I just don't get the love that "Dream" gets, and how anyone can say he's even on the other side of the Pacific of Chamberlain, Alcindor, O'Neal, and Russell.
Hakeem was never a truly dominating rebounder. Yes, he won two rebouning titles, but he was never an elite rebounder, such as Moses, Russell, Rodman, and Wilt. In fact, he was routinely outrebounded in his post-season series, and even by teammates.
His defense has been over-rated as well. Robinson outshot him by a sizeable margin their career H2H's. A 35-36 year old Gilmore, in ten straight games against Hakeem, averaged 24 ppg on... get this... a .677 FG%. A 38-39 year old KAJ, again, in ten straight H2H games, averaged 32 ppg on a .621 FG% (and, overall, a 38-41 year old KAJ outscored a 23-26 year old Hakeem, in their 23 career H2H's, and outshot him by a .607 to .512 margin.) And we know that a 22 year old Shaq averaged 28 ppg on a .595 FG% against a PEAK Hakeem (and just annihilated him overall in their career H2H's.)
He was nowhere near the best shot-blocker of his era, either. "Cement Shoes" Eaton was clearly better. As was Dikembe. In fact, players like Bol and Mourning were his equal.
Scoring? Hakeem never sniffed a scoring title. And he had to take a ton of shots to get close. Even in his own era, Shaq and Robinson were clearly better scorers, and a prime Ewing was his equal. And that is just the list of centers in his era, and doesn't include Jordan, Wilkins, and Karl Malone, either.
FG%? Hakeem currently ranks 69th all-time, and tied with Okafor. His greatest single season mark, of .538 is not even on the all-time top-250 list. And keep in mind that Hakeem played in an era when FG%'s and eFG%'s were at league averages of as high as 50%. He was barely outshooting the league averages, even in his post-seasons (and in some, he wasn't.)
Assists? Among the great "black-holes" of all-time. His career average is only 2.5 apg, and even his post-season average was only 3.2 apg.
And his post-season numbers were skewed by the fact that he was routinely ousted in the first-round.
Winning? He played on five teams, in eighteen seasons, that even won 50 games, with a HIGH of 58 wins. He won one ring, in a post-season in which MJ did not play, and in which he did not face a legitimate center in the first three rounds, and barely hung on to beat a less talented 56-26 Knicks team. In his second title run, he was outplayed by a 22 year old Shaq in the Finals, but was saved by his TEAMMATES who just crushed Shaq's in every facet of the game.
Take away those two seasons, of 92-93, and 93-94, and he was generally MILES behind the winner in total MVP votes. My gawd, the year after he won his only MVP award (94-95), he finished fifth, with 147 total votes (and again, ONE first place votes), and way behind Robinson's 901 (and 73 first place votes.) And then, the year following that one (in which he did wipe the floor with Robinson...but was outplayed by a 22 year old Shaq in the Finals), he finished 4th, with 238 total votes (and again, ONE first place vote), and well behind both MJ's total of 1114 (and 109 first place votes...again, surpassing Hakeem's CAREER total), AND Robinson's 574.
Think about the above for a moment. A PEAK Hakeem, which was from 92-93 thru 95-96, finished 2nd, 1st, 5th, and 4th in the MVP voting. In two of those four years, he finished behind Robinson (even a year after blowing him away in the WCF's.) In his ONE MVP season, he was nowhere near considered the consensus best player, and in the other three, it was a question of just how far back behind the leader(s) he would finish.
And in the rest of his career, covering 14 seasons, he was, at best, just an after-thought. And in many, he wasn't even considered a Top-10 player. And that was it. The rest of
his career was "highlighted" by 45 win seasons, and first round playoff exits, yet he's somehow comparable to a player that gets GOAT talks
I've said this before, but if we're gonna measure players on talent, than Derrick Coleman has to be at the top of the AT power forward list
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