batmana wrote:but I also want to express my surprise at Hakeem being voted over Bird and also point out that I feel this is a bit of revisionist history - as great as Hakeem was, I doubt he was put in the same class as Bird during his career.
You're right - Bird was definitely more highly regarded during their careers, but narrative (rivalry with Magic and Lakers and what was often seen as a toss-up as far as the best player in the league in the 80s) is a big part of that (Hakeem's team were so much less talented than Larry's, it's so obvious) and their absolute primes were about 7/8 years apart, so it's hard to compare. Today, I'd say both are incredibly respected and it depends on who you're asking. Casuals more often point to Bird as the superior player because he's more decorated, has the better narrative (also they often put some kind of an asterisk on 1994 and 1995 Rockets titles because Jordan was retired and then came back a bit rusty in '95, also the Bulls didn't have a starting PF in '95, like no Grant or Rodman). Former players (especially bigs) and more serious analysts often tend to side a bit more with Olajuwon (I'm not necessarily saying that one or the other is correct, though).
As far as revisionist history, it depends how you look at it - sure, you can't change the fact that Bird was considered better between the two in the 80s, and actually the best player in the NBA for a few years (even called the best ever by some), but some of the new tools (advanced stats) show that Hakeem was comparable, or even slightly better at times - like the early 80s Bird vs late 80s Hakeem, where I think that Olajuwon might get the edge, especially in the playoffs), so I don't see anything wrong with that kind of a "revisionist history" (or "retrospective" as a I prefer to call it) - the fact that Bird was considered (and often simply was, by objective measures) the better player in the mid 80s, still stands rather firmly (but it's not exactly surprising - we're comparing Hakeem at the very beginning of his pro career to prime/peak Bird, which isn't exactly fair).
Also, there's the thing about many people being a bit reluctant to give current players (at any particular time that is, so for instance Olajuwon in the mid 90s) over retired, established legends. I think that's why some people still hold on as far as putting LeBron over some of the greats (though again, narrative plays a big role), like Magic, Bird, or even Kobe, who's approaching retirement and obviously has a lot of very passionate supporters.
Anyway, the #9 ballot was pretty close (for a long time I thought that Larry would take it), so let's move on.
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