Bigger gap: Jordan and Hakeem or LeBron and Dwight

[Juges8932]

Let me just make this clear to you before you start this list.

Deron Williams is not better then Dwight Howard.

Period.

The comparison between Deron and Dwight isn't really cut and dry. They play completely different positions. Dwight is the best center in the league, but in an era that is severely lacking in big men. The one guy who could challenge him, Yao, has been injured almost as much as he has been playing. On the reverse, Deron is a top 2, at worst 3, PG in the league in an era that has a ton of great PGs.

As for the OP- I think it's pretty obvious that the gap between LBJ and Dwight is significantly greater than MJ and Dream.

[catch24]

I don't even think Hakeem was in the discussion as the 'best player' during the early 90's. '90-93 was Jordan at his best (IMO, the greatest 3-4 year span from any player), but supposedly Hakeem, who had an inferior peak and prime compared to Jordan, would make those Bulls teams better? Nah, definitely don't see it.

[OldSchoolBBall]

Shit, I mean, even BARKLEY was considered by many people to be better than Hakeem from '90-'93 (certainly more people thought Barkley > Hakeem than vice versa), yet here we have this clown Fatal9, biggest Jordan hater on the forum, trying to act like peak Hakeem > peak MJ. Ridiculous.

[BlueandGold]

Jordan/Akeem gap size







Lebron/Dwight gap size

I literally lol'd.

[SinJackal]

Dwight is not even top 10, hell top 15 in the league right now

Uh, Dwight's top 5 right now easily.

Not even top 15? What the hell are you smoking son? Stop ranking everyone based on PPG.

[catch24]

Shit, I mean, even BARKLEY was considered by many people to be better than Hakeem from '90-'93 (certainly more people thought Barkley > Hakeem than vice versa), yet here we have this clown Fatal9, biggest Jordan hater on the forum, trying to act like peak Hakeem > peak MJ. Ridiculous.

Drexler, Robinson, Ewing and Malone to name a few. It's not an outrageous claim (two of the best defenders, at their respectable position, on the same team, would be amazing), it's just Jordan's impact both verbally and physically (his offense alone kept the Bulls in most of their games) couldn't of been "replaced".

[Jacks3]

Peak Hakeem shits all over Jordan in terms of defensive impact. lol @ morons acting like it ain't even close.

[Fatal9]

Again, the notion that peak Dream >= peak Jordan is revisionist history. No one considered 1993 (peak) Dream better than 1993 (1-2 year past peak) Jordan. No one. Yeah, maybe a few idiots like yourself, but you can say that about any top 3 player in the league in any given year. It's complete revisionist history to suggest that peak Hakeem = peak Jordan. Nothing at all bears it out.

Yeah, posting a bunch of biased recollections of what happened coupled with absurd speculation ("MJ couldn't do x/y/z etc.) may win you brownie points with people who weren't following the game and don't know any better, but it's bullshit plain and simple. No shock that it's coming from the board's biggest Jordan hater.

Hakeem finished higher in MVP voting than Jordan in '93 and got almost twice as many first place votes.

Secondly, if you are going to go by what people thought in '93, lets also get an overall perspective of what else was going on. Hakeem just came out of a low point in his career in the '91/'92 seasons, where his production was low (wasn't involved in the offense as much), team wasn't winning and he was feuding with the management. Jordan meanwhile had been better than Hakeem all throughout the late 80s and was at the height of his career in '91 and '92 after winning two consecutive rings. Going into the '93 season, one is a finished product who has already won you championships, while Hakeem at that point was someone no one knew was good enough to even win championships (but they'd find out in '94 and '95). So if we're going by what people thought in '93, lets also remember what they didn't know by then (how good Hakeem really was). Even then, Hakeem was voted as the superior player in the regular season that year as shown by the MVP voting results.

Thirdly, none of what I said about Hakeem run from '93-'95 are "biased recollections" (especially when I'm giving you the numbers behind everything). If there are any, please point them out. I also didn't say Hakeem was better, I said it's a toss up. It's hard for me to give either one the edge. The difference is that Jordan had more superior seasons at that level than Hakeem did. If we take all of Jordan's best seasons and all of Hakeem's best, and then decided to rank the top 10, you'd have 3 Hakeem seasons and 7 MJ ones. But peak wise, '91-'93 MJ vs. '93-'95 Hakeem, it's too close to call for me.

As for Hakeem on the Bulls, I don't see how they are any less dominant. The team was built to be cater to a center like Hakeem. You have Grant/Hakeem/Pippen on the frontline which would be impossible to score on, Phil Jackson coaching (Hakeem can finally get some space to work with) and shooters galore on the perimeter. That team is the best team of the early 90s had it existed, there is no weakness. Hakeem like I said is maybe the clutchest center ever and had that Jordan gene where he never crumbled under pressure (I have noticed this in him as early as the '86 playoffs), he has proven himself as someone who takes over big games and can make countless clutch plays, so not sure why you point this out as a weakness (see '94 and '95 championship runs). Hakeem already won in that era with an inferior team to what MJ had, and I'm supposed to think he couldn't do it with Pippen, Grant and the GOAT coach, and a team good enough to win 55 games without either MJ or Hakeem? Shit...they might have even have had less trouble with the Knicks because Knicks could do a better job at stopping Jordan than Hakeem.

And no, Jordan doesn't have a playoff run as impressive as Hakeem's in '95 (I think it's the best playoff run ever). When has someone had to beat all of the top 4 teams in the league to win a ring? Each of his playoff opponents won 57-62 games. Especially the way Hakeem did it, averaged 33/10/5/3 on 53%, stepped up in every big game, outplayed his peers, dragged his team out of impossible situations and so on.

[Ruh-Roh]

Peak Hakeem shits all over Jordan in terms of defensive impact. lol @ morons acting like it ain't even close.

Stupidest f*cking thing you have ever said.

[Jacks3]

Stupidest f*cking thing you have ever said.

What are you talking about. Hakeem craps all over Jordan in terms of defensive impact because he's a center. That's the nature of the game. Just like Jordan shits all over Hakeem as a offensive player.

[Ruh-Roh]

What are you talking about. Hakeem craps all over Jordan in terms of defensive impact because he's a center. That's the nature of the game. Just like Jordan shits all over Hakeem as a offensive player.

Hakeem was a good shotblocker, but not the most defensive center even of his time. Jordan only had to compete with Gary for most defensive guard...possibly ever.


Most blocked shots for a guard career AND season, second highest steals ever...

[OldSchoolBBall]

Peak Hakeem shits all over Jordan in terms of defensive impact. lol @ morons acting like it ain't even close.

Who said it's not close? Hakeem's not as good as Jordan, though. Fatal can sit there and try to rationalize it all he wants, but there's a good reason why Hakeem was never considered a top 3 player in the league until 1993, and it had nothing to do with how bad his teams were (MJ and Barkley's teams in the late 80's/early 90's respective weren't great, yet they were considered top 3).

It's just a joke coming from the biggest Jordan hater on the forum. As if people are gonna buy your bullshit.

[Fatal9]

Who said it's not close? Hakeem's not as good as Jordan, though. Fatal can sit there and try to rationalize it all he wants, but there's a good reason why Hakeem was never considered a top 3 player in the league until 1993, and it had nothing to do with how bad his teams were.

Dude, I haven't even said anything about pre-'93 Hakeem other than what the perception of him was coming into the '93 season. I don't know what that has to do with anything when discussing Hakeem's peak from '93-'95, which is the only thing being compared. I've even said MJ put together more seasons at that level than Hakeem did (only 3 or 4). Why shift the parameters of the argument to something that wasn't even being discussed?

[PHILA]

BARKLEY was considered by many people to be better than Hakeem from '90-'93 (certainly more people thought Barkley > Hakeem than vice versa)

[Fatal9]

Hakeem was a good shotblocker, but not the most defensive center even of his time. Jordan only had to compete with Gary for most defensive guard...possibly ever.

Most blocked shots for a guard career AND season, second highest steals ever...

Get the phuck outta here trying to equate Jordan's defensive impact with Hakeem's.