It was in the playoffs. As a matter of fact Dream did it twice to KJ, twice to Eric Strickland and once or twice to Stockton all in that same season. Still my favorite Dream block of all time was when he stuffed Xavier McDaniel so hard McDaniel fell straight back on to the floor.
It was Rod Strickland of the Trailblazers, not Eric Strickland. Hakeem also had an incredible block on Charles Barkley in the playoffs. Come to think of it, the whole sequence was pretty amazing. KJ came from the left wing for a layup/dunk, but then he saw Hakeem approaching towards him. Hakeem jumped and shut down KJ's path, which made him pass to Charles, who was coming down middle of the lane. Just as Charles caught the ball, he jumped towards the basket with both hands on the ball to dunk it. What Hakeem did was incredible. As Hakeem was comng down from him jump to block KJ on the wing, he jumped right back towards the middle of lane in one motion and blocked Barkley's dunk attempt, sending him to the floor. All ball, no body contact. Of all the defenders I have seen, no one comes close to Hakeem in terms of protecting the basket. He was a freak.
I remember the Strickland block more than the KJ one. I think I actually missed the Phoenix playoff game. Strickland stole the ball from Hakeem.....I don't guess Olajuwan was happy, as he chased him down and swatted him from behind. The guy hit the wood hard too. Do any of you remember game 7 one year when the outcome was clear and Barkley threw a hissy and almost hurt Hakeem? I think Mad Max tried to attack Barkley. Too funny. I hated Barkley for that(until he came to us).
I remembered both the Strickland and KJ block. I thought the KJ block was more impressive. KJ on a breakaway and is ready to go up for a 2 hand jam. All of the sudden you see Hakeem flying from behind, twirls his whole right arm around and blocks KJ just as he's about to jam it. THe block was clean, but the momentum threw KJ off abit and all he could do is hopelessly grab a few fingers on the rim, and fall flat on his ass. Funniest moment is when Danny Ainge comes running up to KJ, and repeatedly pointed his fingers at KJ and looked at the refs for a foul call. HA!
That could not be Hakeem. Hakeem is 6'10" and that CLAY figure looks about 15 inches tall... no way it's HAKEEM... besides, it's chocolatey brown, and Hakeem is darker than that... and dream's kneepads were red, and the ones on the statue are chocolatey brown ... Anyway... here is a FUNNY list that contains KJ and other great stuff: ...the 1995 Houston Rockets (47-35) beat the Utah Jazz (60-22), Phoenix Suns (59-23), San Antonio Spurs (62-20), and Orlando Magic (57-25) to win their second straight NBA Championship? (who the hell WAS Adrian Smith) And lastly, the ARM should be on the FACE ("...put it in the face, ah?...")
KJ dunked on Dream SEVERAL times. To find excuses of how he got "away with it" is ridiculous. He's one of the best pg of our times. The man had ups plain and simple.
No excuses - KJ planted one on pretty much every center in the league, including Dream. Marbury with better ups. My favorite was his dunk that ended with him sitting on Charles Oakley's shoulders and head. The original teabag..... Evan
This is great post. I like you thought Steve could turn into a better version of KJ. But unfortunately, KJ is a more natural pg. I still have hope for Steve, but he will never be the floor general KJ was. DavidS, you are so right about that Game 3 against Pheonix. It was the game that really started the title run. KJ has an even nastier dunk on Mark Eaton on his resume. That guy was unbelievable, one of the most underrated players from the 90's.
Spot on, Zboy. Thanks for the excellent recap. And this is what bothers me about that dunk. The fact that it happened in garbage time essentially makes it much, much less impressive. And everyone forgets this. The Rockets were already in shut-down mode, trying not to get hurt. It was the equivalent of when a football team is down by 3 touchdowns with 2 minutes left, the losing team makes some low-percentage, reckless offensive plays and the winning team plays a prevent defense. Every once in a while, some of those shenanigans work out (onside kick, hail mary, laterals, etc.,) but there's no way that stuff flies when the game's competitive. Every time I see a highlight of that dunk, I wish to God that they had the score and time on the lower-left corner of the tv, like they do these days. I will say this, though. Frikkin' KJ. He owned us in the 90s. Or, more specifically, he made Kenny Smith his little prison bunk-buddy. I think he averaged like 53 points and 26 assists against Kenny Smith.
He did own us. I'm glad we won the series or you would be hearing how the championship suns point guard destroyed us. Didn't he make like a million strait free-throws? Awful. Kenny"the jet" Smith(that just makes me laugh) sure did well that series.
KJ is a 20 pt 10 ast player most of his career. One of the best PGs of all time. Steve is not even close to him in the PG department.
Dream had like 31pts in that game and was tired as hell. No way KJ would have dunked on him if he was fresh. I like John Starks dunk over the whole Bulls team better.
It was garbage time. But, something else that should be remembered about that game: KJ was the only Sun who could do anything on the floor that night. While Barkley and the rest of the crew were choking the game away, Kevin Johnson was all over the floor, breaking down the Rockets defense. The dunk was a capper for a brilliant game by KJ mired in an otherwise inept Phoenix offense.
This is why I always had a problem with the Barkley trade. Why would you go out and sign the guy who led TWO collossal choke jobs that allowed you to win two championships. An even worse game was the Game 7 the next year which was actually in Phoenix when Barkley almost guaranteed his team wouldn't lose. Again KJ lights us up for 41 and almost won the game before missing the 21st freethrow after making 20 straight. He was the only one who showed up that day also. In the second half of that game, Drexler dunked on A.C. Green, and Barkley, who was having a bad game at the time laughed at Green. I will never forget it. What a clown.
Yeah, that was a great dunk. But as I remembered, Dream block KJ's and Barkley's shot on the two previous Suns possessions before that dunk. Nobody remember that?
