Will McGrady be the greatest Rocket ever? Better than Hakeem?

If my memeory serves me right, Jordan did play when Hakeem won his second championship. He took an early exit to Orlando magic. The same Magic that Hakeem's team swept in the finals.

 

It wasnt just 3 other guys. It was Magic, Kareem and James Worthy (one of the best finishers).

And no, you do not penalize him. But you do give Hakeem credit for what he did. Name me another player which has won a ring with as little help.

 

get some rings, then we'll talk

 

I know all about it, but it never really happened...

 

Succinct and to the point. Me likes.

 

What do you mean by as little help? Cassell, Elie, Smith, Drexler, Maxwell

 

T-Mac has never made it to the second round. I don't care who his teammates are. Stepping up in the playoffs is getting to the second round.

Hakeem didn't do squat in his first few years.?? Try 20 and 12 as a rookie. 23 and 11 in year 2 - and 27 and 12 in the playoffs as his team beats the Lakers to go to the finals. In year 4, he put up 37 and 17 in the playoffs. If thats doing squat in his first few years in the league, then TMac has done nothing.

wise up, son...

 

I believe many in this post are missing the true factors that will determine which of these two players will ultimately be determined the greatest Rocket of all time. Here is my assessment:

-- Hakeem --
There is simply no doubt in my mind and the mind of any long standing Rocket fan that Hakeem could very well be one of the top five players of all time. During a 2-3 year stretch, I believe and many will disagree, that he was even more dominant than Jordan, but only for that stretch of play. This is why Jordan remains the best ever and Hakeem could not be considered. However, the more important factor of being considered a "great" player is not only in your numbers, but in the marketing of who you are. Hakeem, in the end, will never be thought of as one of the 5 best players ever, maybe not even in the top 10 from a national or international media standpoint, and these so-called experts will easily forget his greatness simply because of his humbleness and lack of charisma off the court. So in our minds, as Houston Rocket fans, Hakeem was up there with the best and nationally as well, but just not as far up on the national scale because of the marketing of Hakeem.

-- T-Mac --
It's unfair at 25 to even be compared to a great like Hakeem but its a forum topic and fun to discuss none the less. T-Mac is already, again in my opinion, one of the most amazing scorers I have personally ever seen. Someone mentioned it earlier in the topic that his defense is "not scary" or something to that effect and I think that is just crazy. T-Mac's biggest improvement this year is the fact that his defense IS SCARY. He changes the game with his defensive quickness, lateral movement, quick hands, jumping ability, and most of all, ability to play under control defensively and never get it to foul trouble. The key to a good defender is sometimes the simple ability to stay on the floor and compete at a higher level than the opposing player. Take for example the other night against Lebron. T-Mac's defense may not have stopped Lebron but he surely made Lebron look like a good player, not the great one that he is.

Most importantly, T-Mac is absolutely amazing to watch. Where Hakeem was amazing as a big man, T-Mac is simply unbelievable at times and scores in ways I have never seen anyone score. You just need to look at some of the game stats he has compiled this year including, 13 in 35, Multiple Last Second Clutch Shots, Multiple Last Second Clutch Assists (thats a key to his success), shooting nights like the game in Utah, and just an amazing repitoire of game altering plays that make you jump up and scream "unbelievable" like the Dream days. No one can disagree that he is simply amazing to watch sometimes.

With these type of performances, it then comes down to national and international exposure. The national media will easily adopt Tracey as the best Rocket of all time if he goes on to win championships and improve his game and get more consistant. He's simply a much more marketable star than Hakeem ever was. Like it or not, thats a fact. If Yao and Tracey can continue to play together for 5, 10 years (which is quite possible) then Tracey will also blossom into the world's biggest star (unless Yao overtakes him with dominant play). With Yao, Tmac will reek an unbelievable amount of additional press and that could easily put him over Hakeem as the greatest Rocket ever.

With all that being said, the truth is easy... Hakeem will remain the best Rocket ever until stats, popularity, and championships dismantle him. And if that is the case, I believe we would all be happy to put Tmac or even Yao in that position if they bring us the rings.

 

I can't believe that you are dissing Hakeem FAOS. that is such ****ing blasphomy. don't ever talk **** about hakeem. if wanted to go to the raptors that's his business. it doesn't take away what he did for houston or the champioships or how great he was. you are a prick.

 

Drexler wasnt on the Rockets when they won the first chanpionship. Cassell was just a rookie then and did not play major minutes. He backed up Smith who got raped by Derek Harper in the finals. In fact, Houston's backcourt of Maxwell and Smith were completely outplayed in the finals. Starks and Harper killed them. The only reason Rockets won that series was because Hakeem outplayer pretty much everyone on the Knicks. Pat Riley tried multiple players and different combinations to slow down Hakeem to no avail.

What I mean by as little help is, name me another championship team which had as little to offer to the leading star player as the Rockets had to offer Hakeem in 93-94 championship run.

 

Dream's 93-94 season was the the most dominating performance by a center that I've ever seen. The man was a monster, taking on double and triple teams (remember those games vs. Seattle? they threw everyone at him as soon as he caught it).

He was a threat to score 30-40 every night and made David Robinson a joke.

And when he called his teammates over to accept the MVP award with him.. truely a dream season.

 

Ha! You had to name 2 all-stars together to come up with that one. Ben had Wallace and Wallace has ben. In 93-94 Hakeem had who?

Try again.

 

Or Larry Bird's for that matter.

Magic and Bird have ALWAYS played pretty much with star-studded lineups, something Jordan never had the luxury of in his career (besides waiting for Pippen to be a star in his own right).

That is why Jordan is so much better than either of those guys, he built the Bulls from the ground up.

Still, you are absolutely right, you can't penalize someone for already having great players on his team and winning with them.

But here is what some are forgetting: Yao is NOT yet a great player, he is just a very good player at this point of his career. So if McGrady wins a ring or something while Yao is still the type of player he is now, it will be that he won it being the only great player on the team, with a cast of excellent players.

However, since I do believe that Yao is eventually going to be a great and dominant big man, may be a few years down the road, I still stand by my assertion that the Rockets' championship aspirations rest entirely on Yao's development as a player. We will win it all IF Yao continues on the path of development that (hopefully) will make him a great player one day.

It is no coincidence that the two teams which have won the last 5 championships have had the two most dominant big men in teh game: Shaq and Duncan. I think this tells you all you need to know.

 

Seriously. File this with the 'Will LeBron be the Greatest Ever' talk.

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Evan

 

I can't believe almost 30 percent of the people misunderstood the question.

 

i can't believe 30 percent voted yes. they must be the thirty percent of this generation who never watched hakeem. any true rockets fan knows we woulda kicked jordan's ass in 94 or 95.

 

Notice I didn't mention the Pistons, I don't care much for a fluke

BTW, Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace are NOT great players, and never will be. They are just very good/solid role players. There are no stars on that Pistons team, just a bunch of above-average players that play well together and have one of the best coaches in the league.