Irrelevent I know but if you had to a choice who would you want on your team in the TWIGHLIGHT of their careers? Hakeem played 1 season in Toronto alongside VC Ewing played 1 in Seattle and another alongside Tmac in Orlando.
I would say neither... they both pretty much farted out at the end. But Hakeem was probably slightly better cause he seemed in better shape at the time.
As much as I love Dream since you included the Deke selection I have to go with him. I can't recall another NBA player who has played that well at his age.
i think hakeem was better than ewing at that point, but i think he just wanted to be in a contender team and couldnt really be bothered about playing during the regular season.
Hakeem would have been better than Deke if he played 15-20 minutes a game behind a solid starter. When Dream played for Toronto, he played better than most centers in the league at the time, he was just injured most of the year. I think Deke is playin better defense than Dream was, but Dream had some offensive skills and he wasn't far behind Deke in defense. When I heard the rumor that dream was going to be Shaq's backup in LA, I wasn't thrilled about it, but it would have been better for him than trying to be a starter in Toronto. Dream would have been better than Alonzo backing up Shaq and Zo is better than Deke right now. Ewing in his "geezer" years was so sad, I actually felt bad for the man.
Old Olajuwon off the bench, and then in extended minutes in the playoffs would make a major impact. I remember contending teams making a hard push for Dream but he chose money and the city of Toronto which he always loved. Olajuwon had more range coupled with a more consistent jumper than Ewing. That alone makes him the better choice at that point.
I remember the last 15-20 games Hakeem played for us. He was looking like vintage Hakeem. I'm sure he could have done that for 15-20 min a game for a few 2-3 more seasons in the right situation. Ewing just sucked.
Just to bring some sanity to this topic: Hakeem played 18 seasons in the NBA Ewing played 17 seasons in the NBA So far Mutumbo has played 16. Mutumbo hasn't been above 30 mpg in 5 years - something both Hakeem and Ewing managed, so lets rule him out of the contest ok?? (plus his numbers just don't stack up... a vote for Deke is a vote for ignorance!!) Ewing, in his last 3 years: PPG 15.0 9.6 6.0 RPG 9.7 7.4 4.0 BPG 1.35 1.15 0.69 FG% 46.6 43.0 44.4 Hakeem, in his 15,16,17 seasons PPG 18.9 10.3 11.9 RPG 9.2 6.8 7.4 BPG 2.46 1.59 1.52 FG% 51.4 45.8 49.8 Then Hakeem had the 'bonus' season where he got 7, 6 and 1.48 blocks and hit 46.4% of his shots. The ONLY thing that Ewing did better in his "twilight years" was to get more rebounds in his 2nd and 3rd last season - although it's worth remembering that we had Barkley on the team those years - and with him gone Hakeems rpg went up. I call 'no contest' and am AMAZED by looking at Hakeem's bpg stats - has there EVER been another player to play 18 seasons and only once fall below 1.5 bpg (and it was 1.48....) WOW.
Not a problem! I still say that Hakeem is one of the most under-rated players in the history of the game. How he ever misses out on the 'greatest teams ever' is beyond me...
