Shaquille O’Neal once claimed that the $300 million worth Hakeem Olajuwon was the toughest player he had to guard in the NBA.
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Shaquille O’Neal burst onto the NBA scene as one of the toughest guards in the NBA. His first week as a player for the Orlando Magic saw him snag ‘Player of the Week’ honors and it was uphill from there for ‘The Big Aristotle’. In an era that needed more dominant centers, Shaq fit perfectly alongside the likes of Patrick Ewing and Karl Malone.
Of course, one big man who is incredibly underrated and should be a consensus top 12 player of all time is Hakeem Olajuwon, the man who took advantage of Michael Jordan’s absence in the league to the fullest.
Hakeem ‘The Dream’ Olajuwon established himself as perhaps the NBA’s best big man the second Kareem Abdul-Jabbar retired as a Laker. He would make the NBA Finals in 1994 and ‘95 and win back-to-back championships and Finals MVPs.
The finesse with which Hakeem played with was the complete opposite with which Shaquille O’Neal played with. O’Neal just brute force with Olajuwon ‘danced’ with his defenders in the paint, making pivot after pivot, keeping the defender in disarray.
Also read: Shaquille O’Neal built his $400 million net worth thanks to Jeff Bezos and Amazon
Shaquille O’Neal on how the toughest person to guard was.
While Shaquille O’Neal did have quite the nifty spin move, no one did it better than Hakeem Olajuwon. The Rockets legend had an array of moves filled with pump fakes, pivots off either foot, jab steps, all mixed in with precision and decisiveness.
So, while on ‘Open Court’ and discussing all time starting lineups, Shaq admitted that Olajuwon was the toughest guy he had to guard. He claimed that he couldn’t ‘figure out’ Hakeem nor could he ever intimidate him.
Understandably so as Olajuwon was dominating the NBA well before O’Neal had even made it to the league. The two actually faced off against one another in the 1995 NBA Finals, a series that saw the Houston Rockets sweep the Orlando Magic.
The two would almost face off against one another in a televised and endorsed 1v1 but that would never come to fruition due to internal conflicts with broadcasters and both camps.
