The 1990s were perhaps the most successful era for big-men. Not from a championship perspective due to one Michael Jordan, but rather the sheer density of talent at the center position. And no two centers at the time were as potent on both ends of the floor than Shaquille O’Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon.
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Jim Mcllvaine, a 5-man who played most of his years in the 90s, knew better than to poke the bear with the aforementioned giants. While Shaq often gets credit for being the ‘most dominant ever’, it was Hakeem who caught Jim’s eye during his playing days.
“I always felt Hakeem was the hardest guy because he was such an incredible defender, an excellent shot blocker,” said the former Sonics center. Hakeem’s defensive prowess is second to none. Shaq certainly knows given just how atrocious the Rockets-Magic series was for the latter in the ’95 NBA Finals.
Of course, when asked to pit Hakeem and Shaq against one another, Mcllvaine stuck with his gut. “Shaq was probably the most physically dominant but didn’t have the bag of tricks that Hakeem had.”
The ‘Dream Shake’ is perhaps the most potent offensive move any player in the post can hit and none other than its originator was best suited to pull it out of his bag. Faking the initial shot and maintaining a pivot can lead to a wide array of options, all from within the post and it was clear Olajuwon was a master of footwork.
“He probably had the most complete post-game of anybody in the league,” continued Jim, raving about his versatility and ambidexterity.
Shaq on the other hand was a one-man wrecking crew. He knew he had the potential to cause true physical harm to any player who stood in his way and used this fear from opposing defenders to get what he wanted on the offensive end of the floor.
Short-changing the ‘Big Aristotle’ on his skills is never wise however. His 5-foot floater was just as potent as his tomahawk posters over 3 defenders. At the end of the day, 2 points are 2 points. It’s just that Hakeem’s 2 points came from a place of deeper ingenuity.
“They smoked us. I got embarrassed. Like Hakeem was the only guy I couldn’t break mentally. But I could never break Hakeem. So they whooped me,” said Shaq on facing ‘The Dream’ in the 1995 Finals. It’s safe to say even the 2000 MVP has an immense amount of respect for the first big-man to bring him down a peg in the Finals.
