David Robinson (25pts/9rebs) vs Hakeem Olajuwon (36pts/14rebs) - Highlights 1994/95

[ImKobe]

D-Rob, Hakeem's little toy... It's funny how an older Hakeem completely abused MVP D-Rob.

[Rake2204]

Easily the best center in today's NBA.


Not to belabor the point, but when I look back on D-Rob's career, he seems to be remembered for supposedly being outplayed by Sabonis (which was completely false); for being beaten to a pulp by Hakeem in their '95 WCF's H2H's (no question, albeit, Robinson's TS% wasn't that bad... Hakeem outshot him by a .581 to .536 margin); being labeled "soft" by Shaq; and Duncan's "Robin", which was really only true because Robinson was past his peak when Duncan arrived, and continued to go downhill after that.

The reality was, he was actually a better offensive player than Hakeem, and nearly as good at rebounding and defense. And while Shaq was the better player, a prime Robinson was nearly as good, and in fact, even an aging Admiral considerably lowered Shaq's production in their post-season H2H's.

As a David Robinson fan, it warms my heart to read posts like these. It's tough for me to weigh in on this topic because of my bias. Logic and reason has told me over time that one series and, to a large extent one single play (a gif of Hakeem's up-and-under that caught on many years ago) has made Robinson an easy target for blanket statements and wild exaggerations.

Quite honestly, the amount of hate and judgment of Robinson's career and abilities based off of Hakeem's performance in the '95 playoffs tends to insinuate that Robinson must have put up 8 & 8 in the series on 34% shooting. I don't think Robinson catches Roy Hibbert-in-2014-playoffs hate, but sometimes it feels as though it's in the same ball park, and that's crazy to me for a guy who averaged 24 & 11 in a tough six game series.

Hakeem blasted through everyone that year and he surely outplayed Robinson, but the conclusions drawn from that singular series (from many who may have actually never watched) seems wildly out of proportion.