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#9 Hakeem Olajuwon


MVPs: 1. Finals MVPs: 2. All-NBA 1st Team: 6. 2nd Team: 3. 3rd Team: 3. All Star: 12. MVP: 0.

Defensive POY: 2. All-Defense 1st Team: 5. 2nd Team: 4.

#17 Career Points. #14 Career Rebounds. #9 Career Steals. #3 Career BPG. #1 Career Blocks.

Rebounds Champ: 2. Blocks Champ: 3.

Career Averages: 22 PPG/ 11 RPG/ 2 APG/ 1.7 SPG/ 3.1 BPG/ .513 eFG%/ .712 FT%.

Best Season: 26/ 13/ 3/ 1.8/ 4.2/ .529/ .779 (1992-93).

Postseason Averages: 26 PPG/ 11 RPG/ 3 APG/ 1.7 SPG/ 3.3 BPG/ .529 eFG%/ .719 FT%.

Best Postseason: 29/ 11/ 4/ 1.7/ 4/ .521/ .795 (1994).

Championships: 2 (#1 player on both). Runner-ups: 1 (#1 player).


Why he's below Tim Duncan: The statistical resumes of both players are extremely close, but Duncan's advanced stats are a bit better if you trust in them. If you don't trust advanced stats, Duncan's 5 championships and 3 Finals MVPs are enough to put him ahead of Hakeem's 2 of each.


Why he's above the rest: Hakeem is the challenger to Bill Russell’s title of greatest defensive player of all time, but he could dominate offensively against the best centers of his day as well. In the ’94 Finals, he averaged 27 points against Patrick Ewing. In the ’95 Playoffs he averaged 35 points against David Robinson in the Western finals and 33 points against Shaq in the Finals. He finished his career with “only” 2 Defensive Player of the Year awards and 5 1st team All-Defense teams, but he was easily the best defensive player in the league for 5 straight seasons from 1987 to 1991. He was 1st team All-Defense 3 times in that stretch and DPOY 0 times. He averaged 2+ SPG and 2+ BPG 4 times in that stretch (Only 2 other players have ever done that once.), and in the ’89 season he became the only player in NBA history with over 200 steals and 200 blocks in a single season. He didn’t make either All-Defense team that season. It wouldn’t be crazy to say he should have 5+ DPOYs and 8+ 1st team All-Defenses.



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