forgive me if i left out anyone. when thinking of players for this i found that a lot of great players never had a signiture move. so here are the guys i came up with. if you want to write anyone in vote for "other" and tell us who your vote would be for. i know we love hakeem and i expect him to win, but try to be objective
dreams dream shake was art and the most beautiful post move ive ever seen but no doubt the sky hook was nearly a gimmi... but dreams move was a masterpeice
i'm biased so i would say the Dream Shake. It's funny because defenders should know Hakeem would bring it out 3-4 times a game and he starts the shake off pretty much the same way, but *BOOM* they fall for it every time. I love Jordan's fadeaway as well. It's hard to just knock down a jumper with a defender on you much less doing so while fading away and hitting it on a consistent basis. I'd nominate Nick Van Exel's teardrop. That thing was literally automatic everytime he used it.
The dream shake is multiple moves, and it's different each time, so I didn't vote for that "move" though I believe it to be unguardable. I voted for MJ's fadeaway because it's one move that is impossible to defend. Even if MJ told you exactly when he's pulling off his fadeaway, you still can't stop him.
Didn't MJ admit to working on his fadeaway because of the amount of success he saw in Hakeem's dream shake?
I would have to say overall the "Dream Shake" because of the incredible degree of difficulty and Hakeem made it look all too easy. So many options created with that move as well. He was so clutch with that move especially in the playoffs. Second, Kareem's sky hook. If he got if off, the only thing you could hope for is that he would miss it and that did not happen much as evidence by his career FG% better than 55%. Honorable mention to Gervin's "finger roll." It looked stoppable and blockable but rarely ever was stopped or blocked. George was silky smooth with that move.
So many homers here! Anyway I think "Dream Shake" is not a move, it's a great skill. It's a combination of several moves. The shake took too much effort to score just 2 points. Tim Hardaway's cross over is even worse in this compartment because after you successfully crossover your man, you are still not yet in a shooting/scoring position. Someone else could still be between you and the basket. Whereas the sky-hook or fade-away are more efficient (energy saving). One action and then the ball is off towards the rim. MJ or Kareem could do 20 good fade-aways or sky-hooks per game easily. But the same can't be said of Hakeem's shake. Btw, I'd say Shaq has a move that is worth mentioning as one of the best go-to moves of all time. It's the Shaq dunk. When he's in a possition to dunk, he can't be stopped. He WILL dunk it.
Yeah what about these: 1) Reggie Miller's leg-way-out 3 pointer. Very effective and rewarding move. Rather high percentage of scoring. If not, he'd also have a good chance of drawing foul by kicking the nearest defender. So the move basically means 4 possible results: 0 points, or 3 points, or 4 point play and one opponent foul or, 3 FTs and one opponent foul. Pretty effective move. 2) Dirk Nowitzki driving towards the defender under the basket and flops. 2 FTs there plus one opponent foul. And it breaks the opponent's moral and confidence because he gets penalized for something he did not do.
Hakeem's jump hook should be in there. It was arguably more effective than the dream shake. Also, you can add Karl Malone's drive to the basket/ kick to the nuts combo.
That's prolly the one move that works better on All-Stars than on average players. The defensive variant works just as well:
I still think the sky hook is the most famous go to move of all time and virtually unstoppable. Though I remember Ralph Sampson blocking one. I think it made Sports Illustrated with the caption "How does it feel to be 7'2" and a little too short". I've searched for a copy of the picture/ad but could never find it.
i agree. as Shaq said...most players have 3-4 moves. Dream had 3-4 moves off each of his 3-4 moves. The footwork for a big man was just amazing. And...you couldn't stop it. At his prime, Hakeem was absolutely unstoppable.
i dont know if its really a go to move and im not a jazz fan at all but malone and stockton had the best pick'n'roll ever.... i think
The Dream Shake wasn't one move. It was a half-dozen great moves that Hakeem would use exactly correctly. Reggie Miller's jabstep was the most effective "go-to" move that I've seen. He made world-class defenders look like idiots night-in and night-out.
