Yet another Dream mention on "The Dan Patrick Show"

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=165221

 

Yo Tiger! Wassup! Why are you hiding nowadays?

Back when Rockets were winning the championships, Dan Patrick was on ESPN doing player interviews. I used to enjoy listening to him. The ESPN crew back then was muuuuuch better. Now they have a bunch of goons there who pretend to be cool.

Oh yeah, I agree. As good as Hakeem was, he was, is, and will always be underrated.

 

The biggest reason Hakeem was under-rated was because in his prime, he was never one to promote himself. By that time, he had become intense in his muslim faith and he was much more humble than even Yao I would say. But to me, this was part of Hakeem's greatness and mystique. Look at the picture of him accepting his MVP trophy, he literally shared it with his teammates as if it was a team award. Totally classy guy. He is definently missed. I've got more respect for Zo for giving props to Hakeem.

 

old.....

 

Who cares. Always good to be reminded of Dream, even if it is a second time.

 

That was great....Hakeem and Shaq are such defferent type players, it's an interesting debate on who's better......neither one would be able to stop the other....I guess on D Hakeem has the edge, also Hakeem I believe did a lot better job of making his teammates better....

 

As much of a force of nature as Shaq was in his prime, to me Hakeem's versaitilty and edge on defense, as well as ability to close out games which is something Shaq has been unable to do (poor ft shooting, combined with limited offensive arsenal) gives Hakeem the edge. There is a reason why Kobe/DWade always had the ball in their hands in the 4th quarter. With the Rockets, everything ran through Hakeem from opening tip til when the buzzer sounded.

 

Also, Hakeem's game is portable to any era. It's really difficult to argue that for any Center throughout history, but I think you can make the absolute best case with Dream. The only non-self inflicted trouble Dream ever had on the offensive side (after he learned how to trust his teammates) was with Seattle's zone defense, but that was also a result of the lack of offensive talent on the rest of the team.

I mean seriously, the Rockets ran Catch and Shoots from the top of the key using down screens for Dream!!! Think about that. What other Center runs around screens to catch and shoot 20 ft jumpers? In his prime, Dream could do the following:

Offense:
-Dream Shake (a crazy impossible fadeaway shot done beautifully)
-Jump Hook
-Up and Under
-Baseline Spin
-Combine any of the above moves with multiple spins and pump fakes
-Face up and drive
-Face up jumper
-Face up in and out dribble pull up jumper
-Catch and Shoot jumper off of a screen

Defense:
-Guard Any big man and block him straight up
-Incredible help defense
-Block shots and keep them in play
-Fall for a pump fake and still have the agility to block the shot
-Dominate the Boards
-Reach around steal on guards who get by him

I remember hearing a radio interview with a Blazers assistant or someone like that back when they faced the Rockets in the playoffs and the guy was talking about preparing for the Rockets and the research they did tracking the team. He said something along the lines of Dream touching the ball as the main play run over 95% of the time. It was that basic, that pure, and that dependable.

For those of you who missed out on the Rockets back then...it wasn't complicated. You gave the ball to Dream, and just watched him carry the team night in and night out....and to freakin Championships too. He was simply amazing to watch.

 

^ if that post wasn't so long, I'd make it my sig. Nice work, Kim.

 

I think Mourning is still mad about being called out in Shaq's rap song.

 

lol at typing out all those "uh" and "umm" in the interview. Its cool, you could leave those out you know.

 

Hakeem at his prime basically Yao's humble and noble spirit mixed with the ferociousness of a bum chasing the ham and the agility of a monkey in the huge body of a giant. I think the reason we are so harsh on Yao is because a lot of us was spoiled by the pure win that was the Dream.

 

LOL at the James White crack for my rep thingy.... that's cold Clutch!

 

Patrick Ewing: You think Hakeem was better than Me?
Dan Patrick: With out a doubt. . it ain't even close


D*MN . .. DP gets major props for telling the truth to the man's face.

Rocket River

 

Ewing did ask a pretty stupid question. There was no way of nicely putting it.

 

Man, there was nothing better than watching Hakeem in his prime...unbelievable. So glad I was fortunate enough to watch almost every game. He would DESTROY anyone in the NBA today

 

hakeem, to me anyways, is the best 2-way player of all time. for anyone who had actually saw hakeem play, they would understand what i'm talking about.

i dont' think there'll be another hakeem. i've never seen a guy so big, so skilled, with such dexterity/quickness/athleticism and passion for the game. he got better as he got older and you can't say that for many players.

and yes, he's vastly underrated.

 

i think patrick knew the answer also. i mean hakeem did dominate him in the 94 finals.