Maybe i should clear this up. Hakeem is probably the most complete center in the to ever play in the nba. Was Dream ever as dominant offensively as Wilt or Kareem?Probably not. Is he as dominant defensively as the offensively challenged Russell? Probably not. What made Hakeem so great was his excellence in rebounding,shot blocking,stealing and scoring. Just from my own personal opinion and from watching them both, i think if its draft day and Hakeem is on the board and Shaq is also, i think I'll take Shaq. I mean the guy has a career scoring avg 27ppg and he's just now entering his prime. If you want to look through a smaller scope, just take Dreams best season vs Shaq's. I think after a couple of more rings, Shaq will be regarded as a better center than Deam.
If you are talking about the '95 Finals, Hakeem was 32 years old at that time. Not exactly what I call young.
Look, there was a hugedifference in Hakeeem's quality of play between the end of his freshman and end of his sophomore years in college. That 19-21 year span actually covers that range. To be blunt, most people would have picked Joe Kleine (remember him? C from Arkansas, and top dog in the SEC?) over Hakeem after the end of Hakeem's first season. At the end of Hakeem's sophomore season, it was pretty clear he was becoming something special. He was dominant in the playoffs that year, especially when his jumper started falling. Not to sound crazy, but you could literally see him improving every game through the NCAA playoffs his sophomore year. dave.
Heres WHy I hate visiting this site sometimes. You people here praise Hakeem/Yao like GOD ALMIGHTY. In their respective PRIME years. EVERYBODY in this feaken planet would take a prime SHAQ over a prime Hakeem. Its not even a debate. SHAQ IS FREAK OF A NATURE comapred to ur Moses Malone, Hakeem, Ewing, Mourning...etc SO, lets stop comparing Hakeem to Super Gods of BASketball ( Shaq, Kareem, and WIlt ). Hakeem is nothing more than a poor man's Russell.
There's too many circumstances such as competitiveness of the era, teammates, etc., to make a true judgement about who was "the best." The things we do know about Hakeem is he was the most skilled, graceful, and complete center of all-time. Also, we know he was the only center to carry a team to an NBA championship where he was the team's only hall-of-famer. But was he the most dominant...probably not.
Poor man's Russell? How do you figure? Hakeem could do things that Russell didn't even know existed back in his day. You're comparison makes absoultely no sense.
I agree with ya on that. I was looking at his stats earlier and found two interesting years to compare: 89-90 - 24.3 pts, 14 rebs, 2.9 assists, 2.12 steals and 4.59 blocks (26 years old) 93-94 - 27.3 pts, 11.9 rebs, 3.6 assists, 1.6 steals and 3.71 blocks (30 years old) I would call the 93-94 his best overall season, mainly, because he won the title and MVP. But damn its hard to argue against that 89-90 season.
I admit I didnt make a good comparision. Hakeem has moves no one else had....BUT My POint is that Russell is a complete player. It Doesnt matter who had the dream shake. GREAT players make other players better. Like JORDAN. Russell won an amazing 11 NBA championships with Boston Celtics in 13 seasons....you think he did this by acident?
are you kidden me!!!! Dream is known as one of the 10 best players of all time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How about reversing your statment... Dream could score, rebound, assist, steal, block(all time block leader)!!!!!!!! Shaq is just one minded... Back it up, back it up, back it up, jump over his man and dunk...
Shaq's offense is WAY WAY underrrated. We all know that. The people of ESPN, Bill Walton and Pee-Wee Herman knows this. Dream could score, rebound, assist, steal, block(all time block leader)!!!!!!!! [/QUOTE] What? Shaq cant score??? Shaq cant rebound??? Shaq doesnt have any assists??? ANd he cant BLOCK??? Shaq is just one minded... Back it up, back it up, back it up, jump over his man and dunk... [/QUOTE] Doesnt matter how the ball GOES in the basket. A FIELD goal is a FIELD goal. IT doesnt matter if he bounces the ball off of his head.
I thought Russell was offensively challenged. That's not so complete. That said, I haven't heard anyone say that Hakeem was better than Russell. Also, I believe Hakeem did make his teammates better, unless you think kenny smith and vernon maxwell were the heart of the team.
Russell wasnt a scoring machine. However I dont think he wasnt Offensively challenged cause he averaged 15 points per game. Offensively challenged is someone like Ben Wallace. Like Big Ben, Russells exels on the defensive end. He was a complete player in mind.....could defend..can score..can rebound...and has/had a high basketball IQ.
True, but how many hall-of-famers did Russell play with? I believe at one time there was actually five on the same team. This isn't a negative towards Russell, just a fact. He never proved he could carry a team of non hall-of-famers to a championship, much less non all-stars. Kind of like Shaq never proved he could win a championship without Kobe.
Lionheart, A field goal is a field goal but diversity in how those field goals are scored keeps defenses honest. Hakeem could take his man inside and out. Drawing your man, especially when he is a C, out farther on the court opens things up in the middle and thus, makes your teamates better. Hakeem no doubt made his teamates better. All great players do. Hakeem was every bit the defender that Russell was and was no doubt, superior offensively. Russell gets alot of love, deservedly so, because of the multiple titles he won. Also, while Shaq can rebound and block, you can't really put him in Hakeem's class on D. Dream because of his quickness and most importantly, his recovery skills, could change the flow of a game. Shaq really can't and hasn't. Case in point, when was the last time Shaq chased someone down from midcourt (a guard no less) and stuffed what looked like an uncontested layup??? For the record, overall, I think Shaq and Hakeem are in the same class and its hard to rank one over the other without arguement. But while Shaq has the ability to score more easily than Hakeem, because if his size and strength, he loses on the defensive end.
