A great article on the Namesake

There will never be another Hakeem Olajuwon.

I love Yao Ming's game... but he's not on Hakeem's level (yet).

Check out this excellent article in the Chronicle on Hakeem and how it was he made it to Houston to begin his path to the Hall of Fame.

Oh, and suck it, David Robinson -- I never get tired of this clip:

Hey, Sports Guy... you're On Notice, too!

For someone who claims to be a rather knowledgeable NBA fan... Bill Simmons can be amazingly stupid when it comes to basic basketball analysis. And yet he wants to be GM of the Bucks. Sure.

(And yes, I am aware I can always just link to his "the Magic will regret taking Dwight Howard over Emeka Okafor" statement after the 2004 NBA draft - but that's too easy.)

Today's randomly dumb statement about the Houston Rockets? Aww, screw it, let's post the whole thing:

3. HOUSTON (48-23)

Scouting report: They won 22 straight games thanks to great chemistry, great defense, great ball movement, a super-easy schedule, a couple of breaks (like Nowitzki's one-game suspension) and some inspired play from T-Mac and Rafer Alston ... in the big scheme of things, it's not going to matter because any team with size (like Phoenix) or superior team defense (like San Antonio or Boston) is going to beat them ... whatever happens in the playoffs, it's absolutely astonishing how much they don't miss Yao Ming.

Biggest strength: Chemistry and defense. That's how you win 22 straight. And by the way, that was freaking amazing. I still can't get over that streak. No matter how easy their schedule was, for a team without superior talent to get by 22 straight teams without getting derailed by one bad break, one bad call, one white-hot shooting performance, one injury or one off-night is absolutely unfathomable. That was like watching someone catch fire at a craps table for two solid hours without crapping out.

Biggest weaknesses: Lack of size; lack of anyone who can create scoring opportunities other than T-Mac; lack of playoff success for their best player; lack of overall talent. Other than that, they're in good shape.

Biggest X-Factor: Rafer Alston. Just look at his month-by-month splits and throw in the fact that he's been playing fantastic defense. Where did these last two months come from? Frankly, I'm a little frightened. I like things to make sense and this makes absolutely no sense.

Unsung Hero: According to John Hollinger's PER ratings, Shane Battier is the 45th best small forward in the league right now. I give up. Uncle. I can't fight the good fight anymore. Somebody else needs to take over.

Best-case opponent: Golden State or Denver.
Worst-case opponent: Everyone else.

Prediction: The sixth seed and a thrashing from San Antonio in round one.

Eventual 2007-08 Legacy: For the rest of eternity, they'll show that "Longest NBA Winning Streaks" graphic during an NBA game and viewers will say, "'72 Lakers, '08 Rockets, '00 Lakers, '71 Bucks ... wait a second, what????"

______

Where to begin?

Let's see... during that 22 game winning streak... the Rockets beat Cleveland (twice), New Orleans (twice), Denver, Dallas, Portland, Golden State AND the Lakers. So, ten of those 22 games were against some of the better teams in the NBA, including 4-5 of the teams that will make the Western Conference playoffs. And we did 45% of that without Yao. But yeah, it was about the schedule. Sure.

Everyone wants to rip on our supposed lack of talent. Simmons, Ian Thomsen, SAS, etc. To hell with 'em. While Rafer is definitely a question mark... T-Mac, Luis Scola, Carl Landry, Battier and Bobby Jackson are rather skilled specimens when it comes to the ability to play basketball. You don't win 22 games in a freakin' row in the NBA just because you are lucky and try hard.

So according to SG we're only in good shape if we play Golden State or Denver. Even though we've shown we can beat Dallas (who is without Dirk again) in Dallas, the Lakers AND New Orleans - all without the services of Mr. Yao Ming.

What it should say: "best-case - anyone but San Antonio." I legitimately believe we are in good shape to play and defeat anyone in a 7-game series. Even the Spurs. I'd prefer to avoid San Antonio as long as possible though.

Also, since it appears that Simmons lacks an editor - the last comment about the Streaks - the order should be '72 Lakers, '08 Rockets, '71 Bucks and then the '00 Lakers. The team he wants to be GM for won more in a row than the Shaq/Kobe Lakers. You thought Simmons would know that. And we all thought wrong.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't point out this little nugget at the end of his column today... "Whether [Kobe Bryant] wins the MVP award or Chris Paul wins it, we haven't seen two better individual seasons in the same year since Jordan and Barkley in 1993."

WTF? Yo, Sports Guy - Hakeem Olajuwon should have been MVP in 1992-1993. Look at the freakin' stats! Jordan won the ring that year, yes (thanks for nothing Kenny Smith), but Hakeem was DPOY and was clearly better than Barkley. He just didn't give as good a sound bite.

Enough hating on the Rockets, Simmons.
But I guess I should expect nothing less from a bitter Clippers fan.

Jordan v. Hakeem - who wins?

So, yesterday I was patrolling the blogosphere as I usually do on Mondays during lunch...

Where I stumbled into an article on The Big Lead about the Lakers/Cavs game from Sunday (i.e. Kobe v. LeBron). In the article, there was a backhanded statement about Michael Jordan being "the greatest winner in the modern era." Which I thought was rather presumptuous.

Naturally, I felt compelled to immediately comment that Robert Horry - and not Michael Jordan - is the greatest winner of the modern era. Last I checked 7 rings is more than 6 rings. Seems like simple math to me.

(Yes it kills me to link to a picture of him in an evil Spurs jersey, but... uhh...)

My comment for some reason started a "Robert Horry? Are you kidding me?" level of response from fellow commenters. To which I said, "hell yes, I am serious!"

I do not dispute that Michael Jordan is the greatest NBA player of the modern era. I'm not even sure who else would be in the discussion with him if the modern era is the mid-60s and beyond. But Jordan is NOT the greatest "winner" of the era. Of course, this led some random Bulls fan to post the following comment:

"I point out that if Jordan had not retired twice in the 90’s, the Bulls would have swept that decade."

Yeah, we all know that is b.s. Everyone wants to dilute the awesomeness that is/was the '94 and '95 Houston Rockets back-to-back championship teams. You know, the Heart of a Champion and all that good stuff. Damn I miss Rudy T. Anyway, my counter-argument was this:

"If Kenny Smith could make a f--kin’ jumpshot against Seattle in Game 7 in 1993, the Jordan-era Bulls only two-peat the first time around."

The early to mid-90s Bulls were great, no doubt. But the Rockets were a nightmare matchup for Jordan and Pippen. In 1990/1991 through 1992/1993 (i.e. the first three-peat Bulls teams), the Rockets went 5-1 against Chicago. Yes, Jordan played each game. Mad Max did an admirable job keeping Jordan below his seasonal averages and forcing MJ to take more shots than he normally did. Meanwhile, Pippen (as usual) could not win important games by himself and no one on the Bulls roster could contain Hakeem or Otis Thorpe.

Really, look for yourself:

Game 1 (1991): Rockets 114, Bulls 92
Game 2 (1991): Rockets 100, Bulls 90
Game 3 (1992): Bulls 114, Rockets 100 (dammit!)
Game 4 (1992): Rockets 105, Bulls 102 (Jordan held to 22)
Game 5 (1993): Rockets 110, Bulls 96
Game 6 (1993): Rockets 94, Bulls 83

Rockets were 5-1 versus the intial three-peat era Bulls. And only one of the victories was "close" and could be deemed a toss-up. Like I said, Mad Max could match up with MJ (not "stop" him per se, but just keep him from treating the Rockets like he did LaBradford Smith). Meanwhile, Hakeem would be able to run wild versus the Bulls lack of size and talent in the middle. Then again, NO ONE could stop Hakeem from 1991 through 1995. Or do I need to link to the David Robinson clip again? I think I do.

The problem with the Rockets in the early 1990s was that we matched up *horribly* with the Seattle Supersonics. Gary Payton routinely abused Kenny Smith. Shawn Kemp routinely abused Otis Thorpe, Carl Herrera and whatever other tall body we threw at him. Detlef Schrempf always made clutch shots against us, and so did Derrick McKey. We just had major problems with that one particular team. And yet we somehow extended the series in 1993 to Game 7...

where Kenny Smith somehow failed to remember that his only job was to make open shots. Naturally he missed and sent the game to overtime whereby we'd end up losing. In high school I was asked to write an essay on my "most disappointing moment in life" - Kenny Smith missing that jumpshot was my Moment. I once saw the Jet at a movie theater a few years later and my mom had to prevent me from taunting him about that shot.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, the Bulls. If Kenny somehow makes that shot - the Rockets would have made it to the NBA Finals (please... we'd have beaten Barkley and the Suns just like we ended up doing in '94 and '95). Where we'd have matched up perfectly with the Bulls and been able to stop the first three-peat from ever happening.

1992/1993 Houston Rockets roster:

The 1992/1993 Chicago Bulls roster:

Starting lineups of G: Kenny Smith, G: Mad Max, F: Robert Horry, F: Otis Thorpe, C: Hakeem Olajuwon v. G: BJ Armstrong, G: Michael Jordan, F: Scottie Pippen, F: Horace Grant, C: Bill Cartwright.

It would be an epic matchup. I've already explained how Mad Max would check MJ. Kenny Smith and BJ Armstrong is a wash. Horry scored enough and was athletic enough to stay with Pippen (though Pippen would likely outscore him a little, and out-jackass him by a lot). Otis Thorpe and Horace Grant were basically the same player. And no one could stop Hakeem. Who, oh by the way, SHOULD have been the MVP in 1993. Check the stats.

The only true empirical evidence we have proves that the Rockets were a nightmare matchup for the Chicago Bulls. A 5-1 record with only one close game. The only thing going for the Bulls would be that Sam Cassell would not arrive in Houston until the 1993/1994 season. That's why Jordan retired. He knew the run was inevitably over!

I still can't believe that's been 15 years ago. Wow.