If you could redraft, would you take Michael Jordan over Hakeem?

I thought he was rusty. That's what the commentators on ESPN told me.

 

Olajuwon:
Accolades
* 2x NBA champion (1994, '95)
* 2x NBA Finals MVP (1994, '95)
* 1x NBA MVP (1994)
* 2x Defensive Player of Year (1993, '94)
* 6x All-NBA First Team (1987, '88, '89, '93, '94, '97)
* 3x All-NBA Second Team ('86, '90, '96)
* 3x All-NBA Third Team (1991, '95, '99)
* 5x All-Defensive First Team ('87, '88, '90, '93, '94)
* 12x All-Star
* Olympic gold medalist (1996)
* Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996).
* Only player in NBA history to have won MVP, Finals MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards in the same season (1994).[21]
* One of the 4 players in NBA history to have ever recorded a quadruple-double.[3]
* Olajuwon also won the rebounding and blocked shots titles in 1989-90, becoming the third player ever (after Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton) to lead the league in both categories during the same season.[29]
* All-time leader in blocked shots. (note: the NBA did not keep statistics for blocked shots until the 1973-74 season)
* Olajuwon is also in the top ten in blocks, scoring, rebounding, and steals. He is the only player in NBA history placed in the top ten for all four categories.
* All-time NBA Playoffs leader in total blocks with 472 and blocks per game with 3.3 per game.[44][45]
* Olajuwon ranks 7th all-time in steals and is by far the highest ranked center. (note that steals were not recorded until the 1973-74 season)[46]
* In 1989, Olajuwon had 282 blocks and 218 steals, becoming the only NBA player to record over 200 blocks and 200 steals in a season. [18]
* Olajuwon is one of few players to record more than 200 blocks and 100 steals in a season. As the all-time leader in this feat, he did it for 11 seasons (consecutively from the 1985-86 season to the 1995-96 season). The next closest is David Robinson, who did it for 7 seasons.

O'neal:
Accolades
NBA highlights
* Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996 (youngest player on the list and only active player remaining from the list; Shaq was only in his fourth season when he received this honor).
* NBA Most Valuable Player: 2000
* 2-time The Sporting News NBA Most Valuable Player: 2000, 2005
* 4-time NBA Champion: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006
* 3-time NBA Finals MVP: 2000, 2001, 2002
* 14-time NBA All-Star: 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
* 2-time NBA All-Star Game MVP: 2000, 2004
* 13-time All-NBA:
* First Team: 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006
* Second Team: 1995, 1999
* Third Team: 1994, 1996, 1997
* 3-time All-Defensive:
* Second Team: 2000, 2001, 2003
* NBA Rookie of the Year: 1993
* NBA All-Rookie First Team: 1993

Accomplishments/milestones
* Joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in NBA history to lead the league in field goal percentage for
o nine seasons
o five consecutive seasons (1998–2002)
* Only player in NBA history to:
* average at least 20 points per game and 10 rebounds per game in a season for 13 consecutive seasons, surpassing Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Hakeem Olajuwon, all with 12 consecutive seasons.
* reach 4,900 points, 2,300 rebounds, 500 assists, 400 blocks, and 100 steals in his playoff career while shooting at least 55% from the field.
* One of three players in NBA history to be selected to the NBA All-Star Game for 14 consecutive seasons; the others are Jerry West and Karl Malone.
* One of three players in NBA history to reach 24,500 points, 11,000 rebounds, 2,600 assists, and 2,400 blocks in his career (the others are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon; note that the NBA did not record blocked shots as an official statistic until the 1973-1974 season).
* One of seven players in NBA history to reach 25,000 points and 10,000 rebounds in his career (the others are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Moses Malone, Elvin Hayes,Karl Malone and Wilt Chamberlain).
* One of four players in NBA history to be awarded the NBA Finals MVP three times (the others are Magic Johnson (3), Tim Duncan (3), and Michael Jordan (6) [1])
o Joins Michael Jordan as the only players in NBA history to win three consecutive NBA Finals MVP awards (2000, 2001, 2002)

The majority of Shaq's accolades that are better than Olajuwon are playoff totals and awards. Olajuwon still has Shaq beat in blocks, steals, and points. And if all the numbers doesn't convince you, Michael Jordan also said Hakeem >> Shaq.

 

Correction: Rockets didn't seep New York. In fact, they took us to 7 games.

Rockets swept Orlando.

 

Rankings are generally subjective. I think the key question is how do you want to rank them? If you're looking at accolades, finals, and playoff numbers, Shaq's your man. If you want to put Shaq , one on one, in his prime against Hakeem in his prime, anybody would say you're a fool to bet on Shaq. Hakeem would dance circles around him.

It really depends on what you want to count as "the best." Any composite ranking like what you linked to depends on how you weigh accolades vs. individual talent/skill

 

The Bulls lost to Orlando.

 

Who did the Bulls lose to in the 1995 playoffs?

 

Okay - I thought you were saying that the Rockets swept the Knicks in the finals.

Carry on.

 

Only the most blatant of MJ jock sniffers tries to asterisk the Rockets 95' playoffs by talking about Jordan being "rusty". C'mon people...Jordan was playing his game and the Bulls got bounced. Then we dominated the Magic in all phases of the game. Basketball is a game of match-ups, and as good as we were against the Bulls in the regular season, we just had no answer for Seattle.

 

You easily take MJ, the biggest reason IMO is because MJ's prime lasted so much longer. He had so many dominating seasons. Dream clearly tailed off when he started losing his legs in the late 90s, but MJ was still averaging 30 for the Bulls.

 

This is a dumb thread topic. We don't even know how Jordon would have played with the Rockets. He could have sustained a career ending injury (somewhat like Sampson), demanded and received a trade or signed somewhere else once he became a free agent.

Remember this: Jordan's favorite jersey numbers were 23 & 45. He couldn't wear those numbers for the Rockets since they had already been retired. He would have been jinxed wearing another number.

 

i became a rocks fan in 1995 when drexler moved to rockets.

I am wondering when you homers saw clyde play so well in portland and rockets had not drafted him, what's your feeling?

if we had drafted clyde and he had played with hakeem, rockets may have had won more titles in the late 80s and 90s. would jordan still be considered the all time great? i (a chinese) was not a jordan fan as most chinese were and i do believe he was overated, the referees gave him too many Privileges.

 

All of you guys are only picking Hakeem because you're biased. 6 is greater than 2, its as simple as that. Jordan will probably go down as the most famous athlete in history. He wouldve put Houston on the map. Hakeem was great, but honestly, would we really have won if Jordan hadn't retired? We did win two championships, but some people put an asterik by it. Chicago was a DYNASTY and Jordan was the most marketable athlete in the world. I'd pick Jordan a million times.

 

No, you've just never heard of basketball before Magic and Bird, and you never watched Jordan enough outside of highlight reels to realize that he couldn't win with only another top-50 all-time player by his side, but also needed a star power forward.

Hmmmm... you're answering my question from earlier (why the Bulls got embarrassed in 1995) with another question! That seems to tell me that you don't have an answer, even though you claim that the Bulls would have 8-peated had MJ not retired! Fun!
And to answer YOUR question, why does Jordan being retired have anything to do with the Rockets' not winning titles in 1991-93 or 1996-98? THEY DIDN'T LOSE IN THE FINALS! The Rockets just happened to be in their prime years in 1994 and 1995. Had the Rockets met the Ho Grant-less Bulls in 1995, they would have crushed them, just like they crushed the Magic (and don't forget it was the Magic who made the Bulls look silly, MJ and all).
Meanwhile, I'm thinking Hakeem had probably the second-least-talented supporting cast of any NBA championship team besides Rick Barry's Warriors. Replace Hakeem with Jordan on the 1994 Rockets, and we aren't hanging a banner.

You said "at least Shaq is better than him." The fact that you named Shaq as the one guy who's definitely better than Hakeem implies that you think he's #1. Well guess what: Shaq had this Kobe Bryant guy playing with him, not to mention some Dwyane Wade character. That kinda helps in the championship hunts. Second, even IMPLYING that Shaq's got anything on Wilt should get you crucified by the basketball gods.

You know, ESPN said it, so it must be true... oh wait! They're the same ones who ranked Jordan as the greatest COLLEGE bball player ever! Over Kareem, who won three titles! Over Maravich, who averaged 40! But yes, Jordan's #1, because he made one memorable jumper in a championship game in which he scored a whopping 14 points as second banana on James Worthy's team, then promptly never returned to the final four because Worthy wasn't there to bail him out anymore! Yes! ESPN is completely unbiased, they NEVER base their opinions on marketing and hype!

This is definitely worthy of a rolleyes.

 

When Jordan won his MVPs, he just said thanks and raised the trophy by HIMSELF.

When Dream won the MVP:


Paper: HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Date: THU 05/26/1994
Section: Sports
Page: 1
Edition: 3 STAR

ROCKETS EXTRA/Olajuwon shows why he's MVP

By FRAN BLINEBURY
Staff

HIS night.

The crowd of 16,611 came to its feet, and the cheers came from somewhere way down in its toes. Loud, long, lusty, loving.

"MVP! MVP! MVP!"

After NBA commissioner David Stern made the award presentation at center court, Hakeem Olajuwon took the bronze trophy of a player dribbling a basketball and raised it toward the rafters.

Then he lifted up the rest of the evening as well.

This was like Charlton Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea one more time, just to show you he could. It was like William Tell zipping that arrow through the apple on his son's head, then asking for a blindfold and another try.

Olajuwon validated his selection as this season's Most Valuable Player. He brought down the Jazz 104-99 and the house.

His night. His game.

Olajuwon insisted that all his teammates join him in the spotlight when he received his honor, then he carried them all the way home to their second consecutive victory in the Western Conference finals.

He scored 41 points. He made 14 of 22 shots from the floor. He set a franchise record with 13 of 13 free throws. He grabbed 13 rebounds. He blocked three shots.

"If they didn't have Superman tonight, we'd have won that game," said Utah guard Jeff Hornacek, sounding as if he'd just witnessed a man fly.

"He spins," Hornacek said. "We had guys in the way, and he throws up shots that are unreal."

Shots that you would say are nothing more than blind, dumb luck if you hadn't seem him make them before. Time and time again.

Patience, confidence, greatness

With the Jazz holding an 87-85 lead, Olajuwon whirled into the lane like a hot wind and hit a jump hook while falling down.

Four minutes later with the Rockets clinging to a 98-97 edge, he danced through the lane again, avoided the Utah double-team, eluded a third defender who came over to help, flipped the ball up off the glass, banked it in and hit the floor again.

Did you think you could make that shot? Olajuwon was asked.

"That's why I shot it," he said.

Everything he put up went in. Or at least it had to seem that way to the Jazz. He scored 14 points in the fourth quarter, making five of seven from the field. Who remembers when he missed? Who can even conceive that it happened? Surely, not the Jazz.

"The game was on the line, and that's when you know you have to pull it out," Olajuwon said. "This is when it counts. It's critical. You have to be very patient, but you have to be confident, too."

The Rockets would remain confident as long as Olajuwon would remain upright. All night long he wore the Jazz's 300-pound center Felton Spencer like a hair shirt. Every time Olajuwon was able to spin and get away from Spencer, the rest of the Jazz defense crawled all over him like ants on a crumb at a picnic.

Just call him Mr. MVP

Just when you think you've seen it all out of him, he does something that you can't imagine. Leaping, twisting, shooting, making.

"I say to myself that I won't ever be surprised by anything that he does after playing with him for four years and being in practice with him every day," Vernon Maxwell said. "But he's full of surprises. The one that he made falling down in the fourth quarter, when he banked it, that was a shock."

But that was routine.

They got just past the middle of the fourth quarter, and it turned into a duel of the superstars. Olajuwon went head-to-head with Utah's Karl Malone. The Mailman scored seven consecutive points for the Jazz. The Dream responded with eight in a row.

The Jazz tried to stop him and couldn't find a way. Not with two defenders or three.

"They play to take your strength away, and you have to surprise them," Olajuwon said.

He shocked them.

"There's always another one with Mr. MVP," Otis Thorpe said. "That's what I'm calling him now. It isn't Hakeem anymore. It's Mr. MVP."

"You try to go to the big horses," Maxwell said. "That's why you have them -- to ride."

What a ride.

"Your concentration level is so high at that point," Olajuwon said. "You know that every play is big, every shot is important. You have to keep working and working. It wasn't easy. You had to stay focused."

It had to be so difficult to focus on a night when there were so many distractions for him. There was the ovation from the fans. There was his former college coach Guy V. Lewis on hand. There was Gov. Ann Richards cheering him on.

"It felt wonderful," Olajuwon said. "It felt so warm. It felt like an embrace."

His night. His game. His town.

 

Irrelevant to their individual values. Read the whole thread.

I couldn't care less.

Yes.

I saw those championships. I don't care what other idiots think. They count.

Again, irrelevant to their individual value.

I couldn't care less.

And I'd pick the guy who got it done without a Top 50 sidekick.

 

You realize that by that logic, Steve Kerr >>>>>>>> Chuck Barkley, right?

Pippen, etc. > Horry, etc.
Simple as that.

And it's unfathomable to me why so many people go around with this "if Jordan hadn't retired it's an 8-peat" talk. Jordan and the Bulls got schooled in 1995, and it's because they didn't have Ho Grant or Rodman, not because Jordan had "court rust".

 

Really, I don't know why people can't drop the homer glasses and just be realistic. Hakeem was great, but he's vastly overrated by people here. I don't know how many times I've seen people say hakeem was on the least talented team (that's a built in excuse for him to prop him up more) or that hakeem is underrated by people outside of houston.

 

I've always felt that Hakeem was the greatest basketball player of all time. Jordan was just more of a ham on the court, while Hakeem was the quiet warrior. Sure Jordan did some great things, but Hakeem just an aura about him that no one else had, and probably never will have.

I don't think Jordan was too ap to leaping up on one end to make a spectacular block, then run down the other end to slam it home. I just loved his mastery at both the offensive AND defensive end. I know Jordan got his share of steals, but he was nowhere as awesome on the defensive end as Hakeem was.

Finally, I think that Hakeem just has more personal charactar then Jordan. Jordan has the charisma & personality, but they are chinks in his armor character-wise.

It's too bad the never played one & one. Then maybe that would have put to rest the "who's better" debate. Hakeem was just a total badass, and I'm sure he'd physically dominate Jordan.

And give me a break on the "If Jordan hadn't retired, the Rox would have never won a championship" crap. I personally think the Rox would have handed Chicago their asses. If my ass.

 

Why would we possibly to want draft the best player of all time?

The Rox made the right choice. It is like picking between Oden and Durant. Without a crystal ball into the future you go for the safe choice.

And it could be that the Rockets drafted Jordan but end up with zero championships...

But with 20/20 hindsight, hell, I would pick Jordan.

 

Otis Thorpe has to be one of the most under-rated players of all time.

The question I've never heard asked: would Chicago have won 6 championships with Hakeem instead of Jordan-- or 8 or 9 or 3?