My favorite Rocket is “Mad Max” but my greatest respect goes to “The Dream”. To me the greatest center to ever play the game. I like Olajuwon over Michael Jordan......if Olajuwon was 6’6”, I’m a strong believer Olajuwon would have given Jordan a run for his money and probably surpass MJ stat wise. It comes down to supporting cast for rings. As for Dirk, great offensive player (The Unicorn before the unicorn) but limited laterally on defense. Zone defense was allowed in 2001 and teams dabbled with zone defenses but it was regarded as a “girlie college defensive thing.” Because the Mavs wanted to hide the lateral speed (or lack there of) of Dirk/Tyson.....they went with a zone defense in 2010-11 season and it allowed “The Jet”, Kidd, JJ Barrea, Corey Brewer, Caron Butler to play on the perimeter and funnel D-Wade and LeBron to the interior D of Tyson C/Matrix. Many teams got caught flat-footed during those playoffs when facing the Mavs, as far as outside shooting is concerned, IMO. Miami big threat from outside was Mike Miller, Heat swarmed on him fast when he touched the ball. Chalmers was in his sophomore season and had a good rookie season but so-so second year. LeBron and D-Wade prepared better the following season as they brought in Battier and Norris Cole to help spread the defense. Again in my humble opinion. Teams just got better vs zone defenses. Zone busters are good shooters. Following seasons The Cuban dumped salary of Tyson Chandler and others to make room for Bosh and another rumored players. Or was it Dwight Howard/CP3? Anyway The Cuban went on to say the Rockets have no loyalty.
FWIW, Dirk's defense then, and his overall impact on team play and efficiency, are usually under appreciated by those not following any advance metrics on it. What Carlisle said about Dirk...he caused the other team to seriously have to game plan around him. He made all the players around him better, significantly. Which is what many similarly skilled offensive players (Melo?) never did. That is what elevates him to the status he achieved. As for his defense, yes, it seriously deteriorated late in his career, due to the mentioned lateral mobility issues (how many of us are as spry as we were 'back in the day'?). But during the prime of his career it was underrated. He was a very good defensive rebounder, he was a great help defender, and his one on one defense was underrated. You didn't see other teams go iso on him and have any continued success, no matter who the offensive player was. So, while not a great defender, he was a lot better than most people think.
