the part that pays attention to all-time stats, that is. if hakeem plays this season he could reach the following milestones: 5th total points- he only needs 463 to pass elvin hayes and moses malone. if he plays only 60 games he would only have to average 7 PPG. 5th total steals- he needs only 45 to pass clyde drexler. with 60 games thats only 0.75 SPG. 10 RPG- he only needs 21 to pass wes unseld. i dont want to see im get unjured anymore. i tihnk it is time for him to call it quits, but it would just be so cool! maybe if he was in the top 5 in points, steals (espetially for a center), #1 in blocks, 10th in rebounds, he might get more respect as one of the top centers ever. i hate seeing lists like: 1. wilt 2. russell 3. kareem 4. shaq 5. W. reed 6. D. robinson 7. ewing 8. mouning 9. collier 10. dream
I agree that it would be great for Hakeem to have those milestones and get the respect as one of the top 3 centers who ever lived that he deserves. However, a part of me wishes Hakeem had retired a few years ago. It definitely seemed that he had quite a bit of gas left in the tank if he hadn't gotten injured. But, now it seems that Hakeem is really just fading away, and certainly is not going out on top of his game. I also think his retirement is somewhat anticlimatic for another major reason--the fact that he left Houston. I don't want to open a debate over who the blame lies with regarding Hakeem's departure, but I do think the retirement would be regarded as a much more significant event if he was in a Rocket's uniform. I love Hakeem; I was at the UofH games as a toddler, and I grew up with the common feeling of goosebumps as Hakeem tooled opponent after opponent with the hook and dream shake. I think he will be remembered as the most agile center with the best moves ever, but I still worry that the circumstances surrounding his retirement will taint his exit that should have been one fit for the incredible player dream is.
Smoothie, let go that part which is preventing you to let Akeem go. He was great.......greatest Rocket yet. But we would have had only a beautiful and perfect image of him, if he retired last year. Fegan sucked upto him, and our Dream had a nitemarish end. I rather have Dream stayed on in our hearts as that perfect player than being the stat leader in many categories. The only statistics that matter to me are the two rings. And for that I say thank you, Dream.
I think it would have been ideal for him to retire at the same time Charles did. It was obvious after Chuck went down for the season, that our window of opportunity to win was over and that Hakeem had nothing left to accomplish.
