Good concise post, but like others have said, just watch film of Dream. The guy was incredible in the paint, and he had the fastest hands of any big man, ever. Heck, he's seventh all-time in steals.
I've always wondered the same thing about dunking, but I usually look at it as a skill that most players should learn and master because it is very helpful on good defense. It isn't nearly as hard as blocking someone. Like someone said before you have to watch the games to know. Alot of the shot blockers now days get them because no one is scrared to go to the rack on them. People repeatedly challenge Deke because they think he's old and can't block them. As said earlier, people didn't challenge the dream nearly as often.
Hakeem wins this comparison easily. Mutombo, however, wins the best "finger wag" award. See? Everyone's happy. Hakeem's number 1 in the record books, and although Mutombo is an accomplished shot blocker, he's never been the beast that Hakeem was. Spectacular.
You're also talking about a player that is heavily depended on offensively as well. If you have someone who just sits there waiting for block shots, then Camby might as well be added to the equation in his latter years. Dennis Rodman's a great rebounder, but he's always there waiting for it. I can honestly say that Camby's an average defender at best, as long as the guy he's supposed to be guarding has the ball and is posting up. I think Hakeem's intimidation and just his presence on the defensive end makes him a better shot blocker.
If dream wanted to stay and come off the bench and play 15mins pe night he would added even more blocks. Dream was on ball,off ball, anywhere. I would argue that dream is the greatest defensive player of all time . Had he accumulated a few more rebs, he would be the only player in top 10 in steals,blks, and rebs which is a defensive stat.
He isn't average but I always thought he was overrated. Him winning DPOY really made me mad because he really just gets praised for cleaning up the rest of his teams mistakes. Guys often forget what to do when they get in the paint so easily.
1) When Deke can cover the entire floor and block guards at the 3 point line, in addition to getting blocks in the paint, get back to me. That block on the perimeter in Finals gave Rockets their first championship. 2) When Deke can carry the entire offensive load for the team AND protect the paint, get back to me. Hakeem pretty much initiated the entire Rockets offense, rebounded, patrolled the paint AND got steals. I wonder how many more blocked shots and steals Hakeem would have over his career if he was told to only concentrate on defense and not worry about offense.
I avoided even clicking on this thread until just now. I figured it would just be one word: "Olajuwon." As it should be.
Its impossible to actually know. The NBA is totally a different league now than 50 years ago, or hell, even 10 years ago. If a player gets his shot swatted today, 10 million people see it. No one wants to get shown up, I think that alters the data somewhat. Also as someone else mentioned swatting a shot 10 rows into the stands get the glory...but its the blocks that go straight up or two feet away to a teammate that are far more effective.
Best shot blocker is one thing. Best paint defender and defensive presence is another. Deke blocks all those shots through incredible timing. And right now, he may be playing the best defense of his career in limited minutes, he's hardly ever out of position. Last night, against Charlotte, Deke simply shut down the whole paint area with his blocks and defensive presence. It was a joke watching Okafor going against him. It's not only the blocks. It's the fumbles out of bounds, the steals, the missed forced quick shots, etc. etc. that all takes place as a result of the opponent trying to get a shot up over Deke. He causes steals because opponents get the ball down there and they go into the crouch trying to gather themselves to spring over him, then they fake 3 or 4 times, and another defender can strip them. They also force up a ton of missed shots if they are not turning the ball over with the crazy dribbling underneath the basket. One stat that would be interesting to look at would be opponents shooting percentage in the paint area during the career of each of these big men when they were on the floor. Don't know how you would find it or gather the data to calculate it. But I would think for Deke, Alonzo, Russell, and Hakeem that shooting percentage would be very low. Wilt had a lot of blocks but I never felt like he really stopped all the activity in the paint. Too easy to fake him out and pass off for the easy bucket. Hakeem had this weakness too. Deke, Zo, and Russell were virtually impossible to fake out. And imagine Deke and Zo on the same team at Georgetown........and couldn't win a championship there.
Wow.......that's a bold statement. I loved the short period of time when (whomever it was) Bol's coach started putting him out on the perimeter and was allowing him to shoot 3's. Hilarious. The form was awful. He hit a few, and when he did, the crowd would go nuts (at home or on the road). Good times. Honestly, Bol was an OK shot blocker. Given his height, he should have been much better. But he did ok with his limited athleticism.
Just a thought that Hollinger brought up in one of his articles yesterday: Josh Smith is 22 and already has 1/5 of the blocks that Hakeem has...that's pretty impressive
this thread just shows how badass the old school players are. Deke is in his 40s. The youngster is just amazed how an old guy like Deke can do it so well. Its not speed, its experience. Deke knows when and where to block the shot. but for who's the best? thats the easiest question. look up at toyota center, the guy's name is on the "MOST BLOCK SHOTS".
the kids don't watch film.. they watch videos <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uBrEsNS9zKg&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uBrEsNS9zKg&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
Not sure what else you're expecting from him. He wasn't playing big minutes per game. Per-minute, he blows everyone else out of the water: Code: [B]Rk Player From To G MPG BLK36[/B] 1 Manute Bol 1986 1995 624 18.7 6.4 2 Mark Eaton 1983 1993 875 28.8 4.4 3 Jim McIlvaine 1995 2001 401 14.8 4.2 4 George Johnson 1973 1986 904 20.0 4.2 5 Shawn Bradley 1994 2005 832 23.5 3.9 6 Jawann Oldham 1981 1991 329 15.9 3.8 7 Tree Rollins 1978 1995 1156 20.8 3.8 8 Elmore Smith 1972 1979 562 31.8 3.6 9 Theo Ratliff 1996 2008 693 27.3 3.5 10 Harvey Catchings 1975 1985 725 18.2 3.4 11 Adonal Foyle 1998 2008 708 18.1 3.3 12 Alonzo Mourning 1993 2008 838 31.0 3.3 13 Greg Ostertag 1996 2006 756 19.5 3.2 14 Dikembe Mutombo 1992 2008 1171 31.1 3.2 15 Hakeem Olajuwon 1985 2002 1238 35.7 3.1 16 Marcus Camby 1997 2008 678 30.6 3.1 17 David Robinson 1990 2003 987 34.7 3.1 18 Joel Przybilla 2001 2008 394 19.6 3.0 19 DeSagana Diop 2002 2008 419 14.6 3.0 20 Charles Jones 1984 1998 726 19.4 2.9
Tinman's video shows the most important shot block in NBA history. Hakeem's block against John Starks. There wasn't and isn't a better shot blocker than the Dream,not even Deke.
you have to have the speed to run out from the paint and the skill not to foul the shooter. i'd also like to note that Robert horry's shot blocking abilities were overlooked since he played with the Dream.
