hey, why not let hakeem give all rockets players futbol and hand-ball mini-camps...everyone could benefit from quicker hands and feet ;-)
And? That argument would float if Shaq improved as a player by the time he peaked, but nothing in his game changed that would have given him more help in stopping Dream. Replace the 3-peat Shaq with the one in Orlando and Dream still does him, and the Rockets still win.
When Shaq retires people will say he dominated Yao Ming. But we are only beginning to see Yao Ming become the beast that the league fears he will become. It's not fair to judge '95 Shaq against Hakeem.
You could just as easily argue that there's a tendency to discount accomplishments of players of the past and get wrapped up in the here and now. Remember in 2000 when O'Neal was killing the league and people wanted to compare him to Wilt and call him the MDE? Now the debate is whether he or Hakeem was better and few have him in the top 3 C's. The euphoria over O'Neal has calmed and normalcy has returned. Just last week, Scottie Pippen said he'd take a 21 yr old Lebron over a 21 yr old MJ. That completely disputes your thesis of revering and respecting the older player. When you hear people compare Kobe and Lebron to MJ despite MJ clearly being so much better, it just shows you how soon many forget just how dominant some of the players of the past were. Even on this site, there's been some Yao-Dream comparisons when there simply is no comparison. Just this week on ESPN, they were mentioning how if the Mavs win this series, Dirk vaults into the status of all time big man greats. I'll bet you that in 15 years, regardless of what happens this series, Dirk will not be considered one of the absolute greatest big men ever. It's just people getting caught up in the moment. I think the reverse of what you said is true.
I'm saying its unfair to judge a player who is not in his prime to a player who is playing the best ball of his career. Shaq today is a smarter player today than he was in '95, but his body is simply unable to do the things he could do in '95, that is the only reason he would be considered a better player in '95. So the Hakeem vs Shaq '95 finals debate is pointless to me. I still think Hakeem is a better player at their absolute peak, respectively, but the '95 finals are not the true example of this.
I'm saying its unfair to judge a player who is not in his prime to a player who is playing the best ball of his career. Shaq today is a smarter player today than he was in '95, but his body is simply unable to do the things he could do in '95, that is the only reason he would be considered a better player in '95. So the Hakeem vs Shaq '95 finals debate is pointless to me. I still think Hakeem is a better player at their absolute peak, respectively, but the '95 finals are not the true example of this.
dream2franchise, are you repeating your same comments ? i get it! you are repeating like the rockets did with hakeem! good one!
I'm saying its unfair to judge a player who is not in his prime to a player who is playing the best ball of his career. Shaq today is a smarter player today than he was in '95, but his body is simply unable to do the things he could do in '95, that is the only reason he would be considered a better player in '95. So the Hakeem vs Shaq '95 finals debate is pointless to me. I still think Hakeem is a better player at their absolute peak, respectively, but the '95 finals are not the true example of this.
Sorry, my connection just slowed down completely and i wasn't sure if the message was gettin' through..so i just kept clickin'. I know now for next time. Sorry again.
There's still debate between Shaq and Wilt. That hasn't gone anywhere. I was referring to the opinion of players, not media types. And, speficially, players who were peers of the older player being compared. I guarantee the vast majority of the "old school" players who were peers of Wilt would choose him over Shaq. This doesn't quite apply to what I was talking about. Pippen is saying that LeBron at 21 is better than MJ at 21. That isn't really a slight to MJ; Jordan's greatness isn't defined by what he did at the age of 21, after all. But I think Pippen would be extremely reluctant to say a player is greater than Jordan (without the "at 21" qualification), even if there's strong evidence for it. Of course, until such a player comes a long there's no way to test that. Not a single NBA player would say either of those guys are better than Jordan. Comparisons are always going to be made. Not sure how that goes against what I was saying. Yeah, but you'd be hard pressed to find an NBA player, younger than Hakeem but was in the league with him, say Yao's better than him. Yao would have to become truly dominant (probably even more so that Shaq was) for that to happen. Again, media-types versus actual players. Just listen to Barkley. He's an extreme case, but that attitude is prevalent amongst former players I think. With Horry, he'd clear consider Hakeem more senior to him than Shaq. So, he'd be more reluctant to slight him by saying Shaq was a better player. It's not a hard-fast rule, but I definitely think that there's a tendency for that kind of thing. That's why I don't take too seriously the analysis of former players when they're comparing players they knew or had some relationship with.
Shaq has gotten better offensively, but his man-to-man D hasn't really gotten any better. The centers today just suck. Since 95, nothing in his game has changed to give him a better chance of slowing Dream. If anything he has gotten bigger and slower.
I don't think people will saying that cuz he really hasn't dominated him other than Yao's first season. Obviously, he's got the better of him in most games, but Yao has done a decent job.
If Hakeem would have played his whole career with Drexler he would have had more than 3 finals trips and 2 titles (even considering he was up against Jordan). As much as it has to be said that Kobe has 3 titles largely because of Shaq, you have to also say that Shaq has 6 finals trips and 4 maybe now 4 titles because he always seemed to have a top 3 guard with him (Penny/Kobe/Wade). So I try to evaluate Dream/Shaq even thrown Timmy Duncan in there too based just on what they could do. I admit Shaq was extremely dominant, but I still have not yet seen Shaq or Duncan equal what Dream did in 94 and particularly in 95. I think at this point it might be fair to say Shaq's career overall might be better than Dream but with Dream's ability to make so many plays on both ends and the way he was able to totally control the whole court at his peak, Dream's peak is still better than anything I've seen from Shaq.
The years he won Championships there were no great centers. The reason good Centers have disappeared is because everyone wants to play Power Forward instead. If Hakeem came into the league today, I believe he would play Power Foward. Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Jermaine O'neal, Kevin Garnett, and countless other 6'10+ players could be playing Center, but don't play Center the majority of the time. Great players don't guard Shaq anymore because coaches are afraid to foul out their star players.
