Can Older Folks Educate Us On The Time Hakeem Demanded a Trade?

Pretty much this. A lot of 99ers want harden gone for selfish reasons. Harden in just 7 seasons is already creeping up on Hakeem in total vorp and win shares. Outside of blocks and rebounds, MAYBE steals harden could pass a lot of hakeems marks if he finished his tenure in Houston.

I had no idea Hakeem and the rockets went through a fight like that

 

It was about a contract extension

 

He won cause the General manager of the previous regime fired Don Chaney , drafted Robert Horry and Sam Cassell and signed Mario Elie

 

Dream was faking the injury by most accounts and the fans were ready to move on because Dream was out of control emotionally. He didn't seem to have the team first attitude needed to succeed. There are some similarities.

Dream found a higher power but unless Harden has some life changing event I don't see him finding inner peace and realizing what he has in Houston could be special.

 

The same fans who are hating on Harden now would be just as unforgiving against Dream back then, probably moreso.

 

Moreso.

Fans get butt hurt for the stupidest reasons.

 

Man Akeem would whip your ass if you weren’t careful early in his career. He was mean and I liked it!

 

I am not attacking Harden at all. Not sure why you are saying I dislike Harden even. That's weird.

My point is that its a very different situation. Hakeem was insulted by an accusation he was faking an injury. Harden after getting the organization to do everything he wanted, decided the organization can't help him win a ring.

I think Harden is a great player - I personally hope he stays. But he's not perfect. The guy isn't known for his ability to close in the playoffs. The guy isn't known for moving off ball for the past few years. He isn't known as setting an example that other stars he has played with seem to respect.

So at some point, the question is, how much of Harden's failure is the organizations vs his own?

I think he has a decent situation in front of him worthy of consideration. yet he doesn't seem to want to look. That to me is irrational by Harden. The guy says he wants a ring, yet doesn't seem to want to acknowledge that there is potential here in Houston still. This team now is better than last year.

 

What a silly statement, Harden is not perfect.

Even MJ the GOAT was not perfect.

Again, our discussion was which player was behaving less rational.

I rebutted your conclusion which was as far from rational you could get.

 

i was born in 2008 and who is this?

 

Young people, IF you allowed us to play ball “the old school” way, I would run a squad of players from my generation up against any new school team you put out there and I bet you get crushed.

I don’t care if you run Luka/Durant/Bron/Giannis/Davis

A Jordan led squad would crush your team. (FYI, Kobe is and old school player too!)

We would put hands on you and beat the crap outta Luka and Durant.

 

I can give some background that might explain why Hakeem felt the way he did about Charlie Thomas and why he didn’t trust him. As most know, Moses Malone took Olajuwon under his wing and truly mentored him, and I don’t think Hakeem would have been the player he turned out to be without Moses and the very hard lessons he gave Olajuwon on the courts of the Fonde Recreation Center. That’s them going at it below:



Charlie Thomas had purchased the Rockets from the Maloof’s in 1982. Moses had won back to back MVP’s and taken Houston to the Finals when Thomas became the owner, so what was the first thing Thomas did? Made what’s considered one of the worst trades in NBA history, dealing Malone to Philadelphia because he didn’t want to pay the league’s greatest center $2 million a year.

The Sixers were happy to and won a title for their trouble. Dream and Moses were great friends and Hakeem knew all about it. This is the same Charlie Thomas who had that “famous” chat with him on the jet to Japan. The same Charlie Thomas who “wasted” a large chunk of Dream’s career because he didn’t surround him with the players the Rockets, and Olajuwon, needed to get to the Finals and have a shot at a championship.

Thomas managed to not make the same mistake again and I believe Olajuwon got a new contract the next year, likely promised on that jet. I wasn’t a fan of Charlie Thomas and neither was the Dream. As you know, @rimrocker, the guy was a cheapskate. We were lucky he sold the team to Alexander. While far from the perfect owner, he was a damn sight better than Charlie Thomas and certainly better than the new cheap owner we have today.

 

BIG PROPS TO @Deckard . He has laid it out perfectly.

 

I disagree that you rebutted anything. But carry on.

 

Everyone can read for themselves and decide the truth of it.

Denial and disinformation won't get you a 2nd term.

LOL

 

Harden is "creeping up on Hakeem"???

GTFO with this BS.

I don't see any rings on Harden's fingers.

 

It took Dream 10 years to bring a title to Houston. At the end of year 8 he was not unlike Harden in that he had nothing but failure to show for his greatness and was teetering on the brink of having a dishonorable end to his career in Houston and if some of today's fans had their way, that would have probably come to pass.

 

More similarities...

Both players got to the finals early in their careers with a young team and came up short. Both teams were supposedly going to dominate the future but was broken up later

 

Denial and disinformation? Everything I posted is fact. Hakeem was treated like crap being accused of faking an injury - if you don't think that's a big deal you are crazy. Any legit player would ask for a trade today if that accusation is made. Yet you call that irrational. Lol, you are the one that is in denial bud.

 

LOL

Again you miss the point or.purposefully moving the goal posts, what we were debating was which player response was more rational.

This was YOUR criteria to differentiate the worthiness of each player, remember?