Sedale Threatt wrote:Dream could be mentioned, too, but that's the thing. You can make a good case for all the top-tier guys. My thing with him, as beautiful as he was to watch, and for all the great results, he didn't seem to be at that destroy-everything-in-his-path level for nearly long enough.
As a Rockets fan, I've gone over pretty much every Olajuwon documentary out there, his turn might be a little early, but I guess he can come into arguments soon.
First of all, he's a very fast learner. When he first came to the United States, and ultimately choose Houston as the college he wanted to attend and play basketball for he was offensively inept. He was brought to Houston to do three things: Defend, block shots, and rebound. Which he did very well, but a lot of his physical gifts really went overlooked.
Some of those physical gifts were his beautiful footwork and his overpowering strength (he wasn't the very biggest physical specimen at the time). He wanted to evolve as a basketball player, so he spent the '83 summer with Moses Malone. Malone basically showed him simple ways of using his power to put the ball into the basket, which eventually later in the '83 NCAA season helped him exploit his physical gifts with his offensive skill.
He had immediate impact, and we saw how far a talented surrounding him can go in '86, but after Sampson went down, Houston really didn't have any supporting offensively or defensively. He still though anchored some fine defenses despite everything about the Rockets supporting talent, and although he didn't make it to the playoffs or had a few early exits, he was very much so dominant.
Early part of Olajuwon's career where he was winning rebound titles and learning to score more on his offensive volume, he was very much so dominant, maybe it was the lack spotlight as compared to Ewing, or maybe it was how irrelevant the Rockets were. You can clearly argue that he his case statistically and physically, the public eye didn't see it until around '92, but I can assure you that he was very much so capable of being in that "destroy-everything-in-his-path" mode.
The Rockets didn't really help his case in the early 90s, the management sucked donkey balls, to where they went public stating that he "gave up" on the season and faked an injury. Obviously, Olajuwon being a very strict religious Muslim found that offensive, and went open with trade demands. Guess in the end they worked it all out, and he was good to go.
Don Chaney pretty much laid the blueprint down for Houston, they had the shooters, energy, and some awesome role players, BUT I'll say it again, I don't think any team was capable of stopping them in the west, aside from the Seattle Supersonics. It's not that he didn't have the dominant season, but it's more that he didn't have the team to HELP him further those dominant seasons. You can definitely put him in the mix with these next upcoming players, clearly on the level of Shaq and Duncan.
Shaq once stated "It all started with Hakeem. In my mind, it all ends with Hakeem. He's No. 1. No question. Always will be. I saw it up close.", I think that should be taken into consideration, he didn't necessarily have the advantage to dominate earlier in the season, but supporting casts come into play for a lot of things. And if we're valuing his individual skills as a basketball player, and his ability to contribute even to his fullest to show the impact, he's definitely up there.
Anyways, I've decided on my vote, Wilt Chamberlain out of the bunch is the best player we've seen play, especially in '67, I don't think anyone posses as much talent and skill as this man, arguably the greatest athlete to play the sport of basketball, and his ability to dominate in different styles and arrays shouldn't go unnoticed. He's below Abdul-Jabbar, but if we're drafting players without knowing ANYTHING about them, I'd take Chamberlain over anyone in the history of the game, and that should at least mean something.
Vote: Wilt Chamberlain
Nominate: Kevin Garnett
