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Originally Posted by mco85
How can anyone say Hakeem was better than Shaq. The Dream was great, no doubt, but don't let his flashiness fool. He was never anywhere near as dominant as Shaq was during his prime. I think people forget how good Shaq was during those Laker championship years. Hakeem was a career 51% shooter his best year was his rookie year when he shot close to 54%, Those would be career lows for shaq even counting these last few bad years. If you got to pick between Shaq and Hakeem for one season in their Prime it would be Shaq by a mile, he was far more dominant
I think people forget how crappy the rest of the centers were during those Laker championship years.
Unlike shooting 53% from the line, shooting 51% from the field isn't bad, and it certainly isn't horrible like 53% from the line. BTW Hakeem's playoffs FG% is 53% and Shaq's is 56%. Ooh, what a difference.
I like how people think that saying Shaq was more dominant somehow means he was better.
Hakeem's skills > Shaq's dominance
Hakeem's dominance on the offensive end > Shaq's dominance on the defensive end
When it comes down to it, there are two factors that don't make Shaq better than Hakeem. One is a major weakness - his free-throw shooting. The reason why he couldn't be relied on in the clutch, the reason why coaches began to see hack-a-Shaq as a legit strategy. The other one is at times lazy defense. He could be a very good defender at times (though never as good as Hakeem), but on an average Shaq day, his defense was not great. Even in his glory days he only made 3 all-defense second teams, the only ones of his career. Hakeem on the other hand made 5 all-defensive 1st teams and 4 all-defensive 2nd teams. Overall, Hakeem never had what were seen as weaknesses about his game like Shaq.