Rocket fans, are you happy we drafted Hakeem over Jordan?

Hakeem was great, Jordan was greater.

Hindsight is worthless.

I am glad the Rockets won 2 championships, but I would rather have won six.

DD

 

Well I happen to think the coach has a lot to do with winning and I believe Phil Jackson has to take some credit for all of Jordan's rings.

Would Bill Fitch or Rudy T. be as successfull with Jordan...who knows.

But Jordan had the perfect compliment of players around him...just like Hakeem did in 94 and 95.

If you're asking which player I would have drafted knowing what I know now....Jordan without a doubt.

Jordan is the greatest basketball player to ever live...he changed the game and globalized the NBA. Hakeem didn't have Jordan's charisma...therefore was never a marketing tool. Jordan with his play on the court, good looks, good dialect and actions off the court made him a marketing mecca.

Today that doesn't matter so much...look at Yao.

But back in the late 80's and early 90's...the NBA needed a marketing spokesperson and Jordan was just that.

Anyway...Jordan was awesome and he would have been my pick (in hindsight).

 

I agree with this post. There's no guarentee the Rox would've had 6 rings with Jordan and there's no guarentee they would've dominated with Dream, Jordan and Clyde. As rimrocker noted the great Rox, Bulls and Blazers teams were designed around those players. If they have to play with each other on the same team though that changes that dynamic and there's no telling how their skills would've developed if they weren't the primary offensive focus. For that matter there's a lot of questions of chemistry. Just throwing individualy great players together doesn't automatically mean a great team. For instance the Dream, Drexler and Barkley Rox teams were good but weren't the best, the Jazz still finished with a better record during the best year of that trio. having a team with Jordan and Drexler on it might present some problems since they both play the same position and there will be a conflict regarding who then is the premiere perimeter player. At that point does Jordan play PG and Drexler SG or Jordan SG and Drexler SF?

No doubt it would've been fun to watch the Rox but I don't think there's any guarentee the Rox would've done better. There's just as much likelyhood that things don't work out well.

 

Best draft picks in terms of how much they helped the teams that drafted them, since 1981:
Jordan
Hakeem
Duncan

We're lucky to even have one on the list. No complaining here.

Kobe doesn't count b/c he was traded for a creaky Divac by Charlotte -- awful trade.
Shaq doesn't count because he left ORL as soon as his rookie contract was up.

There aren't many other players even worth considering. Next tier is probably Karl Malone, Clyde, and Barkley. The only current players who look like they could reach this level are Wade and James. We're blessed already.

 

let's get it straight. jordan didn't win 6 championships on his own. the bulls were able to assemble an awesome supposrting cast and coach for him. that's something the rockets never did (or did too late) for hakeem.

trade hakeem for jordan and dream would've won 6 rings with the bulls and be considered the best of all time:

dream
rodman
pippin
harper
anyone

vs.

anyone
horry
drexler
jordan
smith

jordan and the rockets would'nt have won ANY championships because jordans first 3 would be dreams first 3... then jordan retires when it would be the rockets turn to win... so hakeem and the bulls keep wining.

just be happy we won two and are on pace to win another.

 

Completely agree. It's not a matter of 2 championships vs 6, its 2 vs 0. Simply replacing Hakeem with Jordan in our teams would have been terrible for us.

 

This ain't nothing but a Vince Young Thread masked in the Rockets forum.

Knowing what we know now, you take Jordan.

What we didn't know then, you would take Hakeem. Even if he played ball at St. Johns, you should still take him no matter what. I think being from UH has no bearings at all. If it did, give me Damon Jones, and Alton Ford over Rafer and Chuck Hayes.

What's Gee Gervin doing these days?

 

Being from UH may have no bearing for you, Kam, but for those of us with ties to the school, who watched Akeem and the rest of that superb team evolve, with their ROBBED of the HALL OF FAME coach, it matters.

 

like i said earlier, would jordan accomplish the same on the rockets? look at the team the bulls were able to assemble vs. the rockets. we just didn't do a good enough job of creating a dynasty.

thorpe
horry
ellie
jordan
smith

...does not equal 6 championships.

 

You can't argue against championships. We drafted dream and won it all back to back, so i can't see any reason why you would look back on that. Like someone said earlier, you can't assume that drafting jordan would equal more championships, because he would be in a different situation. Jordan and Dream could have developed into totally different players...maybe not the legends that we know of today.

I'm definitely happy with it.

 

I agree with you on everything except your last point.

That would not be the line-up and we would have gotten different players to complement jordan. Hence, it's possible we get 6 championships with jordan, but it's also possible that we get none.

I personally think he would have been a bad fit for Houston.

 

sure the players would've been different, but the point was that the rockets were in a different situation. they couldn't have had the assets to assemble the kind of team the bulls did. while the names would've been different for sure, the talent level would be about the same.

also, the bulls would'nt have had a chance at dream. the blazers would've taken him #2. they only passed on jordan because they had drexler and didn't think they needed another SG. pairing dream with clyde would've been a no brainer. they would've had like 8 championships while jordan and the rockets might not have had any.

 

Very true, talent level would have been the same, but we would still have a chance. My point is, it is difficult to assess what was going to happen, because they wouldn't be in the same situation. Dream and Drexler wouldn't necessarily be the two hall of famers they are today and the same goes for jordan.

As for bulls getting dream, I never said anything about that. Your right he would definitely have gone to portland.

 

I was about to make the same point myself. We wouldn't have had the same line ups if we had Jordan vs. Dream. I think Jordan would've been a great fit for the Rox as the Rox already had Sampson so for at least a few years we would've had a starting lineup with
Jon Lucas / Robert Reid
Michael Jordan
Rodney McCray
Jim Peterson
Ralph Sampson

Lou Lloyd as the sixth man.

That still would've been a very potent line up and probably one that still could've gone to the championship in '86.

 

i completely agree here. the problem is, the whole thread is dedicated to making up a different past!

 

The Compaq Center.

 

I think that those that say no to this thread aren't true Rockets fans. Hakeem meant so much to this franchise and played so well, that I don't think there's any way that you cold be unhappy with the choice.

Who's to say we wouldn't have won 12 titles in a row with Jordan instead of Hakeem? Nobody, but the point is this: I saw a whole career of Jordan playing for another team, and it wasn't so bad. Those two years or whatever when Hakeem was in Toronto - I know they killed just about every Rockets' fan there is. And that's your answer to this question.

 

Man, i was only born for maybe one Phi Slamma Jamma season.

 

Hakeem = best player ever
Jordan = the guy I wish played with Hakeem all those years

but, I'd still pick Vince Young over both of them.