Olajuwon or Nowitzki - Best International Player of all time

This doesn't make any sense. "If you value scoring and championships as the two greatest criteria"....then you would have to say Tim Duncan, who has 5 rings to Olajuwon's 2 and Nowitzki's 1.

Luckily, when you are talking about the best individual player, you have to look at a lot more than team success and championships.

Look... Dirk Nowitzki is a great, great player. I can't stand him. I don't like the team he plays for, I don't like the owner he plays for. I don't like the way he holds out his tongue after he hits a shot. I don't like the way he looks or plays or flops or pretends to play defense.

But more than anything, I don't like how good of a shot he has while playing for another team. And I don't like his almost unstoppable turn-around, one-legged fade away shot being taken while wearing a Mavs uniform.

He is really, really good.

Maybe, maybe you could say he is a better offensive player than Hakeem. It's debatable. I could see both sides of the argument for who has a better offensive game. Personally, I would take Hakeem. Higher FG%, more offensive rebounds, much better post scoring. But if someone else said that Dirk was better on offense, I could at least understand why they would argue that.

But defensively it is not even close. Not even close at all. Hakeem was a better shot blocker, got more steals, was more athletic, a better rebounder and just a force on that end of the floor as well. Dirk has never even been close to being able to say that. There is a reason that they only won a championship when they had a defensive player of the year Center to pair with him to hide his mediocre at best defense. On the defensive side of the ball, it is so one-sided in Hakeem's favor that it is not even funny.

I know it's kind of another debate, but this is a great quote from Michael Jordan about Hakeem. In it, Jordan talks about the versatility of Olajuwon, all over the floor.

"If I had to pick a center [for an all-time best team], I would take Olajuwon. That leaves out Shaq, Patrick Ewing. It leaves out Wilt Chamberlain. It leaves out a lot of people. And the reason I would take Olajuwon is very simple: he is so versatile because of what he can give you from that position. It's not just his scoring, not just his rebounding or not just his blocked shots. People don't realize he was in the top seven in steals. He always made great decisions on the court. For all facets of the game, I have to give it to him."

Olajuwon did everything. And did it all well. Dirk is a scorer. A great scorer, but just a scorer. And not even that much better of a scorer than Olajuwon was, if at all. This debate, IMO, is not even close.

 

Lol..................

 

Tim Duncan does not have the scoring that Hakeem or Dirk had...

 

Say both Dirk and Hakeem were both entering next years draft. I would say 29/30 teams would pick Hakeem over Dirk and we all know who that other team would be to pick Dirk.

Dominant center > Offensive PF

This is laughable

 

Read this quote from Mark Cuban out of that article.

What? WHAT? Hakeem played in an era of dominant centers....and you are holding that against him? He dominated during a time when his position was probably the strongest it has ever been, and you are saying that is a bad thing?

Dirk redefines what 7-footers can do? Why? Because he is tall but he can also shoot?

How many 7-footers have you seen move the way that Hakeem did? Seriously? Before Hakeem...and in the years after him, has there ever been a 7 foot player who had the footwork or the mobility that Hakeem had?

I mean come on. Have you ever seen a 7-footer move like this?

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Look how fluid his footwork is. On that move against David Robinson, he starts off at the 3-point line!!

There is a reason that players, who play all different positions, still come to get trained on footwork and post moves by Hakeem. Even today, years after he retired. How in the world can Mark Cuban say that isn't revolutionary for his position?

 

Did you read the rest of my post? Hakeem is far and away my choice. I was just pointing out how I thought it was funny that the article said it valued scoring and championships as the greatest criteria, but then chose the player with the least amount of championships.

 

Ok, now it makes total sense why Cuban assembles a team that cant play defense and proclaims them the 2nd coming

 

He sucks at defense. Needs a lot of help.

More comparable to Barkley, Nash, Wade.

 

This is easy...one has back to back titles..and one sings david hasselhoff on the basketball court..

 

Silly Dallas. You know better.

 

Hakeem The Dream 1000x better than Dirk...

 

Who do NBA superstars pay to train them?

Who has signature moves named after them?

Cuban is always trying his revisionist history but failing. Just trying to divert media attentiion from Chandler Parsons haha

 

b**** please. Close this BS.

 

Or when he puts up a quadriple double

 

I think it is worth considering regarding Olajuwan's and Nowitzki's offensive numbers that a large percentage of Nowitzki's points have come on threes. So while Nowitzki may be about to pass Olajuwan on the scoring list, if there were a way to count just actual field goals made I would guess Olajuwan would still have a fairly sizable lead in that category. But regardless which is the better offensive player, there is no doubt that Olajuwan is the overall better player by miles. Nowitzki is so inferior defensively that this shouldn't even be an argument.

 

The Dream could guard 1-5.

Dirk can't even guard a 4!

 

Let's say you're the GM of the Rockets. Someone asks you if James Harden or Michael Jordan is the better player. What do you say?

 

I'll entertain Duncan vs. Dream (Still Dream), but I don't even want to acknowledge this one as an argument.

To argue that Dirk was better, you'd have to be a moron (Cuban) or have an agenda (also Cuban).

 

“Dirk created a new world for 7-footers. He could play out of the post or from the 3-point line. Both are amazing. But Dirk gets the nod for redefining what 7 footers could do.”


someone needs to remind Cuban off Sam Perkins and bill lambier , who were 7 footers that " that played from the 3 point line" . Dirlkk did not chnage anything, he was just better at it.

give me a break!

 

Eddie Sefko. Dallas suckup. Just another puff piece for the locals. So weak and so wrong.

makes me laugh he has the gall to write this nonsense.