haha yeah, I thought about that. I was grouping I and II as the first Rockets 2-peat/dynasty as the first Clutch City, and the forthcoming dynasty as the next. Either way, CLUTCH CITY REAL SOON, WOOO!!
no, steve francis did not have as much talent as anybody who ever played. don't confuse being an athlete with talent.
this seems as good a time as any to mention this hakeem stat i just got off basketballreference.com. they have a badass boxscores search feature now that lets you search all of the boxscores they've got in their system (from 86-87 on) for the whole league, a given franchise, or even an individual. and you can search for all the times a certain stat or group of stats has been eclipsed (like how many times someone has scored 55 points since 86, or how many times shaq has taken 15 fta in a game, or how many times anyone has had 30/20/5, etc). anyway, after looking through his game logs, i decided to search the number of times hakeem didn't record a block in a game. from 86-87 through 94-95, a span of 9 seasons, he only failed to record a block 24 times! and that wasn't even the most amazing part. from march 18, 1990 to january 5, 1994, a span of almost 4 years, encompassing 254 games, he only failed to record a block 3 times! only 3 freakin' times in almost 4 years and 254 games did he have 0 blocks in a game. that's just incredible consistency and talent.
WOW, that's an actual city? I never even heard of it. I would love to live in Clutch City, Texas. Best city name ever!
