Tag: HAKEEM OLAJUWON

NBA names regular-season MVP award after Michael Jordan

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On Tuesday, the NBA unveiled six newly designed trophies named after NBA legends, including the Michael Jordan Trophy, which will be awarded to the league’s regular-season Most Valuable Player.

Below are the names of the awards and the newly designed trophies.

THE MICHAEL JORDAN TROPHY – NBA Most Valuable Player:

The league’s MVP will now be awarded with The Michael Jordan Trophy, bearing the name of the NBA legend widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.  During his illustrious career, Jordan was named MVP five times.

The bronze trophy features a player breaking out of a rock to reach for the ultimate rock – a crystal basketball.  From the bottom to its top, the patina of the trophy grows more burnished – “raw to refined” – signifying the MVP’s hard work and progression from entering the league to achieving the NBA’s greatest individual honor.  The trophy’s reach symbolizes an MVP’s endless chase for greatness.

Additionally included throughout are subtle nods that pay tribute to the trophy’s namesake:

  • The trophy stands 23.6 inches tall and weighs 23.6 pounds, representing Jordan’s jersey number (23) and number of NBA championships (6).

  • Its five-sided base is a nod to Jordan’s five league MVPs.

  • The namesake badge is six-sided, a nod to Jordan’s six NBA championships.

  • The 15-degree angle of the base is a nod to Jordan’s 15-season career.

  • The crystal basketball consists of 23 points, a nod to Jordan’s jersey number.

  • The crystal basketball measures 1.23 inches in diameter, in reference to the singularity of the MVP and Jordan’s standout career.

THE JERRY WEST TROPHY –NBA Clutch Player of the Year:The NBA will introduce a new Performance Award at the end of the 2022-23 season, the NBA Clutch Player of the Year, with its recipient receiving The Jerry West Trophy.

Voted on by a media panel based on nominations from NBA head coaches, the award will honor the NBA player who best comes through for his teammates in the clutch.

Legendary Los Angeles Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn gave West the nickname “Mr. Clutch” for his extraordinary shooting at the end of close games.  The trophy features an NBA player shooting a jump shot, modeled after West’s perfect form.

THE HAKEEM OLAJUWON TROPHY – Defensive Player of the Year:Defensive dominance helped define Hakeem Olajuwon’s Hall of Fame career.  A two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year and nine-time NBA All-Defensive Team selection, Olajuwon is the league’s all-time leader in blocked shots and ranks ninth in steals.  He is also a two-time NBA champion, 12-time NBA All-Star, league MVP, two-time NBA Finals MVP, 12-time All-NBA Team selection and a member of the NBA’s 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams.

The trophy features a player in a classic defensive stance with one hand up and one down, knees bent and ready to move.

THE WILT CHAMBERLAIN TROPHY – NBA Rookie of the Year:

Wilt Chamberlain’s 1959-60 season is unmatched for an NBA rookie.  Chamberlain averaged 37.6 points and 27.0 rebounds in 46.4 minutes per game for the Philadelphia Warriors, winning both the Rookie of the Year and MVP awards.  His career highlights include two NBA championships, 13 NBA All-Star selections, four league MVPs, 10 All-NBA Team selections, an NBA Finals MVP and inclusion on the league’s 35th, 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams.

The trophy features a player palming two basketballs at once.

THE JOHN HAVLICEK TROPHY – NBA Sixth Man of the Year:John Havlicek starred in his role during his Hall of Fame career, excelling off the bench like no player before him.  Havlicek came off the bench for the first seven seasons of his career and was an All-Star in four of those seasons.  His career highlights include eight NBA championships, 13 NBA All-Star selections, 11 All-NBA Team selections, an NBA Finals MVP, eight NBA All-Defensive Team selections and inclusion on the league’s 35th, 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams.

The trophy features a player elevated and shooting a running jumper, symbolic of the boost provided by the player to his team.

THE GEORGE MIKAN TROPHY – NBA Most Improved Player of the Year:A layup and footwork exercise known as the “Mikan Drill” has been used for decades by players at all levels to improve their game.  It is named for George Mikan, who mastered the fundamentals as the NBA’s first dominant big man.  His Hall of Fame career included five NBA championships in seven seasons, four NBA All-Star selections, an NBA All-Star Game MVP, six selections to the All-NBA Team and inclusion on the NBA’s 25th, 35th, 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams. 

Wizards’ Scott Brooks has not seen anybody dominate like Joel Embiid since Hakeem Olajuwon

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Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid has been dominant this season and dominant thus far in the playoffs. During the regular season, Embiid averaged 28.5 points and 10.6 rebounds a game, and he has been just as good in the postseason. In three games against Washington, Embiid is averaging 29.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.

Washington has not had an answer for Embiid in the regular season and the playoffs. In six games against the Wizards this season, all 76ers’ victories, Embiid is averaging 29.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.

According to Wizards head coach Scott Brooks, who played with Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon during his NBA career, Embiid dominates like the two-time NBA champion.

“I was fortunate enough to play with Olajuwon for almost three years,” Brooks said on Sunday.

“(Embiid) ‘s doing things that I haven’t seen since. His seventh year in the league, he’s been able to see it all now, and he’s seen all the defenses, seen all the schemes, and he’s skilled. He’s a skilled, athletic, tough, high-IQ basketball player.”

The key for Embiid is health. While he has been dominant this season and in this series, he did miss 21 games in the regular season, so staying healthy is essential for Embiid. However, based on the way he’s trending, Embiid has everything it takes to be the next great center in NBA history. 

Watch below as Brooks talks Embiid:

Skip Bayless: Ginobili was better than Olajuwon(Watch)

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Manu Ginobili was an outstanding player during his 16-year NBA career. He won four NBA titles with the Spurs; Ginobili and LeBron James are the only two players in NBA postseason history with at least 3,000 points and 300 three-pointers in the playoffs. He is one of 10 players ever to appear in over 200 playoff games, he came off the bench 165 times and is the all-time leader in NBA postseason history as a reserve in points (2,014), assists (576), rebounds (635), steals (205), field goals made (630), three-pointers made (226) and free throws made (528).

Ginobili was a two-time All-Star (2005 and 2011). The 2008 NBA Sixth Man of the Year is the first sixth man, as well as the first South American, to earn All-NBA honors.

Interestingly enough, according to FOX Sports’ Skip Bayless, Ginobili is better than the great Hakeem Olajuwon, who spent most of his 18-year career with the Rockets. The 12-time All-Star, who won the league MVP in 1994, was the Finals’ MVP in back-to-back years(1994, 1995).  Olajuwon is considered to be one of the greatest centers of all-time and had a career average of 21.8 PPG, 11.1 RPG, and 3.1 BPG.

I know Bayless likes to say outlandish things, but this one might take the cake. Ginobili will be a Hall of Famer, but Olajuwon is an all-time great.

Listen below as Bayless talks Ginobili on FS1’s Undisputed today:

 

 

Former Rocket Tracy Murray on why the 1995 Rockets would’ve beaten Jordan’s Bulls: ‘We just matched up with them pretty doggone good’

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The “Clutch City” Rockets won back-to-back NBA titles in 1994 and 1995. During those two years, Hakeem Olajuwon dominated the NBA. Unfortunately for all of us, we would never see Michael Jordan vs. Olajuwon in the NBA Finals. Michael Jordan went to baseball in 1994, and could not get past the Magic in 1995; the Rockets were not able to get past Seattle in 1996. If the Bulls and Rockets would have met in the NBA Finals, former Rocket Tracy Murray, like Kenny Smith, believes Houston would have won. Murray, who was a member of the 1994-95 Rockets, felt the Rockets had enough to beat Jordan’s Bulls.

“I think we would have beaten them as well because you have pretty much the same team there (from 1994 championship team), minus Otis Thorpe, and you add a Clyde Drexler. A hungry Clyde Drexler, I might add. He was extremely hungry, and wanted to win that championship. He can smell it. From the trade deadline he can smell it, and he really turned it up when people thought he was done,” Murray told Paul Gant.

According to Probasketballreference.com, the Rockets were 5-5 from 1993-97 against the Bulls, but Murray liked the way his Rockets matched up against those Bulls’ teams.

“We just matched up with them pretty doggone good. We had that one monster in the middle they couldn’t matchup with, Hakeem Olajuwon. Nobody couldn’t matchup with him. You had to double team, and you had all the snipers around him,” said Murray.

According to Murray. Olajuwon was “Jordan-like” during those championship years.

“I seen him destroy the MVP of the league that year. When David Robinson got that MVP trophy, (1995) Dream averaged close to 40 points a game (35 ppg) on him that series. Absolutely destroyed him. He was the most unstoppable player I seen other than Jordan in the league during that time. He was a counterpuncher. He had every read for every defense that came at him. He knew what to do.”

It would have been fun to see Rockets-Bulls. In the end, it would have been hard to bet against Jordan.