Enjoyed this a lot. So glad to see Hakeem is one of those former stars that still commands respect from all today. Too many former players are being de-valued and clowned on every day in the disrespectful media and fandom. I can't imagine where Hakeem would be if he had the help the other great C's had. Even Duncan had David Robinson a top 20 player for his first 2 and Kawhi for his last.
Even taking off my homer glasses (with them on he's the GOAT) he is a top 10 player of all time. People really don't grasp how insane his defensive contributions were. They look at the stats and they're like "sure he was a great player but how much better was he really than Ewing, Robinson, etc..." but no. Just no. Again, even with my homer glasses removed--he might legitimately be the best defensive player of all time. (He probably is.) To bring that level of value on defense and still be a legit #1 option on offense is right up there in overall production among the best to ever do it.
It was a pleasure watching him. I will say that prime Otis Thorpe was not a fluke all star and could have had multiple nods. Dream is easily top 10 in my opinion.
Yeah different era. I'm not sure i recall if OT was a coaches selection, but back then coaches selected the blue collar guys and the 3rd or 4th wheel glue guys from winning teams for bench or injury reserves so in a greater context, OT wouldn't be an all-star reserve in the new era. Horace Grant made 1 as a bench reserve. Laimbeer made a few and i want to say all were injury reserve selections. So people tend to look at things without context when they compare all stars in different eras. The starters are typically legendary no matter the era and losers who had talent weren't as often rewarded to see them on the all star bench. BJ Armstrong made 1 all star team in 95 b/c fan voting at McDonalds was spammed for his name being BJ. Kids everywhere voted for him, of course as kids will do. He was the 2nd leading vote getter behind Shaq, if i recall. Still makes me laugh, but now kids look back and say the era was trash b/c BJ Armstrong was an all star with his pathetic stats or that Jordan had so much all star help etc..I want to say even Horace was an injury replacement his lone all star, but i'm not certain on that.
That's fair but I disagree with the video maker that his all star appearance was a fluke. Averaging 18 and 10 in that era was pretty solid. He was really close to those numbers for about 6 straight years.
A brilliant video. Thanks for the find, OP. It's dead-on target. I completely agree with the fellow who did it. There's a lot I like about it, obviously, but one of the many things he says that stands out to me is one of the last things he says. That the Celtics team the Rockets went up against in the '86 Finals was arguably the best team in NBA history. I agree with that statement and have said the same thing multiple times over the years whenever the series has come up. The team our young Twin Towers went up against, battling them for 6 games, was simply tremendous. None of the best "talking heads" of the media back then thought the Rockets had a chance against them, even while our guys were being described as a future dynasty the whole time. Heck, they didn't think they had a chance against the defending champion Lakers, who they beat in 5 games in the Western Conference Finals. Silly me. I thought we had a punchers chance, but Bird, McHale, a healthy Bill Walton, the great Dennis Johnson and the rest of the Celtics had other ideas. And that was it. Our one season with the Twin Towers healthy and Hakeem not a rookie, when Dream and Sampson still weren't in their prime. After that season, Sampson wasn't the same player because of injuries, and a lot of the team was tossed due to cocaine. Add the Rockets' #1 pick of his draft in '76, John Lucas, tossed for coke in March of 1986, as someone else we lost. I've always wondered how we might have done in those '86 playoffs if Lucas hadn't succumbed to his addiction. If I'm being honest, we still would likely have lost to the Celtics. Bird was an assassin and that team was unbeatable. After the season was over everyone thought, we'll get them next year. Dream on.
Dream might be the only true center that could guard positions 1 thru 5 at a defensive mvp level. He had that much athleticism and was that good on defense.
I've always said Hakeem was/is the best. Perfect blend of power, speed, mobility, with great skills offensively as well as the ultimate defender. Could guard the perimeter and return to sender with the best of them while protecting the rim.
Didnt even mention Hakeem is #11 in career steals. Thats like being both Dikembe Mutombo AND Gary Payton. For what its worth, Hakeem had a 5-1 record vs Jordan's 3-peat Bulls before Jordan's first retirement
Here's my argument: If you have a 10-team league of all the best-ever players in their prime, it's crunch time in the 4th quarter, and the ball goes into the post for Wilt, Shaq, Kareem, Walton, Malone, or even Robinson, Ewing, or Duncan, you're doubling them all and forcing them to make a pass or shoot over two people. Then guys like Jordan, Kobe, LBJ, West, Baylor, Oscar, Durant, Curry, etc. kill you because you had to leave someone open. And yes, you're certainly doubling Olajuwon no matter who the defender is. The only team that can break that pattern is the team with Olajuwon because you can trust him to guard any post player in history straight up and it's a decent bet he'll get a steal, a block, alter a shot, deflect a pass, disrupt the rhythm, get the rebound. That's the difference. He's the only guy that demands a double team no matter who the post defender is (Russell? Pffft.) and the only guy that can guard any post player ever by himself when the game is on the line. I'll die on this hill.
Over a decade ago there was a great blog that did a deep dive in every possible dimension of analysis to address the question of best all time NBA players. Hakeem came up 5th. The conclusion is, based on regular season stats alone he isn’t there. Not only did injuries hurt his career in a way it didn’t for the other people in the pantheon, but it’s a near certainty that he took it easy in the regular season for vast stretches of his career. In the playoffs, however, at the peak of his skills combined with what remaining athleticism he still had in his 30’s to be the best defensive piece on the court, he was veritably unbeatable. The other nine players almost didn’t matter. Especially that 94-95 team, I fully believe that—given the momentum surge we had after beating the hardest matchups (highest win totals) of any team in the history of the NBA, only to reach the finals where we swept the 1 seed in the east with each game getting worse and worse for the opposition—if there was a FIFTH matchup we had to play after all of that, let’s call it the ‘97 Bulls, we would have beat that team too. As Kill Bill says, if we faced God that year, we would have cut him.
Jordan felt same way picking Dream as his starting Center on all time 5 unit The others who could match or pass Dream were Wilt and B Russell(more so defense) and in shape Shaq
Basically all the Top 5 Centers of All Time would dominate.......just pick your dude, pick your poison. You trust the mobile guys first other than Shaq who is just a brute force.
top 3 player all time for me. also the most humble player i have ever met. seems so much taller in person too.
