Russell, maybe.... USA Today also had an article about anointing Shaq, placing him on basketball's Mt. Rushmore, etc. It must have been the Laker/NBA P.R. machine churning the stuff out for journalists to copy and paste into their articles, the way Microsoft did. In the USA Today article, they compared the great centers (at least they MENTIONED Hakeem) with stats like FG%, FT%, fouls, PPG, and RPG. But none of these can account for Hakeem. Shaq is dominant, in part because the center position is so weak today (I'd like to see him face Nate Thurmond, Moses Malone, and Artis Gilmore), but mainly because of his power and grace. Hakeem was just as dominating, but for different reasons. If they had added steals and blocks to their chart, Hakeem would look a lot better. He totally altered games with his defense, something Shaq cannot do. Hakeem is not only the only center, but the only PLAYER OF ALL TIME on the all-time top 25 in both blocks and steals! Of course, this wouldn't be fair to list, because they didn't keep track of blocks or steals in Russell's day. Anyway, it's pointless to compare people across generations. Hakeem will be remembered forever by people who know basketball. Unfortunately, this does not include all journalists, and only a tiny percentage of fans. ------------------ If you don't remember the ABA, you don't know basketball.
One more thing to add. how many of those players back then were above 6'9. Not even Bill Russell was as tall as 6'9. Therefore, the center position was definitely weak. You had players like Bob Petit 6'9, willis Reed 6'8, Bill Russell 6'9 etc... Not only was Hakeem 6'10 1/2 playing center , but he dominated all of the true 7' centers in his era. From Sam Bowie to Shaq. It just so happens to be that Hakeem was not an American. That's the real. ------------------
Teams were designed to stop Wilt and couldn't. Rules were made to make it harder for him to dominate, not to keep a defense from collapsing on him. Remember Hakeem never could adjust to Seattle did too him, once Seattle started playing some zone. Also, Wilt lead the league in points, rebounds and ASSISTS various years. IMO Wilt would be hands down considered the best player ever except he lost a lot of titles to a team with Bill Russell + like 8 more HoFamers rounding out the starters and bench. Hakeem was great, arguably the second and no lower than the third best player since the 80's--better than Bird, close call in total effectiveness versus Magic, all definitely behind Jordan. In terms of centers, Wilt was the best, I could argue Dream is #2, or I could argue he is #4. It is hard to get past Russell rings, but I think Hakeem would have done just as well with those Celts. Kareem has more rings than Dream and better stats. But my personal opinion though is the Dream in 94 was probably the 2nd best center of all time, but I have never seen footage of Kareem's (or was it Lew Alcider's) Milwaukee championship run to compare his play with Dream in 94. The Kareem I remember was a shadow of what he surely once was, but even in the early 80's Kareem was pretty good. ------------------ "The Rockets were ahead of the Suns by 20 late in game 2 of the series, but when the going got tough, we just Pippened . We would not be done in the series though."
wrath_of_khan they did not actually start keeping blocks as a statistic until after jabbar had started playing....this does NOT take anything away from hakeem..more than likely, jabbar would have had more blocks... ------------------
And lets not forget that Hakeem Olajuwon is the smallest Centers in the game. I'd venture to say he's the smallest Center to play solely at that position in the last 15 years. Ever think about that? He's under 6'10", and he's not very bulky at all. Question for you all, who was a smaller center? There's gotta be someone.hmmmm. [This message has been edited by fromobile (edited June 15, 2000).]
Yep, in my insomnia induced post I forgot that they didn't tally blocks during Kareem's first 4 years in the league. If you take his career average of 2.6 blocks per game and multiply it times the number of games he played (1560), he ends up with around 500 more blocks than Hakeem has right now... I still say Hakeem was the better defender (despite the fact that Kareem often torched "Akeem" for 40+ points early in "Akeem's" career when Fitch refused to double team Jabbar). Plus, my original point still stands -- that Hakeem, at the very least must be part of the discussion when discussing the greatest centers. ------------------
Shaq has great ability, as I have enjoyed watching his game develop. He used to get the ball, and back up straight to the basket by slamming his body against the defender (which he still does) and shuffling his feet. He has good footwork especially for a behemoth and his game from 10 feet in is unstoppable. His dominance is still in great deal due to his humongous size..that doesn't change the fact that he is dominant. Here is my point for why Hakeem in my opinion is the best all time and undisputably in the top 3....First, I dismiss the stature of old school players. I think that the elite players of yesteryear would be very good, probably all-star caliber players, but they would not dominate at the level they did. The players may have better fundamentals, but aren't nearly as athletic or skilled as they are today. Second, refresh your memory by looking at Hakeem's stats in direct comparison to Shaq's this year. Hakeem's seem just as gaudy and more complete. This year Shaq had the largest margin of victory ever. Third, you could give the ball to Hakeem for the last shot of the game. Fourth watch Double Clutch and let it refresh your recollection of how he played the game ------------------
No joke, Hakeem had to play against Robinson, Ewing, Shaq, etc... Great centers. Shaq is the only great center in the league right now. Alonzo is good but not anywhere near the caliber of competition the dream faced. ------------------
