[Fran Blineburry] Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing

Well, he has to guard someone on the court.

My problem with Yao (in this regard) is that he should be punishing these players so bad on offense that they have to put a bigger man in the game. Teams play PF's as C's way too often in this league for Yao to keep getting killed the way he does.

 

lol Stockton did something Nash never will do. Play defense. Giving MVP to Nash was a joke. The Nba just wanted a feel good story giving it to the little guy. They were probably rewatching the movie "Rudy" while making the decision.

 

Yao's my man, he recognized a glimpse of greatness. Hakeem 93 - 96 would give Yao 60 .

 

I'm so glad Stockton retired. I speak for all Rocket fans who saw that guy play.

 

Dirtiest duo in the league!

 

There is no comparison between The Dream and Jefferson when it comes to career achievement but based on one game and what AJ has done this season, especially against us, I can certainly see a comparison based on ability being somewhat valid. The quickness, footwork, explosiveness, shooting touch and rebounding effort are all reminiscent of Dream. Of course AJ is no where near Dream on the defensive side. But Da New Kid is impressive. I'd pick him over Stoudemire and Boozer right now.

But just because he has destroyed Yao every time, I wouldn't make the assumption that Dream would have done the same. The point has already been made that Dream had problems with the behemoths of his day - Eaton and Sabonis in particular. Also, there are subtle differences between AJ's and Dream's games that I think make AJ more effective against a player like Yao. Specifically, AJ faces up well whereas Dream was more comfortable with his back to the basket. Players who can face up and hit the jumper or drive give Yao fits (Exhibit A - Boozer). Players who try posting up Yao almost always fail (Exhibit A - Dwight Howard). In fact the only guy I can think of who has had some success posting up Yao is Shaq. Call me crazy, but I think Yao vs. Dream is a more even match than you'd think.

 

Ok crazy

the only time the score would be even would be zero zero at the start.

Dream could face up and post up with the best of them..Jefferson is a poor man's poor man's Olajuwon.

 

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Well, if the rules were the same as back then, the fronting defense on Yao would be erased because guys would be called for illegal defense every time they left their man to help backside on yao before he had possession of the ball. I don't think Yao is as good as hakeem, but yao would feast on the rules from back in the day too.

 

I get it. Dream was special. But just like the old boxing saying goes "styles make fights"; the same applies to basketball. DHoward can dominate the league but Yao owns him because Howard can't overpower Yao. Likewise, Jefferson has Yao's number. Dream had everyone's number except for Eaton. How do you explain that?

 

I guess you've never watched the game with 2 refs right? Do you know the murder that used to go on in the post.

Tinman, que the youngster up on the 94 finals against the knicks.

 

I guess if call that trouble..

http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=olajuha01&p2=eatonma01

Hakeem Olajuwon
Pts 23.3
Rebounds 12.3
Block Shots 4.0

Mark Eaton
Pts 5.5
Rebounds 7.3
Block Shots 3.3

The most Mark Eaton scored on Dream was 15 points.
I don't remember Eaton dropping 36 points and 22 boards like Jefferson did on Yao.

 

If Yao was with that 94 team against the Knicks,

they'd accuse New York City of human rights abuse because of what would happen to Yao by Mason, Ewing, Oakley .

Pat Riley would be banned from Asia.

 

The Mark Eaton comparison is relevant to how Dream's O would do against Yao's D. Eaton's O numbers are completely irrelevant because Yao is 10X the offensive player that Eaton was.

Dream's numbers are better than I thought they would be face-to-face against Eaton (so nice find) but a telling stat is the 47% fg pct which is significantly lower than his career shooting pct of 51%.

 

Murder still goes on in the post young one. The thing that is different is the handchecking and flagrant fouls being more scrutinized.

 

Whoa whoa hold on here. Eaton gave Dream some trouble in that instead of Hakeem scoring 30, he'd score 26.

 

OK you are crazy.

Al Jefferson is not even close to Hakeem Olajuwon. The quickness, footwork, explosiveness, etc. that you credit AJ with is not even close to Hakeem's explosiveness, footwork, or quickness. To even be compared to Al Jefferson just shows how underrated Hakeem was in his career.

Hakeem's "trouble" with big centers is overblown. He has ALWAYS found a way to dominate those guys. Eaton gave Hakeem a little trouble only because he was too big and lumbering to fall for fakes, but Hakeem always figured Eaton out... always. Against Sabonis, Hakeem was already old and getting past his prime by the time Sabonis made it to the league.

Look, Yao is great. We all LOVE Yao, and we are lucky to have him on the Rockets. But, he's nowhere near Hakeem... and he never will be.

 

I think that a lot of time will pass until people see how great was Hakeem Olajuwon as a player and person.

To be honest I haven't watched too much games because I didn't understood the greatness back then but those are the moments Rockets fans will always remember.

Always remember and put before everything the Clutchcity and two titles that were brought on Hakeem's back.

 

I didn't think you could get any dumber tinman but you just proved me wrong.

 

Us 1999ers have to watch these newbies, they don't know what they are doing half the time!