Houston Rockets: Argument for Hakeem Olajuwon as best center all-time

He played in the era of big men

While Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell’s numbers are astonishing, it’s also important to note the level of competition they were playing against. Similar to the argument against Babe Ruth’s numbers and how he wasn’t playing against the best competition during his era, the same argument could be made for Chamberlain and Russell.

There’s no denying there were some great centers in their era such as Wes Unseld and Nate Thurmond. But Hakeem played when big men were king.

He went up against Kareem Abdul Jabar, Patrick Ewing, Shaquille O’Neal, David Robinson, Dikembe Mutombo, Robert Parrish, Bill Laimbeer, Alonzo Mourning, and even on the lower end of things Vlade Divac, Arvydas Sabonis, and Rik Smits were nothing to sneeze at.

This is not to diminish the accomplishments of Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain. You don’t choose the era you play in and they both dominated to such an absurd level that it’s no wonder they’re normally considered higher than Hakeem Olajuwon on the best centers of all-time list. But if we’re going to take all things into consideration, it has to be noted that Hakeem Olajuwon was the best center from 1984-2002 in an era with a lot of great centers.

No other big man had more effect on his team’s success than Hakeem did. And a lot of times it seemed like he was doing it alone. Which brings us to our next point.