Patterson is a waste of technology. I think we can redevelop Hakeem Olajuwon, from everything we learned on the R&D budget for Yao's rehab. Morey: "Gentleman, we can rebuild him. We have the technology."
There is so much you can study about that footage. Hakeem was beating defenses down the floor when the Rockets were running. On some of those shots he just beat his man down the floor and was set up before the defense was. That's not easy, because you know on the other end he was down there protecting the basket(and he protected it like nobody else could). On other shots, it was the half court offense with Hakeem letting his footwork and craftiness do the work. He was an amazing center with so many weapons on offense, and then a huge monster on defense, who could block shots better than anyone, and steal the ball almost as good as he could block. He never backed down.
not just the shake, the grace, the power, but the quickness, and how quickly he got into his move, almost before the entry pass even gets to him, so there's no way for the defender to get set. The Big Swahili was the baryishnikov of the hardwood.
Yeah, this one really doesn't get old. There's another angle somewhere of him splitting the McHale/Bird double team to slam over the Parish challenge at the rim, in slow motion. Is there a better single play that captures a big man's offensive dominance than schooling that trio?
Hakeem's legacy lives on. His overpowered postgame was the reason for the post-3pt kick offense that the league whole league copied in the 90s, and these led to the rules changes that now favor wing players.
So many dumb bigs simply try to copy Hakeem's post moves and don't realize that it is not the moves themselves that made his post game so great (moves were great too), but the fact that Hakeem chained one move after another after another so fast it was as he wasn't thinking about it at all. Those moves were mastered to the point were Hakeem could easily change from one to the other on reaction to the defender. That is what goes on in the brain and in his instincts. I have yet to see a big replicate that.
