This has been the Dream’s playoffs.
Houston’s Hakeem “the Dream” Olajuwon has been an epiphany this spring, averaging 33 points a game to carry the Rockets to three straight upset series wins, culminating with a 35.3-point average in the toppling of regular-season victory leader San Antonio. Olajuwon’s scoring average was the fifth best in conference finals history.
But now it’s time for the Dream Finals.
Russell and Chamberlain.
Liked it.
Bird and Magic.
Loved it.
Magic and Michael.
Couldn’t get enough of it.
Now Shaq and Hakeem bring the NBA back to the front pages with perhaps the best super center Finals matchup in decades with Shaquille O’Neal and the talented young Orlando Magic opening the series here Wednesday against Olajuwon and the defending champion Houston Rockets.
“You guys, the advertisers are going to be saying it’s all Shaq and Hakeem,” said O’Neal, who’s trying to join Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan as the only players in modern NBA history to win an NBA title after leading the league in scoring. “But everyone knows it’s a team game and Hakeem didn’t get where he’s at without Robert Horry and Kenny Smith and I didn’t get here without Penny , Nick , Dennis Horace . It’s a team game.”
Olajuwon, the ultimate team player, would endorse that notion, and the Magic will be posting up its bigger guards, Hardaway and Anderson.
“We’ll go to me and Nick and try to take advantage of their smaller guards ,” said Hardaway.
And Grant will try to get on the offensive boards more against Horry, not a traditional power forward.
“Like in the Chicago series,” said Grant. “I should get some more opportunities. The Davises got me ready. Not to take anything from Horry or Chuckie Brown, but they’re not as physical as the Davis boys. I’ll look to hit the boards more.”
And from the Rockets’ perspective, they’ll try to draw Grant out with Horry’s three-point shooting and take advantage of their other star, Clyde Drexler, who’s in the Finals for a third time and looking for his first championship.
“They’ve impressed me with their heart,” said Hardaway. “They have a heart as big as Texas. They proved to everyone you can’t count them out.
“I was one of those who thought once they traded Otis , they’d be out. But Clyde proved everyone wrong. I haven’t seen Clyde doing some of the things he’s doing in a long time. It may come down to the other starters. Hopefully our other four starters outscore their other four starters.”
Because never in NBA history have two teams brought such unproductive, little-used benches into the Finals.
But that’s not likely to matter because the Magic and Rockets are two teams getting ready to put on a classic series.
These are two of the highest scoring teams in the playoffs–among the 16 who started back in late April, the Rockets are second at 105.4 points per game and the Magic is fifth at 101.4. The Magic is the best shooting team at 48.6 percent, with the Rockets second.
The Rockets are the ultimate underdogs, having already beaten two 60-win teams to get to the Finals; the Magic is the kids on the cusp.
But it’s the centers in the spotlight.
Be like Mike, heck. Hakeem wants to be like Shaq.
“If I were as big, I’d want to be like him,” said Olajwuon. “You cannot compare him to any player in the league. He is unique, the size, quickness, movement. Nobody can handle him straight up. I’ll need all the help I can get. Experience? I’d rather have the youth, power and strength.”
Unless you were O’Neal.
“Hakeem has got it all,” said O’Neal, “inside and outside, left and right dribbles. He’s the perfect all-around big man. He’s the MVP if you ask me. He’s in the league more than 10 years and knows how to raise his game. He hits the jumper, has the moves, the fadeaways and I admire him as a man, for the way he plays the game, treats people. He’s the best.”
We’ll know in a few weeks for sure.
