“Olajuwan in his prime vs Shaq in his prime? Hakeem would have made him look big, slow and foolish.”
We had that matchup in the 1995 NBA finals, and young Shaq played almost as well as Olajuwan at his peak. The rest of the Orlando Magic stunk. On the whole I’d agree that Olajuwan was a bit better player than Shaq.
Which makes the 1983 NCAA championship of NC State over Houston (featuring Olajuwan and Clyde Drexler) all the more miraculous.
I remember watching NC State being eliminated by UT Chattanooga the previous year. That 1982 NC State team had Chuck Nevitt playing center. In light of the discussion about the merits of George Mikan, I wonder how the likes of Nevitt would have fared in the NBA of the 1950s?