Rockets' Hakeem Olajuwon Misses Top-Four Positional Ranking

Hakeem Olajuwon was a unicorn on the court. It's not often that you find a big man with the footwork and agility of a point guard. Nowadays in the small ball era that exists, wings are often moved to the center position, so it's not far-fetched to see a center moving as well as Olajuwon. 

This was before that. 

And Olajuwon was a 7-footer.

His soccer background was especially useful because his agility and footwork was second to none, irrespective of position. 

Defensively, he's quite literally second to none, as he's still the NBA's all-time blocks leader, despite being out of the league for more than two decades. Furthermore, he averaged four blocks on four different occasions, which seems unheard of in today's league. 

He also led the league in rebounds twice, while averaging at least 20 points for 13 consecutive seasons. And he carried the Rockets to the playoffs in 14 of his first 15 seasons.

To that point, some of Olajuwon's most signature moments came in the postseason, against the game's all-time greats. The Dream faced off against NBA legends Patrick Ewing and Shaquille O'Neal in both of his Finals matches and squared off against Karl Malone and David Robinson multiple Western Conference Finals bouts.

Robinson admitted that he was left without answers and O'Neal admitted that Olajuwon got the better of him.

Speaking of foes, Olajuwon's Rockets are still the only sixth seed in NBA history to win a championship, as the franchise pulled it off in 1995. That season, the Rockets had arguably the most difficult path to a championship, beating the third-seeded Utah Jazz in the first round (60-22 record), the second-seeded Phoenix Suns in the second round (59-23 record), and the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs in the Conference Finals, who went 62-20.

In the Finals, they faced the aforementioned O'Neal and the Orlando Magic, who had the NBA's best record at 67-25.

Add it all up and there's a viable argument to be made for Olajuwon to be the best center in league history. And certainly a top-three center.

Yet, the Rockets legend found himself ranked fifth on HoopsHype writer Frank Urbina's all-time list of centers.

"Hakeem Olajuwon was one of the greatest big men ever, and he competed and produced at an elite level on both ends of the floor with outstanding low-post moves and defensive skills to match. Olajuwon ranks first in blocks on record, though there’s a bit of an asterisk on that because they didn’t keep track of those before 1973-74. Also, he is the only player to rank Top 15 in four different major statistical categories: points, rebounds, blocks and steals."

The top five is below:

• 1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 
• 2. Bill Russell 
• 3. Wilt Chamberlain 
• 4. Shaquille O'Neal 
• 5. Hakeem Olajuwon