re: Did Nick Anderson’s 4 miss free throws cause them to lose the finals to Houston?

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That Rockets team was a 6-seed. They turned it on in the playoffs. Hakeem abused league MVP-David Robinson and did the same to Shaq. Hakeem is vastly underrated. He was graceful and hard-nosed all in one. If Nick makes those free throws, they take Game 1. They don’t extinguish the Rockets fire though. Houston could take the adversity. Orlando was too young and inexperienced to go through that situation.

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I agree with this, I create a ton of top 5 all-time NBA greats lists and never include Hakeem in that and that's a credit to the longevity and parity of the league but also reflects how hard it is for maybe the greatest athlete to play this game at a sustained level next to Greek Freak, Wilt, MJ, LeBron, and Kareem to reach this level when you consider so so much. One could obviously argue for Hakeem to replace at least maybe one player in the top five but that's difficult, I don't disagree with the notion of him replacing LeBron, Hakeem had better intangibles, was greater in the paint, didn't choke in the playoff series he participated in, better teammate, incredibly versatile in his game to the point he could play some outside, and certainly a better FT shooter than LeBron. I mean at least Hakeem didn't create a super team like LeBron did to help him win titles, dude was too strongminded, persisted, and ultimately prevailed with a team of role players against the best both conferences could offer. Anyone with a brain would rather start a team with Akeem Abdul Olajuwon over LeBron James unless they enjoy constant choke jobs.