Only one other player has even gotten MVP and DPOY in the same year: Michael Jordan in 1987. Defense is always underrated in every sport. Even unquestionably smothering defense like that from the guy that owns the all-time blocks record by a mile. So, in baseball, one of the greatest labels a player can earn is "five-tool player." It's an unofficial title, but it's pretty rare for people to all agree on it, so even among HoFers, it's a revered subset. There's extra respect for players that excelled in all aspects of the game. Jeff Bagwell was a five-tool player. In baseball, it means speed, power, hitting for average, fielding and arm strength. In basketball, we'd call the five tools points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals. The standard ___-double stats. Hakeem Olajuwon was the greatest five-tool player in NBA history. One of only four players to have a quadruple-double (arguably should have two of them.) Closest player ever to a quintuple-double. Most 5x5s in NBA history (6), twice as many as the next closest. Number 10 all time in steals. Number 14 all time in rebounds (Shaq is 16th). And then just go watch some videos of Hakeem to cement this. He'd cover every player on the other team on defense in one play and then go hit a difficult fadeaway like it was effortless on the other side. That's Hakeem's legacy: no one was better at doing everything.
Kobe was amazing, an all time great. Certainly in the top 15 of all time. That’s nothing to sneeze at. But he’s wildly overrated by fans and media based on the way his game looks and that he was a Laker. He’s not in GOAT conversation and certainly not in the top 10. Any comparison between him and Jordan or LeBron is plain foolish. He’s not on their level.
'87-'88 season. In looking at stats to make a bigger argument, I looked quickly at the first number and not the second. Split-year sports are so annoying to talk about.
Defense is certainly underrated, but even more criminal is many aspects of it are not represented in the form of stats. The glaring one that applies here is how many shots he changed resulting in misses. In actual watching, it seems like for every block, there were two more that were changed. If these were tallied and combined with blocks, Hakeem would have been in double digits many a night. He would have been the triple double king easily during his prime years. More than Westbrook is/was perhaps.
since nobody has ever done a 5x5 in a playoff game, the best is a 5x4. 3 people have done it twice. hakeem did it 3 times. in 1994. he did it 8 times overall out of 23 occurrences. if you limit it to games where someone was one short of a 5x5 in only 1 category, it's hakeem 5, rest of nba history 4.
https://clutchpoints.com/espns-top-nba-players-list-badly-misses-the-mark-with-hakeem-olajuwon/ At his peak, Olajuwon has a legitimate argument for being the NBA’s greatest big man of all time. The funny thing is, Olajuwon’s inhuman offensive arsenal probably wasn’t even the most impressive part of his game. His defense was. Olajuwon is not only a top 10 lock on any sanely considered list, but he is also a top-five player.
Another problem is many don't actually analyze the comparisions and look deep into these players to compare. So the case for Olajuwon isn't fleshed out for some people unless they have been part of that kind of project. So if anyone would like to know why some have this opinon, and not just a homer opinion, one based on a real cases and numbers, please list a center you think is better past or present and why. Not meant to prove or disprove as all these guys are incredible players and all time greats, but show the case why he is better for educational purposes and sometimes it's fun to learn about historical players you never knew about. Any center, Kareem, Wilt, Russell, Shaq or even Duncan. Who is your GOAT center besides Hakeem and why?
The answer is easy, 4 of those guys played in LA/Boston and Duncan is the contemporary outlier. If Dream player on one of the coasts he’d be top 3-5 all time
Has Hakeem 6th which is fair. https://www.backpicks.com/2018/03/25/backpicks-goat-hakeem-olajuwon/ His list is well thought out and each player is a fun read. I don’t think he’s always consistent with how he ended up with the rankings but that’s nit picking what is really a well researched and though out exercise. I also couldn’t leave Bird out of the top 10. https://backpicks.com/2017/12/11/the-backpicks-goat-the-40-best-careers-in-nba-history/
I've read ElGee's work (his handle from another forum) and he has an excellent analysis. He is more of a longevity guy and value added. I'll jump in here later to add info when I have more time.
I have said it before and I will say it again if Hakeem was American he would have been more popular. He had a fairly heavy accent. If he were in LA/Chi/NYC that would have been enough to overcome not being American. But he was in Houston. If you look at the stats though and that he did in fact win twice he is at least somewhere around 7-9th.
and it was the same thing with pretty boy Curry vs homeless beard Harden... Companies pay big money to promote an image...
[ Here is my Top 5 all time 1. Michael Jordan 2. Wilt Chamberlain 3. LeBron James 4. Kobe Bryant 5. Hakeem Olajuwon QUOTE="D-rock, post: 12954645, member: 18806"] He doesn’t get enough credit. He’s the only player in NBA history to win MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP in the same year. Hakeem Olajuwon is the one player that stands out to me that is not in the top 10. You look at all these players who accomplished so much. No one has ever accomplished that feat. https://rocketswire.usatoday.com/20...m-olajuwon-underrated-by-espns-all-time-list/ [/QUOTE]
Drexler, Barkley, Sampson & Pippen (POS himself) were all perennial all stars & teammates of Hakeem. He played on some “loaded” teams. Rudy T is a fantastic coach, too. Otis and the rest of the team were all fantastic role players, too. A lot of years we just imploded. To say “IF” Dream had help “THAN” he could of is just wrong because he did. Prejudice and location are the two things that he couldn’t overcome still today.
Every team has their hero that is not on the list and an argument as to why they should be added. Dallas - Dirk Nowitzki San Antonio - David Robinson and Tim Duncan Portland - Clyde Drexler and Bill Walton Utah - John Stockton & Karl Malone. The difference is Dream really does belong on ANY all time greats list.
Random thought. location really does matter What is the best ice cream? Here —> Blue Bell Central US —> Braun’s Upper East Coast —>Hood, Ben & Jerry Upper West Coast —>Tillamook Best wrestler of all time? Here —> Gino Hernandez & Ted DiBiase Upper East Coast —> Bruno Andre the giant & Hogan Southern US —> Flair, Roads and 4 horseman. Upper West Coast —> Piper and Buddy Rose
Backpicks.com did a very nice comprehensive list of top 40 players and had Hakeem at 6th between Duncan and Shaq. Zack lowe once mentioned in a podcast he had a definitive top 11 players in history and Olajuwon was on there. He didnt rank them though. In general the stat people generally have Hakeem in this range.
Hakeem was better than both Duncan and Shaq. Not even close. Greatest NBA big man of all time is between Kareem and Dream. Russell and Wilt are the only other names that deserve consideration but Olajuwon and Abdul-Jabbar were advanced offensive/defensive geniuses with unrivalled skill for bigs in addition to their athleticism/size. Sky Hook and Dream Shake are iconic signature moves. My top 10: 1) Michael Jordan 2) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 3) Hakeem Olajuwon 4) Bill Russell 5) Wilt Chamberlain 6) Magic Johnson 7) Oscar Robertson 8) Larry Bird 9) Tim Duncan 10)Shaquille O'Neal Jerry West, Dr.J, Kobe and Lebron are top 15.