The question posed was who not what. Obviously the illegal defense would be the obvious choice for what. As for who... I'm sticking with Sam Perkins.
Other players who gave him trouble were Stanley Roberts with his size and Rony Seikaly because he was slow. No one person could stop him,the Sonics triple teamed him with their illegal zone which was the biggest problem for him.
there's not one single human being that can give hakeem problems.. i've never seen anyone more triple-teamed than hakeem olajuwon!!
Rony Seikaly (most underrated defender against Hakeem), very agile and quick, which is what you need against Dream. Mark Eaton (the best probably), stand still defender or stay in front him (this is part of what Yao does against Dwight Howard). (younger) Patrick Ewing Shaq (in his prime) (but remember Hakeem was in decline).
Forget that the one who gave him fits was Shawn Kemp.. Could of have been one of the greats if he didn't eat himself out of a job. Let a lone been a man w****.
yes, i remember. i think we lost to them like 8 times straight or something in 91-93 years. i remember going to a game for my birthday i think in 1993. we lost to them.
I will NEVER forget the time, in Seattle, when Akeem punched Cage dead in his grill. They stared off and I don't think Akeem was going to do anything til Dream dented his nose in nland sent Jheri curl juice spraying 3 rows into the crowd. The cagey, dirty defense never was an issue after that ass kicking.
I will NEVER forget the time, in Seattle, when Akeem punched Cage dead in his grill. They stared off and I don't think Akeem was going to do anything til Dream dented his nose in and sent Jheri curl juice spraying 3 rows into the crowd. The cagey, dirty defense never was an issue after that ass kicking.
It's actually Sam Perkins - they mythos around Eaton dominating Olajuwon is not really that accurate. Sure he was less awesome against him in his first season, but he solved the mystery pretty quickly and after 2 or 3 years Eaton didn't present any particular problems.
I guess I have to post this every time the topic comes up, but Seattle did not give him problems until '96, when he was getting old/injured. Again, check his stats against Seattle in the '93 playoffs.
Found it. Google is unbelieveable sometimes. http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...QcSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CfADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6815,4824646
More from a psychological standpoint than a physical one. Cage was a bit dirty (he was old school) and could really get under Hakeem's skin. Maurice Lucas too.
It was mostly taller, fatter type centers that gave him fits. I even remember Big Country Reeves giving him some trouble, granted that was more toward the tail end of his career.
Mark Eaton caused Hakeem to change his game. Look at Hakeem's game early in his career and you'll see he would bang with the big men down low and dunk on them. He couldn't do this with Eaton because Eaton was wide and tall. At this point in his career, he hadn't fully developed his outside game or all of his myriad of moves. He's said that he wanted to change and add to the way he played to counter what others did to him and one thing he wanted to do was avoid having to bang in the paint against players who outweighed him by 20-30+ pounds and "outheighted" him by 3-5+ inches. Eaton was 7'4" and 290-300 lbs and gave Hakeem fits in the post. Much of Hakeem's 12 feet and beyond shots and moves were made to avoid having to face that all game long. Whoever said Michael Cage... awesome - you know your Rockets history. I would also have to add the combination of Bill Hanzlik and Danny Schayes giving the Twin Towers fits. Another one who we'll never know how good he could've been that played well against Hakeem was Roy Tarpley. Lastly, David Robinson gets knocked for being humiliated in the playoffs, but early in his career, he gave Hakeem fits because he was tall, quick, strong, and fast. He also dominated Hakeem in what was quite possibly the worst game I think I've seen Hakeem ever play (I believe he ended up scoring 6 points). Hakeem adjusted and played DRob much better the rest of their careers and they each got the better of the other throughout their careers until ..... that playoff series when Hakeem turned into a monster.
