RealGM

Who was the better player? If they swapped teams is the result the same?

I'll take Kareem probably. Tough to say for sure because 94 & 95 were Hakeem's peak seasons, where he played at a different level to his pre-96 career.

Definitely seems like Hakeem to me. They both had similar numbers, but ‘94 Hakeem is an all-time defensive season. Kareem was a very good defender, especially in his early years, but I just don’t see him on that level.

If you look at the Finals, the big difference between the two series is really that Hakeem held Ewing to 19 PPG on 36% from the field (career 21 PPG on 50%) while Kareem allowed Cowens to score 23 PPG on 44% from the field (career 18 PPG on 46%).

If you swap them, I think the Rockets definitely don’t win the title. Hakeem had to play a near perfect series going the Knicks and all their wins were close. The Bucks winning is a lot less sure. Kareem had some bad performances, but the Celtics wins weren’t all that close either. The 2 games where Cowens outplayed Kareem (Games 3 and 7), the Celtics won by 12 and 15.