Hakeem would have been able to contain the Spurs. All those easy buckets that Ginobili and Parker get would have been pretty hard to get in Hakeem's house. Seriously, the reason those buttholes are so dam successful are because of the softer rules against perimeter players. They play in the 90's era, and they'd definitely would have had a hard time scoring the way they do. All that flopping they do, someone would of sticked Ginobili in the face because of it. Hakeem was unstoppable in his prime and he was an awesome defensive player. Duncan wouldn't have had such an easy series either. I'm not saying Duncan couldn't contain Hakeem, but all the spin moves and fakes Hakeem did would have confused Duncan in this time considering he's never seen a big man be so agile in the post in his career.
Let's see....Spurs have used former Rockets to win their rings. Clyde is better then Genobli. Cassell could hold his own on Parker. Oh, by the way - we had the younger Robert Horry. I'll give you parker though, he's pretty awesome. All in all though, the Rockets had great defense and better role players. Spurs are very thin after their big three. And Hakeem is unstoppable in the playoffs
Young Hakeem was like a pre-injury Amare with better defense. we all know how Amare scorched TD in the playoff? Young Hakeem may be less skilled than young Duncan but so what he would just jump over TD like Amare did and match TD's offensive output easily.
With all due respect to all players mentioned, the excellence and professionalism of the San Antonio front office is really what has made Duncan the champion he is. Duncan is an excellent player, but both he and San Antonio lucked out in ending up with each other, If Boston were to draft him they would have been too inept to build a contender around him and we'd be looking at another Garnett, maybe Duncan would opt out or demand a trade though, we'll never know. So forget the championships, forget the teams and look at the players and what they can do. We all know that Hakeem is the much superior defender, he ranks seventh on the all time steals list and first all time in blocks, he averaged a ridiculous 14 rebounds and 5 blocks in a single season, numbers Duncan hasn't even sniffed. Stats aside, he has defended and beaten the best, from Kareem and Parish to Ewing and Shaq. We can also agree that while both players are sound fundamentally, Hakeem's ability to create off the dribble, create for his teammates and hit consistently from 18-20ft give him an obvious edge on the offensive end. It just isn't really comparable, Hakeem is better in every way.
how many championships would duncan have won if ginobili and parker went down to career ending issues like drugs and injuries? you do remember hakeem lost his finals team due to those factors, right? sorry but duncan is not better than hakeem. he is a great player but hakeem was just better...offensively and defensively. hakeem was better than duncan as a rookie/young player as well. remember he led them to the finals in his second year? or did you forget that?
its hard to trust derrick chevious and buck johnson. and over -the-hill purvis short and cedric cornbread maxwell. Allen leavell and Dirk Minnefield. Steve Harris anyone? Don't believe the hype about hakeem and teamates. when he had good teamates he went to the Finals in his second year and lost to one of the greatest teams after after beating one of them.
Does Diet Dr. Pepper really taste as good as regular Dr. Pepper? Tim Duncan is diet Dr. Pepper. He has half the carbs of dream, and leaves you with a disgusting aftertaste.
Hmm, so you completely dismiss Duncan coming to a team with Robinson on it (former MVP) and other veteran players (AJ, Elliott, Elie)? Hakeem also came to a team with a dominant big man (ya know, the ORIGINAL twin towers) and went to the Finals in his 2nd season, just like Duncan. Unfortunately he had to face the 80's Celtics and not the 99 Knicks. Unfortunately Sampson got hurt and the Rockets front office didn't surround him with quality talent until late in his career (i.e. drafting Parker and Manu). Your argument would be more valid if Hakeem didn't have immediate success (Finals) in his 2nd season when he had help. He didn't get worse from 87-93, he just didn't have the stable talent that Duncan has been blessed with. Even Tim is on record of recognizing this.
duncan is the greatest pf of all time and it should just be left at that. i'm embarrased for the people who really think duncan is the better player. it's shocking. it's also amazing the amount of people who think it took hakeem 10 years to be good. i think thats what taints his national legacy a little. he was amazing from the very beginning. duncan is the beneficiary of a lot of other factors that give him two more rings than hakeem, same reason that russell has 11 rings and wilt has 2.
why are we arguing over this? both are 2 of the VERY best to ever played the game. both are legends. when you're at that "top" level of the very best, its hard to distinguish who's better. they never played against one another so we don't know that. let them be where they're at eventually - 2 of the top 10-15 players to play the game
If they played one on one Hakeem would kill Timmy everyday of the week. Hakeem was a much more complete offensive and defensive player if we compare primes. Timmy could not defend Akeem or Hakeem. I believe if they played today one on one with Hakeem at 40+ years old could still score at will on Tim and I am a Tim Duncan fan.
You can apologize for Hakeem, but there is one problem, it wasn't me that made that point, it was Rudy T who said Hakeem didn't trust his teammates in his book "A Rocket at Heart" and that kept Hakeem from being a champion until he adjusted his attitude. In Rudy's book, Rudy said Hakeem had this belief that since he could beat the double team 50% of the time and score, why pass the ball off to someone who would hit only 40% of his shots? Duncan's better fundamentals in passing I believe is the X factor that makes him better because Duncan makes his teammates better than Hakeem was able to due to his ball hogging. Duncan's passing I believe was also instrumental in the development of Ginobli and Parker along with the very team oriented culture of the Spurs. Is is coincidence that once Rudy coached Hakeem to trust his teammates and pass, the Rockets finally developed Horry, Cassell and Elie? We finally became a good inside out team after Hakeem "Got it".
this doesn't explain hakeem's run to the finals in just his second season, including the upset of a dynasty. he just had terrible teammates for a good chuck of his middle career. if sampson had stayed healthy and there was no freaking cocaine, hakeem would be talked about like jordan. we won championships in elie and horry's second year here and cassell's rookie season. "finally" developing them didn't really take very long. it took hakeem some years to reach his absolute pinnacle but the rockets didn't suck for so long because of him. as someone else pointed out, some of his teammates were just hard to trust.
You lost all credability on that post and if your a Duncan fan, your one his most disloyal fans to say a 40 year old could score on him
i, for one, am open to the idea that duncan is as good as hakeem. duncan is great. no matter how you look at it. he's probably had a little more help than hakeem did in his career, hence the rings... but let's be honest... we're splitting hairs. these guys are both THAT good.
