14 playoff runs for HOU, 5,664 playoff minutes. Every number is adjusted for the opponent faced and the league of its time.
Hakeem Olajuwon was taken with the first overall pick in the 1984 draft, ahead of Michael Jordan. To this day, no one considers it a bad pick. “The Dream” was a transcendent talent on defense and developed into an all-time post player with his smooth, effortless footwork and soft touch. His 1994 season yielded an MVP, DPOY and Finals MVP and is widely regarded as one of the greatest seasons ever. Yet the public still fails to rank him properly. For some reason, the two championships aren’t enough for many to place him in their top 10, let alone top 5. I think there’s certainly an argument to have him that high given his impact, accolades, and complete and utter dominance in the postseason.
Per 75 possessions: Pts on aTS efficiency/reb/ast/stl/blk
| Run | Pts | aTS | Reb | Ast | Stl | Blk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 29.1 | +4.6 | 10.3 | 4.1 | 1.8 | 3.8 |
| 1995 | 31.5 | +2.1 | 9.6 | 4.2 | 1.1 | 2.6 |
| 1993 to 1995 | 29.1 | +3.3 | 10.6 | 4.2 | 1.5 | 3.5 |
He made an almost immediate impact, averaging 26/11 with 3.3 blocks per 75 in the 1986 playoffs, routing the defending champion Lakers and putting up a good fight against one of the greatest teams of all time, the ’86 Celtics. He was mostly just an extreme athlete on offense, skying up for rebounds, putbacks and dunks. This still produced high-volume scoring on good efficiency, but the story was his defense. Holding nearly every block record we have, Olajuwon was a deity at protecting the rim. His defensive brilliance combined with good offensive impact made him a high-level All-NBA player immediately, and a slew of MVP-level seasons followed through the ’80s, marred by an atrocious complementary squad and early playoff exits. Houston was routinely out in the first round, despite Hakeem putting up some of the most gaudy performances you can imagine:
49/25/2/2/6 on +9 aTS in a 2OT loss
41/26/2/3/4
30/10/6/4/5
40/15/3/2/1 on +20 aTS just to get eliminated in 1988 round 1
These myPlayer-esque stats resulting in early playoff exits clearly wore on Hakeem as he became known as a hothead and wanted out of Houston. This troughed when he missed the All-Star Game in ’91 and didn’t even make All-Defense in ’92, finishing behind David Robinson and Patrick Ewing. He would soon get his sweet, sweet revenge.
After a coaching change to Rudy T in late 1992, the Rockets turned it around. An emphasis on 3’s and space (20 years before it was popular) turned the Rockets into a formidable force in the always loaded Western Conference. Due to Hakeem’s nearly unguardable post skills and a surrounding squad of snipers, the Rockets’ offense was much more fluid and less of a packed and crowded post. This generated a rebirth of Olajuwon’s production in ’93, finishing 3rd in MVP, followed by a tour de force in ’94 and ’95 to win back to back titles. His two playoff runs weren’t only some of the best numbers we’ve seen. He did this by completely outclassing every contemporary big man in his way. Barkley, Malone, Ewing, Robinson and Shaq are all Hall of Fame players, and they all got flambéed by Hakeem in an 18 month span.
Olajuwon opened the series with 36/16 and ended Game 7 with a 37/17. He averaged more points, rebounds, assists and blocks than Barkley in ’94. Not to be outdone, he came back from 3-1 down as a 6 seed in 1995. To this day, Charles talks about the two consecutive 7 game losses to the Rockets as the most heart breaking part of his career.
Malone probably played the best of all the opponents in the double title run. That level of play earned him a 3-7 record and losing a 2-1 lead in a best of 5. Luckily, Game 5 was played on a Sunday, when the mailman didn’t deliver.
He held Ewing to a pathetic 19 points a game on 36% from the field, or −16.1% true shooting! Those are numbers even Russell Westbrook couldn’t contend with on his worst days. To think the New York fans came within 1 John Starks 3 point shot in Game 6 (also blocked by Olajuwon to send the series to Game 7) from winning the title, and all they needed was for Ewing to not be outclassed by six orders of magnitude. They went on to wait another 32 years before getting to the promised land.
The ’95 Western Conference Finals is in the running for the best single series ever played. David Robinson is a top 5 defender of all time and Hakeem Olajuwon put him in the torture chamber. Robinson had just led his Spurs to the NBA’s number one seed. He was even presented the MVP trophy right in front of the Rockets as the series began. Olajuwon put up some of the best offensive performances while limiting Robinson on the other end.
35.3/12.5/5/1.3/4/2 on nearly +7% efficiency were his per game averages, which included the following masterpieces:
G2: 41/16/4/3/2 on +9
G3: 43/11/4/0/5 on +11
G5: 42/9/8/1/5 on +11
G6: 39/17/3/2/5 on +16 to close out the series
Despite O’Neal putting up some good individual numbers, the Rockets held the league’s number one ranked offense 5.6 points per 100 lower than their league average. Hakeem made the game winning tip in OT to take a 1-0 lead after overcoming a 20 point deficit. He also averaged 33/12/5/2/2 to sweep the Magic, including a 35/15 game 4 where he decided to close the 4th quarter with a 3 pointer.
Despite all this dominance, his game wasn’t perfect. His amazing spin moves and post ups yielded great scoring, but sitting in the +3 efficiency area for the playoffs didn’t yield any fantastic offenses. He was also a good passer out of double teams which made the Houston machine work, but he wasn’t an offensive hub that you want to run actions through. He also had some poor playoff showings in ’90 and ’91 that are only explained by him being unhappy. And while he did dominate all the big men in front of him during those two title years, Shawn Kemp and the Seattle Supersonics gave him fits in both 1993 and 1996, where he put up some underwhelming stats.
There are flaws in his resume. Other than “only” two championships, he was never on all time great teams. And for the player who gets talked about as the best defender ever, or at least since the 3 point line, his defenses weren’t historic either. The Rockets with Hakeem had 3 seasons of 55 wins or better. Duncan had 16, with only 3 falling below a 55 win-rate. Russell, Curry, Jordan, Magic, Bird, etc routinely had elite level teams. And even if we’re only looking at the defensive side of the ball, the best big men ever typically have all time defensive dynasties. Ewing’s Knicks are some of the best defenses ever. So are Robinson and Duncan’s Spurs, KG on the Celtics, Wallace’s Pistons and even Dwight on the Magic had a pretty good run with some poor defensive casts. Olajuwon had some good but not amazing defenses. 3 seasons with a defense 4 or more points better than league average is ok considering the teams around him, but it’s reasonable to have questions.
To answer those questions, all you have to do is look at his individual statistics, or film, particularly in the playoffs. From 1986-1995, a ten year sample, he limited opposing all star big men to one point per game and six points of true shooting below their average. That’s a drastic decrease in efficiency from the likes of Kareem, Malone, Barkley, Robinson, Ewing etc. At the same time, Hakeem upped his scoring by 3.5 points/game on a modest 0.5 percent increase in efficiency. That’s the definition of a playoff performer. And he did it against a murderer’s row of Hall of Famers. See below for the playoff matchups.
Opponent regular season vs. their performance against Hakeem. Δ is the change from the opponent’s regular season average; TS% in percentage points.
| Year | Opponent | RS PPG | RS TS% | PPG vs HOU | TS% vs HOU | PPG Δ | TS% Δ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 23.4 | 60.3 | 27.0 | 52.8 | +3.6 | −7.5 |
| 1986 | Robert Parish | 16.1 | 58.6 | 12.7 | 43.3 | −3.4 | −15.3 |
| 1987 | Tom Chambers | 23.3 | 55.4 | 25.2 | 49.2 | +1.9 | −6.2 |
| 1993 | Shawn Kemp | 17.8 | 54.7 | 13.6 | 50.6 | −4.2 | −4.1 |
| 1994 | Patrick Ewing | 24.5 | 55.1 | 18.9 | 39.0 | −5.6 | −16.1 |
| 1994 | Karl Malone | 25.2 | 55.0 | 26.0 | 50.5 | +0.8 | −4.5 |
| 1994 | Charles Barkley | 21.6 | 56.3 | 23.4 | 53.2 | +1.8 | −3.1 |
| 1994 | Cliff Robinson | 20.1 | 51.3 | 16.3 | 45.4 | −3.8 | −5.9 |
| 1995 | Shaquille O'Neal | 29.3 | 58.8 | 28.0 | 60.6 | −1.3 | +1.8 |
| 1995 | David Robinson | 27.6 | 60.2 | 23.8 | 55.3 | −3.8 | −4.9 |
| 1995 | Charles Barkley | 23.0 | 57.2 | 22.3 | 53.6 | −0.7 | −3.6 |
| 1995 | Karl Malone | 26.7 | 57.5 | 30.2 | 55.0 | +3.5 | −2.5 |
| Average | 23.2 | 56.7 | 22.3 | 50.7 | −0.9 | −6.0 |
Opponent full playoff run vs. Hakeem’s full playoff run in the same year. Δ is the opponent minus Hakeem.
| Year | Opponent | Opp PS PPG | Opp PS TS% | Hakeem PS PPG | Hakeem PS TS% | PPG Δ | TS% Δ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 31.0 | 58.4 | 23.5 | 56.0 | +7.5 | +2.4 |
| 1986 | Robert Parish | 24.7 | 52.6 | 23.5 | 56.0 | +1.2 | −3.4 |
| 1993 | Shawn Kemp | 23.1 | 56.6 | 26.1 | 57.7 | −3.0 | −1.1 |
| 1994 | Patrick Ewing | 26.9 | 55.6 | 27.3 | 56.5 | −0.4 | −0.9 |
| 1994 | Karl Malone | 27.8 | 56.9 | 27.3 | 56.5 | +0.5 | +0.4 |
| 1994 | Charles Barkley | 28.7 | 58.2 | 27.3 | 56.5 | +1.4 | +1.7 |
| 1994 | Cliff Robinson | 34.0 | 56.2 | 27.3 | 56.5 | +6.7 | −0.3 |
| 1995 | Shaquille O'Neal | 32.8 | 51.4 | 27.8 | 56.3 | +5.0 | −4.9 |
| 1995 | David Robinson | 35.3 | 59.0 | 27.8 | 56.3 | +7.5 | +2.7 |
| 1995 | Charles Barkley | 29.6 | 52.7 | 27.8 | 56.3 | +1.8 | −3.6 |
| 1995 | Karl Malone | 35.0 | 60.6 | 27.8 | 56.3 | +7.2 | +4.3 |
If that’s not enough for you, Hakeem is
On film, he’s a nimble defender but strong paint protector with impeccable timing, the mobility to guard and block shots at the 3-point line (see Starks, G6 1994 finals), and enough post moves to make your head spin. His bewildering baseline ballet had opposing big men in bewilderment and thanking their lucky stars to this day that Twitter, or even Worldstar, wasn’t around in the 90s.
So, to summarize: we’ve got a box-score behemoth with plenty of all time records in total and peak. Someone who routinely went mano a mano with other Hall of Famers and all timers at his position and basically neutered them. His scoring and overall game improved in the playoffs and he was around an MVP level or better player for 12 years. The case against him is that he only won two titles. In those back to back title runs, he had no all star teammates and only 3 teammates that were ever all stars at any point in their career: Thorpe, Drexler, and Sampson.
All told, I have his peak between the best and 5th best of all time, with some very good longevity, placing him 6th on my all time list.
The Rockets missed the 1992 playoffs, so that year is absent.
Multi-year windows count playoff years only. The best window depends on what you measure.
| Best by | Window | Years | Value | MP |
|---|
The team's rating relative to the opponent with Hakeem on the floor. It describes the team, so it is not an on/off number.
Regular season team results by year. ORtg and DRtg are points per 100 possessions. rOff is ORtg minus the league average, and rDef is the league average minus DRtg, so a positive number is good for both. A dash in the seed column means the team missed the playoffs.
| Year | Team | Age | GP | W-L | Seed | SRS | ORtg | DRtg | Net | rOff | rDef |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | HOU | 22 | 82 | 48-34 | 3 | 1.38 | 107.9 | 106.3 | 1.6 | 0 | 1.6 |
| 1986 | HOU | 23 | 68 | 51-31 | 2 | 2.1 | 110.1 | 107.6 | 2.5 | 2.9 | -0.4 |
| 1987 | HOU | 24 | 75 | 42-40 | 6 | 0.6 | 106.5 | 105.5 | 1 | -1.8 | 2.8 |
| 1988 | HOU | 25 | 79 | 46-36 | 6 | 0.82 | 107.1 | 105.7 | 1.4 | -0.9 | 2.3 |
| 1989 | HOU | 26 | 82 | 45-37 | 5 | 0.22 | 105.7 | 104.8 | 0.9 | -2.1 | 3 |
| 1990 | HOU | 27 | 82 | 41-41 | 8 | 1.71 | 104.8 | 103.4 | 1.4 | -3.3 | 4.7 |
| 1991 | HOU | 28 | 56 | 52-30 | 6 | 3.27 | 107.4 | 103.9 | 3.5 | -0.5 | 4 |
| 1992 | HOU | 29 | 70 | 42-40 | – | -1.94 | 106.2 | 108 | -1.8 | -2 | 0.2 |
| 1993 | HOU | 30 | 82 | 55-27 | 2 | 3.57 | 109.6 | 105.2 | 4.4 | 1.6 | 2.8 |
| 1994 | HOU | 31 | 80 | 58-24 | 2 | 4.19 | 105.9 | 101.4 | 4.5 | -0.4 | 4.9 |
| 1995 | HOU | 32 | 72 | 47-35 | 6 | 2.32 | 109.7 | 107.4 | 2.3 | 1.4 | 0.9 |
| 1996 | HOU | 33 | 72 | 48-25 | 5 | 1.63 | 109.3 | 107.4 | 1.9 | 1.7 | 0.2 |
| 1997 | HOU | 34 | 78 | 57-25 | 3 | 3.85 | 108.8 | 104 | 4.8 | 2.1 | 2.7 |
| 1998 | HOU | 35 | 47 | 41-41 | 8 | -1.23 | 107.7 | 108.6 | -0.9 | 2.7 | -3.6 |
| 1999 | HOU | 36 | 50 | 31-19 | 5 | 1.39 | 105.4 | 102.9 | 2.5 | 3.2 | -0.7 |
| 2000 | HOU | 37 | 44 | 34-48 | – | -0.57 | 104.8 | 105.7 | -0.9 | 0.7 | -1.6 |
| 2001 | HOU | 38 | 58 | 45-37 | – | 2.71 | 106.7 | 104.2 | 2.5 | 3.7 | -1.2 |
| 2002 | TOR | 39 | 61 | 42-40 | – | -0.71 | 102.6 | 103.1 | -0.5 | -1.9 | 1.4 |
His 37 best playoff games, in ranked order by default (Rank). Click any column to re-sort, for example Game Score, and click Rank to return to the ranking. Context marks the game: E for an elimination game, CO for a closeout game, and 7 for a Game 7 (5 for a deciding game in a best-of-five series). TS% is true shooting and rTS% is true shooting relative to the opponent's defense.
All 28 series, in order. Pts, aTS and the box score columns are per 75 possessions and adjusted for the opponent. rOff, rDef and rNet are the team's on-court ratings relative to the opponent. Click any column to re-sort.