Kinda surprised he didn't mention Jabber. Early in (H)Akeem's carrer, Jabber took him to school a few times. I think Olajuwon should be rated ahead of Shaq, and WAY ahead of Ewing and Robinson.
My god, the 90's was a gold mine of talent at the center position compared to the 2000's. When Ewing, Robinson, and Mutumbo are your second tier centers and Rik Smits and Vlade Divac are your third tier, that's amazing. Even Kukoc and Grant were decent at the center. Who are the good centers to start this century off? 1) Shaq 2) Yao 3) Ben Wallace? That's it.
People who are ignorant say Jordan is overrated. Lets be fair. He is the only other player I have seen that dominated on both ends of the floor. Besides Dream, he is the best I have ever seen. To say that he is overrated is being SUPER biased. Anyways, here is the link to the interview if you want to hear it: http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/audiochoose?id=2093209
Absolutely! Wilt was an Olympic caliber track star. I know he was the NCAA champion in a couple of events at Kansas and the NCAA Record Holder in the broad jump which allowed him to stand and dunk his free throws without running. Wilt is why you have to release the basketball and can't cross the free throw line until the ball hits the rim. Let's drop the Shaq is a better athlete than Wilt. Shaq was the NCAA champion at breaking backboards by hanging on them with his 300 pounds and that was about it,
this is ROCKETS fan side RIght?! So being Biased is a given. Plus, it may also sound biased but, Jordan benefited by having three refs calling fouls for him anytime he missed a shot, or any one got closer than two feet to him. Not to mention the fact that the guy was the only one allowed to both palm the ball and walk at the same time anytime he did a fake or a cross over, and not once in his carrer he got called for it. And his last memory in the championships, he palms the ball, pushes Brian Russel, and walks before hitting the winning shot. That was his career and the leage's bias to him summarized in two seconds. Even SHaq gets to drop the shoulder and push off people almost on every shot. i truelly believe if the league had officiated Jordan the way they did eveyone else, hell even like other superstars, he would be known as another Great player, ala Drexler. Unfortunately the league needed to make a hero out of him, so Nike and the big corporations can make their money, and the league could survive the post Magic and Bird era. Hakeem never had that respect; in the low post sometimes triple teamed, and he would get one out of every five foul called(review any old George Call coached playoff game or any game Joey Crawford officiated Hakeem). If you officiate him like Jordan, or even Shaq, hell even RObinson, he would have better Scoring average (free throws) an maybe more Rings. they even toolk away his firt quadruple double away from him two nights before he did his officially recorded one. can you imagine that ever happening to his Airness? and anyone who says there was no bias against Hakeem and the Rockets has to be reminded that the only Championship team that did not get a commremorative issue of Sports Illeustarted (hard cover) for their championship seasons is the Rockets.
from vibe: Yeah Jabbar was still pretty much unguardable when Dream came into the league. Kareem is the second most unappreciated center in history behind Dream. But of course I remember more vividly the absolute spankings Moses dished out to Dream in the first couple of years. Moses was so nasty he could play anyone and usually beat them.
And his last memory in the championships, he palms the ball, pushes Brian Russel, and walks before hitting the winning shot. That was his career and the leage's bias to him summarized in two seconds. Even SHaq gets to drop the shoulder and push off people almost on every shot. i truelly believe if the league had officiated Jordan the way they did eveyone else, hell even like other superstars, he would be known as another Great player, ala Drexler. Unfortunately the league needed to make a hero out of him, so Nike and the big corporations can make their money, and the league could survive the post Magic and Bird era. If only Hakeem were American - with a nice American name - prefferably less than three syllables in his surname - he might get some respect from the media. I remember watching sportscenter once and they were showing bulls highlights from a game where kukoc totally bailed them out to carry them to victory - but take one guess as to who got all the highlight footage? and the credit for leading the bulls to victory? If i were jazz fan, (and i'm not - freakin wierdo's) i'd still be steaming over that o-foul. Man i'm bitter - give dream some props, please!!
