Game 4 of the 1995 NBA Finals in the Summit: In the 4th quarter, Hakeem has the ball in the left baseline against Shaq and he dribbled to his right, spun baseline and faded away towards the three point line and hit nothing but net. To me the Dream Shake is not one single move, it's a combination of moves and counter-moves to gain the best available shot.
Yao stuffs Amare down low, like he does everyone else, but on the perimeter, PFs go around him. Yao is slow defending PnRs and coming off screens. He is also slow getting into position trying to draw charging fouls (which he shouldn't even do that often IMO). I'm not saying Yao is too slow, just that it's only a factor on defense. He gets by people often enough on offense with his spin moves (sometimes assisted by hooking).
the dreamshake is one move, the fadeaway on the baseline. it's as simple as that. the video in the first post are a bunch of badass fakes but there isn't a dreamshake in there. hakeem did the shake alot but he probably scored most of his points on the little hookshot across the middle. that move gave him the edge to pull off the dreamshake. no one knew where he was going.
I'm on a dial-up so I have no idea of what you're all looking at, but there's been a lot of analysis over the last 30 years about what a fade-away shot is. Most of the time guys jump back and don't release the ball when they're at maximum elevation. The Dreamshake usually was a pivot, then a step and a half back and a surreal sense of knowing exactly where he was and when he was at the apex of the jump as he shot. I've seen only two guys do that. KG (twice, he's probably done it much more) and Yao in his rookie year. How Dream didn't get his feet stepped on more just shows you the "Cougar"-like quickness he had. There are only 3 unstoppable shots in the annals of basketball: Mikan's hook shot, Kareem's sky-hook (it was different) and the Dreamshake. That Yao at 7'5 could even hit one makes me really shake my head that people criticize his footwork.
agree with you... and Blatz i know what you mean that the move in teh gif is not the specific move that was usually seen on highlights as the dream shake, but it is the same thing....fake one way , back the other....like gene peterson used to say "dream put him in the popcorn machine"
I completely agree. The beauty of the Dreamshake was that it could end up different everytime down the court. Even Hakeem said that what it comes down to is one move creating an opportunity for the next. Its all options after its started. Just because the fade away along the baseline became his best known shot doesn't mean that's all the dreamshake was.
Yao's jump-hook is getting close. I can hardly remember him missing this shot in the second half of last year, let alone getting blocked.
Hakeem was unstoppable, he was just too quick for anyone close to his size to keep up with. In fact, the only time Hakeem had even a teensy bit of trouble was with a center too cumbersome and slow to bite on his fakes in time. Yao will never be as quick, strong or resourceful as Hakeem, and he will never have even 1/3rd the moves of Dream. Still at 7'6, Yao can certainly be unstoppable enough to win us championships. After all, Dream was never paired with a second talent the caliber of T-Mac....would have been like if we had Drexler in his prime instead of towards the end. Next year the Rockets will be the most exciting team in the NBA, and I am looking forward to watching.
