bill walton qoutes

[Aloysius]

KC - I think he was saying that.

I think it's pretty close between Hakeem and Shaq career-wise also, but clear edge to Shaq.

-Al

[DrewDevil]

Shaq's got 4 titles now, so I think he has a slight edge over Hakeem at this point.

I know DR scored a billion points but he was soft, too.

[kidcolin]

DR was "soft" when compared to Ewing and Hakeem. I'll agree to that. But he was still a monster in my book.

[ThaSaltCracka]

Hakeem was the better player, Shaq clearly waaaaay more dominant.

DD, explain why DR was soft.

[ThaSaltCracka]

btw, why is this in OOT?

[kidcolin]

That's kind of why I favor Hakeem. I could stick him on any team, in any system, and he'd dominate, even if he was the second option.

With Shaq, I pretty much need to change the whole game plan to fit him.

[ThaSaltCracka]

KC, you can say the same for DR and Ewing as well. Interesting that Ewing never got a ring. That 94 or was it 95 team? Probably had the best shot. I remember when Ewing played for the Sonics. There was a drinking game whenever he was in. When the Sonics were on offense, as soon as they shot, you started chugging and you couldn't stop until ewing was back on D.

[skunkworks]

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btw, why is this in OOT?

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You filthy Sporting Events folk keep bumping this (and drawing me in) [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[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.

[kidcolin]

whether or not I agree with you, this
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(sup Troy Hudson)

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was an awesome aside.