I remember this topic coming up before, but in the doldrums of the offseason, i decided to bring it up again. and that is who would you rather have as your franchise player, looking back on their careers. Karl Malone or Hakeem Olajuwon? of course through sentimental reasoning, and Houston Pride, most of you would say Hakeem Olajuwon, as would i. and because karl malone always flops and whines and acts like a jack a$$, he is obviously the odd man out. but really if you look at the stats, and the longevity of quality play, and the lack of injuries, and being that he is second in scoring in the whole history of the NBA, you have to go with Karl Malone as the better player. and i hate to admit that as much as you. but really he has had the better overall career statistically. and you can say that hakeem won two titles, but Karl malone would have too, if he had the right nucleus at some point in his career. and i guess im just trying to start a debate here, i love the rockets just as much as you do, i just say Malone is the overall better player. what do you think?
The goal of every team (outside of making money) is to win championships. Obviously, Hakeem achieved this goal. Karl Malone will probably not . Both players are among the greatest of all time and I would love for Malone to have spent his "glory" years with the Rockets. But you cannot discount the "heart" factor. As corny as it sounds, Hakeem had the heart and silent leadership to carry this team throughout his career. He never needed to find ways to bend the rules to fit his game. He just played. As an opposing team, which one of these guys would you fear playing the most? I think the answer would have to point to Hakeem. He had all the intangibles. The one image that sticks in my mind during the second championship run was when the Rockets were leading in the decisive Game 5 and the camera scanned over to the Jazz bench and there sat Redneck Karl with a "beaten" look on his face. He had practically given up. I'll never forget that look...it almost summed up his and the Jazz playoff history.
is this question for real? hakeem won 2 championships with a team of roleplayers behind him. malone has had one of the best PGs of all time with him and has won 0 championships. hakeem>malone
Center is the most critical position on the floor and Dream was the best during his era. Also Dream was a more dominant defensive player than Malone. One last point is that Malones nucleus with Stockton was just as good as Dreams nucleus with...kenny smith. Oh and one last point...Karl is not clutch!
Preposterous. Karl Malone is the Anti-Clutch. He ALWAYS let his team down when it needed him the most. The true greatness of a player is measured by how much he is able to pump his game in playoffs. Malone is a choker for a life, greatest pf or all time or not. And don't bring up Jordan. The year after Jordan retired was supposed to be the year of the Jazz, but Brian Grant proved to be too much for Malone and the Jazz faced another early exit... I won't even talk about Dallas last year. Great players are clutch performers. Jordan, Magic, Isaiah, Bird and, yes Hakeem. Malone never had the balls to be such a players. Suggesting that Malone would be a better franchise player than Hakeem is ridiculous.
How many flops and quick whistles has allowed Malone to pad his stats by going to the free throw line? I bet if you look at career free throws per game, Hakeem never got near the free throws of Malone, Robinson, Jordan or Barkley.
Hakeem Olajuwon dominated Karl Malone in the mid-90s and led the Rockets to 2 championships,Malone has never been able to step up in the Finals.
I agree with Crash. Hakeem can dominate the game from both ends of the floor. He altered the opposing teams offensive scheme, with Hakeem around, you either shot from the outside or had to dipsy-doo your way to the basket. Malone was a phenomenal offensive threat and a good rebounder, so Hakeem and him are about even in that depertment. But the respect Hakeem commands defensively, and his over all presence on the court, and of course his two championships give him the decisive edge over Malone.
3rings, Malone was not as offensively skilled as Hakeem. He didn't have a repertoire of moves like the Dream, therefore he bulled his way to the basket then flopped alot of times which lead to more freethrow attempts. Dreams signature move was the baseline fadeway(Dream shake)which was near impossible to defend. Add that to the fact that his opponet was usually already faked out of his shoes trying to defend the other moves as well, leaving him no recovery time to foul, then we understand why theres was less fouls called for Dream.
Charles Barkley once said "great players take, and make, great shots." When was the last time Malone demanded the basketball in the closing minutes of a big playoff game, let alone making one? John Stockton, for all his flops and dirty play, has always been the go-to player on that team when they needed a shot in the final seconds. The few times Malone did have a chance to win games in the NBA finals, I can remember him missing key free throws and getting the ball stripped by Jordan.
OK, you're starting a war and you can choose between Adolph Hitler and F.D.R. to lead you. Which do you choose? Karl Malone is a b*stard. Not quite as bad as Hitler, but close. I'll take Hakeem, because he is a better player overall, a better person, and has never deliberately sent any opposing players to the hospital.
side note: Learned today Rice is 3-0 versus Alabama Football. Other side note: Texas is 7-0. Strange.
There is just something too being clutch. You have it or you don't. In their prime I would bet on a team consisting of: Hakeem and Reggie Miller + 3 scrubs over 5-Ewing 4-Malone 3-Coleman 2-Nick Anderson 1-Penny .........every day.
I think longevity and greatness are being a little confused. To me longevity is a part of "greatness" but the larger part of it is how dominant they were in their peak years and did they raise the level of their team. To borrow from football, that is why Gail Sayer's was "greater" than Franco Harris. It is also why Isiah or Bird are "greater" (though perhaps by a nose) than say Stockton or Wilkens who also played their positions. It would be much more fair to compare Malone and Barkley than Hakeem and Malone. Hakeem could equally dominate on both sides of the ball--perhaps like no other player could, and has 2 rings to prove it. The only thing Malone has over Hakeem is that Hakeem faded much quicker. Malone's longevity is also the reason he will likely be remembered as a better PF than Barkley, but in Barkley's heyday you could make a case either way as who was the more dominant player. Given they both were probably very close in their heyday in overall impact and neither will have lead their team to a ring, I really couldn't object if someone said Malone was the greater player than Barkley becuase he maintained his performance longer however. Saying Malone was a greater player than Hakeem simply because he did fall as fast, to me that doesn't have much foundation.
Speaking of Reggie...I hated to watch this guy play...you know how he runs around and flails his arms (like John Stockton) when he is coming off of picks...BUT, whenever he got hot, it was something fun to watch. Reggie would jack up some of the wildest looking fadeaways and hit nothing but net every time. Always enjoyed Reggie blowing up against the Knicks.
I'd have to agree there... I remember sitting in a room full of Knicks fans (I was up in CT at the time) and Reggie single-handedly took the game away from them late in the 4th quarter. I'm not sure what the span of time was, but it seemed like he scored about 8 points in 16 seconds. He drained a three, knocked over some Knick (Ward or Childs maybe?), stole the inbounds pass, stepped back drained another 3. The Knicks predictably blew the next possession, and Reggie ended up at the free-throw line. It was amazing to watch those Knicks fans in such agony... Of course the next time I was watching a game, was probably with those same people... they all laughed at me as the Rockets got swept by Seattle, but by that point the Rockets already had two championships so I could hold that over them...
