[Vyse]

Hakeem was / is much better than Shaq. Right now, Hakeem has played in 297 more games, not counting the four (!) Shaq has played this year. At this rate, with Shaq's extremely injury prone, 50-games played max self, Shaq will likely be at least a 100 games behind Hakeem.

Defensively, I don't think it is remotely close. Shaq was horrendous on the pick n roll for his entire career, and allowed many a point guard (sup Troy Hudson) to light up the Lakers. Olajuwon was extremely quick, one of the greatest help defenders ever, and wasn't afraid to guard someone like David Robinson near the perimeter. He was revolutionary. Much of this is evident in Olajuwon's steals totals -- while an inherently flawed statistic, in this case it speaks to Olajuwon's freakish athleticism and penchant for getting a hand everywhere.

Shaq was unquestionably a more dominant offensive force, but had enough shortcomings elsewhere -- conditioning and defense, mainly -- that leave Olajuwon more superior.

And lol @ titles. Titles are a product of team and not an individual. Shaq has always had much much much more to work with -- come on now, he got lucky enough to play with two surefire Hall of Famers, and another surefire HOF if Penny didn't get hurt. In fact, it's quite arguable that Kobe was > than Shaq, and it's impossible to argue that Wade ISN'T way way way way better than Shaq.