How tall was he, really? He's listed at 7 ft, but that linked article in his Wiki says he's closer to 6 ft 10.
Hops goes down with age. Hops in prime might not be as much as hops at a young age. Hakeem used to jump out of the building when at UH and his first years in the league. In his prime, he had learned how to conserve his energy and did not jump at everything. OTOH, Howard is not in his prime yet but his hops are not going to get any better, his skills will. A more appropriate question would be...Whose hops was better? A young Hakeem or a young Dwight? Hakeem was an athletic freak himself but I think Howard might have a better vertical. Hakeem was better at recovery. His 2nd and 3rd jumps were just as quick and just as high as his 1st ones.
OMG, Hakeem was fricken AMAZING when he was young swooping in from the side and dunking. Pat Riley in the playoffs wrote one thing on the chalk board. 1. KEEP HAKEEM OFF THE BOARDS They couldn't..... I think Hakeem was about 6'10"...but if you added in the size of his competive nature and heart, he was 10 feet tall. DD
if the life-size 5/6 part poster thing they did in the paper after the first championship is to scale, he is about 12 feet tall (when shooting a jumpshot)
Exactly! Also Hakeem had extra long arms and fingers, remember he is the leader in steals for big men in the history of the NBA. At 6'10 he was more than a cut above Howard and all other big men his atheticism was superior to most players. Remember Hakeem blocked Jabar's famed Hook shot and Michael Jordans three point shot.Howard would not be able to play such defence and is way behind Hakeen in his versatile array of scoring shots.
We can all pretty much agree on Hakeem's height. His age on the other hand... its like a Houston/Lagos urban legend type subject. According to several sources Hakeem may very well have been significantly older.
I think I remember reading that too. Looks about right (considering Ewing was always listed as 7'0" or higher):
Pure leaping ability, I'd have to say Howard, but purposeful, useful jumponjg ability then definitely dream. Howard leaps like a guard in a big man's body. Dream leaped and defned the basket like a big man. Howard will make many weak side highlight reel blocks, but he is not a particularly good on ball defender in the post because he doesn't use leverage very well. Dream - in his prime - was every bit the weak side shot blocker as Howard (still remember him blocking Kareem's "unblockable" sky hook on help defense with Sampson in his second season) but he was a FAR superior on ball defender. Dream was also the quickest re-jumper of any big man I have ever seen past or present. Most big men have to wind up to get explosion 9even Howard to some extent) but dream had an incredible pogo stick jumping ability. A true athlectic freak. Howard is a nice player and is flashy, but I must admit I get a little annoyed with all of the Howard vs. Dream questions. Dream was a FAR, FAR superior player to howard in every aspect of the game with the possible exception of defensive rebounding of which they are likely equal. Not really fair to howard though, there are only 2-3 big man that have ever stacked up to Dream in the history of the game. Howard has a lot of company in line.
I think he may have been a little shorter. I saw dream up close aqnd poersonal one time at a convention he attended to sign some autographs and he looked more 6' 9" ish to me. I have a very close relative that is about 6' 7" , so I use him as a good mental benchmark and dream wasn't much taller. Just another part of the incredible story.
Who cares how tall Dream was, how many center do you know of that could block three point shoots? Have the foot work that Dream had ( anyone remember CF and San Antonio) Plus Dream had a dazzling array of shot from inside hooks, dream shake (unstoppable), and mid range jumpers from anywhere on the floor. Howard is near the player Dream was ... in his prime Dream would dominate Howard just like he did Shaq, Robinsion, Ewing, and so on. We were lucky to have Dream.
A-freakin-men. That man scared everyone on the court when he first came into the league. He was a rabid dog, going after every shot and rebound. And, those dunks, when he was at UH and first came into the league, he just loved to punish the rim when he dunked the ball!
Dwight Howard's name shouldnt even be mention right next to the Dream. He has a long way to go to catch up to his greatness.
He was between 6'10" and 6'11". He definitely wasn't 7' - that was just a marketing ploy. If you've ever seen him stand next to Otis Thorpe, you'll see he's only an inch or so taller than OT. Howard's vertical is probably higher (his is around 39-40", I believe). I've read Hakeem's vertical was something around 36", but I'm not sure. Read my sig and you'll see why somebody as "short" as he was could put up crazy block numbers. It was the mere fact his jumps were explosive and repetitive. He really didn't need to get a running jump to jump high and once he jumped, he didn't need to recover much to fire up again. He was a pogo stick with ridiculously good timing.
Here is why Dream owns Howard, because Dream had this way of making his body move in ten different directions at once. After a few quarters of that, defenders simply became witnesses to their own humiliation, much like they were in a dream, get it? Hakeem had more than just raw athleticism. His game was so graceful it was almost like he was playing in slow motion.
