The Dream blocked shot, fast break, and Dream dunk all in one smooth motion is amazing. He did that many times. We never understood his greatness while watching it live. Did we?
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IYtCD32Sq-0&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IYtCD32Sq-0&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> This series was the greatest moment against the Jazz in my opinion. I was trying to find specific game highlights because in one game both Olajuwon and Clyde scored 40 pts. If someone has them please post.
I get chills watching videos like that. He was so freakishly, unbelievably good. We were really lucky to have had that to watch in Houston for as long as we did. I'm a little surprised by the post defense you see in that video. Maybe it was because the Jazz always had scrub centers back in those years, but none of them make much of an effort at all to deny the entry pass or push Dream out. Probably because Dream got the superstar calls for the most part and they wouldn't let them do that. But I struck by how much more the league allows defenders to do to the likes of Yao in today's NBA.
The defense rules have changed to allow zones which make it harder to get an entry pass into the post. That said the man to man defenses back then were more physical since hand checking was allowed.
My own opinion here... And not biased. But having watched Dream play, I truly believe he is/was the greatest player of all time, period! He played in an era where there were plenty of other 7 footers, unlike centers of year's past like Russel, etc. He also at 6'10 had incredible athleticism!You cant compare Yao to a LeBron or Kobe but I would say you could compare Dream's quickness and athleticism with those guys. He was unbelievable! I remember as a youngin' in the early and mid 90's watching Rockets games just because i wanted to see how many points and blocks Dream would get. It was exciting!
So... in Star Wars, are scenes with the Emperor "uncalled for," and insulting Luke and the good guys? ... in Lord of the Ring, does Peter Jackson secretly hate the hobbits because he has scenes with orcs and other weird creatures? ... in Rocky III, are we sneakily supposed to prefer Mr. T, because he won one of the fights? ... in World History classes, does the mention of Hitler -- and a description of Axis victories -- mean that our teachers are Hitler sympathizers? Every good story has a good villain. (That's probably over-stating the case. But still.) I, for one, am glad that the highlights showed some Jazz scoring, as it injects the video with drama. Good show, OP.
I know all that, but I'm not talking about the help defense and I'm not talking about hand checking (the rule change for which only really effect perimeter defense because post defenders are still allowing to put their arm on the offensive player). I'm talking about the defense of the post defender behind Dream. He just stands there really, waiting for Dream to get the inbounds pass. Perhaps this video is a bad example because the Jazz didn't really put much effort into defending it, but these days you see guys in the post jockeying for position in very spirited ways before they get their pass. There will be attempts to front or push out the player past their comfort zone. You don't really see much of any of that in the video.
There was less of that because of the illegal defense rules. In order to front a player, you give up the possibility of a lob pass over the top, giving the offensive player an uncontested route to the basket. Today, the best defense against the lob--as we've seen time and time again recently with yao--is to sink a defender off his man into the lane to play "safety", so when the entry is thrown over the first defender , there is a second defender already there to trap/steal the ball. This is why fronting was effective against Yao--it forces a particular sort of entry pass(the lob), and there can already be a 2nd defender waiting to pounce on that HOWEVER, this was not always the case--the illegal defense rules were different then--they were explicitly designed to outlaw zone defenses. There was no "defensive three seconds"--if a player was in no-mans land away from the ball, not really guarding anybody, that was a violation. You couldn't move to double team someone before they had the ball. It happened twice in the above video clip. What this meant was if the rockets spaced the court properly, anyone sinking in to play "safety" against the lob would get called for illegal defense. If they didn't sink a second defender and tried to front, then Hakeem would catch lobs and spend the day dunking on everybody. This also explains why guys didn't "push hakeem out" further. When you push an offensive player away from the basket, you leave yourself vulnerable to the offensive player spinning around and sealing you away from the basket and calling for a lob, creating the same situation. Unnecessarily long explanation, but hey, it's important to know the game's evolution. :grin: Of course, the other explanation is that Hakeem was freakishly strong and had unreal balance for a man his size, which made getting post position on scrubs like the 94 jazz bigs easy. Likely some combination of the two.
I realize you know all that but that's my best explanation. It is odd that they don't jostle him more. Probably had something to do with the fact that dream was going to win he position battle anyway, and playing behind him at least put the jazz between him and the basket. who knows.
