Dennis Rodman talks about Robinson and Hakeem - book

I'm surprised how many people take Rodman's word for it. The guy is honest lately, but during the time of writing he was so full of himself and to give himself this much credit when he was clearly a huge distraction and since he does not own up to that part I doubt it all went down like this. Even if it did, this does nothing to take away from the Admiral, at all. At least the guy knew his limitations and spoke up about not being ready for the challenge. A lot of guys would just for their ego's sake not admit it, try to contain Dream 1-on-1 and not even give the team a chance to come up with something else. If they expected him to take Dream and he couldn't and just keep that to himself, that would've done even more damage maybe.

 

Rodman would've tried to get in Dream's head but it would've backfired because Dream never got rattled. It may have been worse with Rodman guarding him.

 

Rodman says what everyone already knows, that Hakeem destroyed Robinson in that series. But the rest of this commentary is pretty self-serving, considering he admits the coach asked him to guard Dream and he refused. All this first half, second half stuff is nonsense. He was given an opportunity to guard Dream and he refused.

Rodman was a great player in many ways, but he saw himself as a specialist, apart from the team, who could choose to only do the things he did well, and ignore all the rest. It is easy to snipe at teammates carrying a heavy load, when you pick and choose what aspects of the game to be involved in. Then, when things go bad you say "that team sucked, it wasn't my fault, I chose not to be involved."

 

Hakeem Olajuwon was good

 

That Warriors team led by JRich, Baron Davis, and Captain Jack did a wonderful job taking Dirk's balls that one year.

 

Also for the ones misinterpreting what Rodman said, no he didn't say he could have guard/shut down Dream. He was pointing out the errors of the Spurs (Hill/Robinson) ways in game planning against Houston. What he said was right though and it wasn't hard to see: you let Dream do whatever he wanted but make sure you don't give the other 4 players room to kill you from the outside.

If you had Rodman go down as a help defender and double Olajuwon, thereby leaving Horry open, you know Dream would have made the correct pass and the Rockets would have killed them like how it all played out in games 5 and 6.

 

Robinson was my favorite player outside of the Rockets and he was great. 24, 12, and 3 blocks a game during his early playoff appearances. He was elite on and off the court.

 

This is awesome. I skimmed over it, but I will try to read it all when I have some more time.

 

Opposing position (5) not team.

 

The big Mermaid maybe..

 

Hakeem is the best Rockets center of all time!

 

Excellent points. In addition, he gives short shrift to his antics and whether they were a distraction; in the playoffs, everything is magnified, and he certainly did things that made the media not only pay attention but home in on him. Granted, those spurs were a team of professionals, but I doubt if they enjoyed the circus that followed rodman. Also, I'm sure Robinson and Hill would have different interpretations of what happened.

 

Hahahaha
Well done

 

Bro, Tim Duncan came along way later. Robinson is a hall of famer with multiple all-star appearances, a league MVP and rings.

The takeaway from this isn't about how bad David Robinson was, he was a franchise player on a championship team. The takeaway is what a badass Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon was in comparison.

Robinson was a beast. He was a stronger better version of Dwight Howard with a mid range game and could hit free throws. Watching Hakeem live was, to me, like a ballet. Smooth, complex but strong. It's hard to compare him to a current NBA player.

 

Yeah David Robinson was a great player. I'm surprised to see someone try to say he wasn't.

The takeaway from this to ME is that Dennis Rodman says he wasn't a distraction and gave everything to the team despite fans claiming otherwise and then admits to refusing to do what the coach asked him to on multiple occasions despite it hurting the team.

 

It couldn't have been worse lol.

 

As one who watched every second of that series, including the second game in a NYC bar where Knicks fans started cheering for Dream after the first quarter, Rodman is full of it. He may have been the best overall defender and he may have been physical with folks his own size or smaller, but when he tried guarding Dream it was not close. You could see him getting upset as Dream torched him. Dream got in his head. Personally, I think it was because Rodman was losing his rep as defensive genius rather than the game.

And that part about not playing Dream until the second half is BS. Dream was our best defensive player and guarded Robinson and Shaquille and others all game. Rodman has a small point when he says you don't go all out in the first half, but the way he phrases it shows he had and always will have a role player mentality. When Dream guarded Shaq, he knew he had to stay on the floor and so Shaq got stuff earlier in the game easier than late in the game. It's up to Rodman to make that adjustment, pick your spots, and stay on the floor. The Spurs only asked him to be the second best player on the team and he could not hack it. He then went to the Bulls where he could be more comfortable being a role player doing only what he wanted to do.

And come on. Taking your shoe's off and intentionally being an ******* on national TV? He absolutely was a distraction.

He never led a team and while he had talent, he never maximized it. Hilarious that people in this thread are calling out Robinson in a way that buys into Rodman's image of himself. If Dream had only focused on D and rebounding and didn't have to expend much energy on O, he would have put up rebounding numbers like Rodman did. Same with Barkley and a number of others. It is criminal Rodman is in the HOF and I'm disgusted by the cult of Rodman that kicked into high gear after he joined the Bulls.

 

Past all the antics, Rodman was really one of the best defenders of all time. So when this guy is getting frustrated, years past, talking about that playoff series... It makes me real proud of Hakeem and what he brought to the city. I'm proud of Rodman as well, he can really really play, and his fierce competitiveness and tenacity is just overwhelming.

 

Rodman is making himself look bad


Hakeem destroyed everyone over those years, not just Robinson