Hakeem or Shaq in their Prime...who do you take?

Question

I go with the dream hands down. Here is why:

1. Far , far , FAR more offensive moves that shaq ever had

2. More athletic and was the complete player on both sides of the court.

3. BEAT shaq heads up in the NBA finals

4. One two titles and never had a guy like Kobe or D Wade on his team. Ok, he had a 34 year old declining Clyde Drexler. Shaq should take no credit for his fourth ring as he was a non factor the entire series. And imagine if the dream had a guy like Kobe when they were both in their primes...can you say like 5 or 6 rings??

Some old school of the dream...sick mix

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uBrEsNS9zKg

The dream vs shaq in the finals:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qWUIZqoNr4Q&feature=related

I'd love to have both...but gimme The Dream. Tell me what yall think.

Answer 1

Hakeem! No doubt!

1) As you mentioned before, he has no sidekick for his 2 rings.

2) Hakeem did beat Shaq but Shaq is probably Hakeem's toughest competitor.

3) Don't forget who Hakeem has to face during his era.

(obviously Shaq, David Robinson (when he was in his prime), Patrick Ewing (ditto))

4) The Dream Shake. A finesse move that got him to the hoop without the wear and tear most center have to take. Also a good jumper from 15 feet in!

5) Gotta give some credits to Shaq. He was the most dominated center. But i have to point this out, who actually can stop shaq during his prime maybe dampier, vladi divac, or indeed the greatest dunked on machine Shawn Bradly !!!

Answer 2

it's a toss up

I'd take Shaq

Hakeem dominated Shaq because Shaq was still very young, and not in his prime...

Answer 3

shaq even though his time as passed

Answer 4

Are you serious!!!  Hakeem all day long!!!

Answer 5

Hakeem he was a true meaning of a lowpost scorer

Answer 6

hakeem

Answer 7

What up Karl D,

I'd go with Hakeem the Dream over Shaq for the following reasons:

1)  Everyone knows that defense wins Championships and Hakeem was not only a better shot blocker than Shaq but he used to be great playing the passing lanes and was a great help defender.  Much better than Shaq.

2)  Hakeem can make free throws. But sorry in the 4th quarter with the game on a line- you want a go to guy that you can go to- there would never be a Hack-a-Hakeem.

3)  Is kind of tied to #2 in that - remember Hakeem didn't learn basketball till he was like 15.  In other words- he worked hard to get to where he was and make himself one of the most complete players of all-time.  Is it me- or does every team Shaq leaves- always question his work ethic??  

4)  Hakeem was less talk more walk.  You never saw Hakeem blasting anyone in the news- he humbly let his game do the talking and really had his teammates and in my opinion the respect of everyone in the league.  

5)  Better passing big man of the two.  

Hakeem hands down!

Nickster

Answer 8

I'd go with The Dream as well. I think that there was a good reason that he was called the Dream. Because only in your dreams could you find a C like him. To the guy above me, Shaq has never won League MVP, Finals MVP and D-Player of the year in the same year. I choose the Dream because of his defense. Shaq could probably win in a shootout I'll give you that, but when it comes to Defense there are maybe 3 guys in the history of the NBA that can match Olajuwon.

Answer 9

id like them to settle it in a deathmatch. il pick hakeem.

Answer 10

Robert Horry played with, and won titles with both, and when asked he said The Dream was better.  How could you argue with that?

Answer 11

Well I cant argue with you picking the Dream, They were both great...Ive watched both,but I'd have to go with Shaq, for about a 5 year span Shaq was auguably the most dominate player ever...Shaq didnt need offensive moves, by any means, and was actually a better scorer (point wise) than the dream.......

-Also you have to consider, that Shaq was basically a child when the Rockets Swept Magic, While Hakeem was in his prime

-The Rockets did have Clyde Drexler (Who was actually still good at 34), Hakeem didnt win a championship, till they traded for him, which was midway during the season, they also had a complete roster, and play as a team..Still Shaq 6 final apperances, is alot more than 2...And he didnt do it with one roster, he did it with 3 differnt teams

Answer 12

The Dream!

Answer 13

No question its going to be Hakeem the dream

He is quick and athletic enough to beat shaq any day...

shaq is still the same player that he was in his prime.... a bulldozer nothing more i havent seen shaq do a fade away, a shot fake and a finesse move all he did was plow his way inside for an easy 2

hakeem had court vision for a big man... also he was a tremendous shot blocker, an intense player and a guy who can shoot that mid range jumper which shaq could NEVER DO in a million years

the work ethic to stay in shape is incredible... i remember pat riley saying that shaq was too fat... and all that goes to show that he is REALLY LETTING HIMSELF GO

hakeem has great basketball IQ and that dream shake is just unbelievable... he will own shaq any day

FT wise shaq is already losing that game..

Answer 14

Shaq ....not even close!

Shaq was only 20 years old when he played Hakeem then. Hakeem was in his prime.

Why don't you show the 1999 first round playoffs between the Lakers and Houston?

Answer 15

Shaq without a question. Hakeem only got two titles because MJ was playing baseball. Hakeem has only been to two finals, Shaq has been in 6. Shaq was real young when Hakeem beat him. Your giving Kobe way too much credit, look at Shaq's numbers in the finals when they won, there as a reason Shaq was mvp everytime. When the heat won the finals, Shaq was the reason they beat the pistons that year to get there.

Answer 16

Shaq is better

but I would pick hakeem

Answer 17

HAKEEM THE DREAM anyday.

Answer 18

Hakeem actually CARED a lot about his game and staying in shape. I'd always choose Hakeem ahead of Shaq.

(Of course, it don't hurt that I'm a Rockets fan, either!)

Shaq was built to be (and could have been) the greatest center in NBA history but he didn't commit himself to it as much as he should have.

He wasted a lot of time on films and music. Had he put all his energies into b-ball instead, he would have gone down as the best. Plus, Shaq was too worried about his ''rep'' and turned down a chance to get better.

Rick Barry offered to teach Shaq how to improve at the FT line but it meant shooting the FT ''granny style''. But Barry was convinced that Shaq would have improved to at least a 75% (or better) shooter from the stripe. But Shaq turned down the chance to improve his game because he felt shooting like that would ''hurt his rep". Thing is, if he had improved to 75% or better then he would have gotten fouled less and his body wouldn't have gotten beaten up as badly as it has been.

I always thought that if Shaq shot the ball "granny style" from the line that the young kids would want to copy him, figuring it was now "cool" to do.

That might have happened, too. For instance, I can still remember when ''computer geeks'' were made fun of. Now, if you aren't one, you are made fun of.

Times change... and so does people's perceptions of things...

Answer 19

Hakeem! Its a dream to pick him. True, Shaq was dominant in his Lakers era but Hakeem solidified his status as the greatest Center when he tore up the league with his plays. If it weren't for a guy named Michael, this wouldn't even be a discussion. And during Hakeem's era he had to put up with other elite centers like Ewing, David Robinson and Young Shaq. O'Neal had no real threat at his position when he played in the finals. (Duncan is a PF) So by beating the best, Hakeem proved his greatness and would definitely be my choice.

Answer 20

Oh no no no no no no I'm sorry but you're wrong.

It's shaq. People tend to go for the finess players more because it looks prettier to them, but shaq had a plethora of post moves himself. To you it seems like hakeem had more because his were finess and "prettier".

You ask the question of who would you take in their prime, yet you list that hakeem beat shaq in the finals. Well Hakeem was in his prime then, and shaq was not. THEN when Shaq was ALMOST in his prime, and hakeem was not shaq beat him 3-1 in the first round in 1999.

And YES shaq does take the credit for his 4th ring. He called it out in an interview the day he got traded to the heat that he was going to make Dwade just as he made penny and kobe. The PROOF of this is the heat's last season. Last year shaq was officially done, and a DWADE led team with Jason Williams, himself, Dorrell Wright, Udonis Haslem and Shaq (now too old to carry dwade) to an 8-20 record. That's right only 1 guy missing from the championship team. And Dwade showed his true colors. He is no superstar.

But more importantly, you don't remember shaq's PRIME as I do. I watched all of his games. Shaq DOMINATES the paint. Shaq in his prime was never anything less than doubled teamed, triple teaming him was ideal, quadruple teaming him wasn't uncommon either, and on occasion if the cirucumstance provided, the whole team would be guarding him. And on defense while he was not the shotblocker hakeem was, he was better than that, because what shaq would do was just down right prevent the shot attempt from occurring, remember, back when shaq was in his prime there was no defensive 3 in the key. So he would be there 7'1" 350 lbs in the key. You can't drive in on that. A shot blocked often leads to the offensive team getting the ball back because the ball goes out of bounds or just back at the offensive player(s). But Shaq would strike fear in the souls of anybody dribbling the ball because they knew if they went in the key, they were going to get injured. That forced offenses to do things they didn't want to do. Things like shoot a fadeaway layup or an off balanced side leaner. Thigns that would result in defensive rebounds rather than a blocked shot which leads to the offense recovering.

The irony of people hating on shaq NOW for being "fat" is stupid, because when shaq was in his absolute prime, he was at his "fattest" he was 350-360 lbs. It was absolute power. Imagine a guy that commands at least 3 players or its automatic 2 pts. That's shaq in his prime.

And for those of you who think shaq didn't play against anybody good, dont' forget he SWEPT duncan AND robinson. Along with playing hakeem and ewing. Granted they were past their prime. But still played against them.

Xengold: that stat you typed doesn't make hakeem better than shaq. I mean if you want to talk about awards in one year, you should understand that shaq won finals MVP, the scoring title, and League MVP in a ONE VOTE Unanimous decision. By the way the one guy Fred hickman who voted for AI had bounties on his head here in LA for being an åsshole for ruining the perfect MVP.

Answer 21

well you know i love Hakeem and how he plays but me it's just shaq in his prime