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While today’s NBA game values finesse and shooting (particularly from the three-point line), the 1980s and 1990s saw a different style of play that focused on power and physicality. As such, the old-school NBA was dominated by towering seven-foot centers that controlled the paint both offensively and defensively, and often formed the foundation of successful teams during that time. In an era that featured centers like Shaquille O’Neal, Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Brad Daugherty, and Dikembe Mutombo, just to name a few, two of most dominant big men were Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets and David “The Admiral” Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs. Each player was a number one overall pick, an MVP, a Defensive Player of the Year, and an NBA champion, leading to inevitable comparisons and the obvious question:
Who was better – Hakeem Olajuwon or David Robinson?
The Beginning
Unlike many NBA legends and future Hall of Famers, Olajuwon and Robinson entered college as unheralded players with little fanfare and only gradually began to dominate. By the time they left college, each one was arguably the most dominant player in the country, would be drafted number one overall (in fact, a center was drafted number one overall seven times in the 1980s, including five straight years from 1983 to 1987), and would immediately establish his mark in the NBA.
Then known as Akeem, Olajuwon moved from his native Nigeria to the US in 1980 to play college basketball at the University of Houston. After redshirting and then playing sparsely as a redshirt freshman (during a season in which Houston made the first of three consecutive Final Fours), he worked with then-Houston Rockets and future Hall of Fame center Moses Malone on his game and came back better than ever as part of “Phi Slama Jama” with future Rockets teammate and also Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler. First as a sophomore and then as a junior, Olajuwon would lead Houston to the NCAA Championship Game in consecutive years, but they would lose to North Carolina State in 1983 on a final tip-in and then in 1984 to a Patrick Ewing-led Georgetown team (a future adversary in the NBA); nevertheless, Olajuwon was named the NCAA Tournament Player of the Year in 1983, the last player on a losing team to win the honors. Following the 1984 season, Olajuwon left early for the NBA and was drafted by the hometown Houston Rockets with the first overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft, which also included future Hall of Famers Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and John Stockton. As a rookie, he teamed with 7’4’’ center Ralph Sampson to form the original “Twin Towers” and had a standout year, averaging 20.6 points per game on 53.8% shooting with 11.9 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks; at season’s end, Olajuwon was runner-up for Rookie of the Year behind Jordan.
Robinson took a different and unorthodox route to the NBA, enrolling at the US Naval Academy (thus his later moniker “The Admiral”) and studying math, with little expectation of playing professional basketball. In his junior and senior years, though, he was a consensus All-American and won both the Naismith and Wooden Awards as a senior to become arguably the best player in college basketball. While Robinson was drafted first overall in the 1987 NBA Draft by the San Antonio Spurs, he first had to fulfill his two years of active duty in the Navy and thus did not join San Antonio until 1989. However, he quickly made up for lost time, averaging 24.3 points, 12.0 rebounds, and 3.9 blocks per game and shooting 53.1% from the field en route to Rookie of the Year honors; moreover, Robinson led the Spurs to a then-record 35 game season-over-season improvement from a 21-61 record the previous year to 56-26.
Career Comparison
Throughout the late 1980s and then 1990s, Olajuwon and Robinson were both rock-solid 20-and-10 players who dominated on both ends of the floor, each winning an MVP award and leading their respective teams to NBA titles in the process.
Starting with his rookie season, Olajuwon would utilize his signature “Dream Shake” move to average 20+ points on at least 50% shooting from the floor, along with 10+ rebounds and 2+ blocks per game, for an astounding dozen straight years, making the All-Star roster in 11 of those years and being named All-NBA (First, Second, or Third Team) 10 times. When his fellow seven-footer Sampson was traded to the Golden State Warriors in 1988, Olajuwon took his game to even greater heights: in 1988-1989, he averaged a then career-high 24.8 points per game on 50.8% shooting, led the NBA in rebounding at 13.5 rebounds per game, and also blocked 3.4 shots per game en route to a third straight All-NBA First Team selection. Olajuwon followed up with arguably an even better statistical season in 1989-1990, as he averaged 24.3 points, 14.0 rebounds, and 4.6 blocks per game; both the rebounds and blocks not only led the league that season, but were also career-high averages.
While the next couple of seasons would be relatively disappointing by Olajuwon’s very high standards (“disappointing” to the tune of still averaging 20 and 10, and being All-NBA, All-Defensive, and an All-Star) due to health issues, including an injured eye socket and an irregular heartbeat, and nearly resulted in him being traded away from the Rockets, a trade never materialized and Olajuwon would bounce back with another dominating stretch in the mid-1990s:
- 1992-1993: 26.1 points (52.9% shooting), 13.0 rebounds and a league-leading 4.2 blocks per game; named First Team All-NBA and Defensive Player of the Year, while finishing second in the MVP voting to Charles Barkley
- 1993-1994: 27.3 points (52.8% shooting), 11.9 rebounds, and 3.7 blocks per game; won the MVP (first foreign-born player to do so) and a second straight Defensive Player of the Year, and was again named First Team All-NBA
- 1994-1995: career-high 27.8 points (51.7% shooting), 10.8 rebounds, and 3.4 blocks per game; missed 10 games, but was still Third Team All-NBA and finished fifth in the MVP voting
After two more All-Star seasons in 1995-1996 and 1996-1997, Olajuwon was clearly in decline – starting in his age-35 season in 1997-1998, he never played more than 61 games in a year again and while still productive, was no longer an automatic 20-10 player. Amidst a Rockets rebuild, he was traded in 2001 to the Toronto Raptors for draft picks (Houston would replace him at center with Yao Ming) and played one largely ineffective season with Toronto before retiring at age 39 after the 2001-2002 season.
As very much one of Olajuwon’s contemporaries , Robinson would similarly start off his career with a streak of seven straight years averaging 20+ points, 10+ rebounds, and 3+ blocks per game while shooting at least 50% from the field, making the All-Star team and being named All-NBA (First, Second, or Third Team) every year. In 1990-1991, as an encore to his rookie season, Robinson averaged 25.6 points (on a career-high 55.2% shooting), a league-leading 13.0 rebounds, and 3.9 blocks per game en route to his first All-NBA First Team selection and finished third in MVP voting behind Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. The next season, he would put up 23.2 points (55.1% shooting), 12.2 rebounds, and a career-high and league-leading 4.5 blocks per game, which resulted in another top-three MVP finish and First Team All-NBA nod, as well as Defensive Player of the Year honors.
As great as he was at the beginning of his career, Robinson’s best years arguably came in the mid-1990s. In 1993-1994, he averaged a career-high 29.8 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 3.3 blocks per game, with highlights that season including the most recent quadruple-double in NBA history against the Detroit Pistons on February 17, 1994 (34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, and 10 blocks; Olajuwon actually recorded two of them in 1990) and scoring a career-high 71 points vs. the Los Angeles Clippers in the final game of the regular season (breaking George Gervin’s previous franchise record of 63 points) to edge out Shaquille O’Neal for the scoring title; however, he finished second to Olajuwon in the MVP race and thus, was also “only” Second Team All-NBA. Nevertheless, Robinson broke through the next year and won the 1994-1995 MVP on the strength of 27.6 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 3.2 blocks per game.
Following another All-NBA campaign in 1995-1996, Robinson broke his foot in 1996-1997 and missed most of the regular season (only six games played); as a result, the Spurs finished with the NBA’s third-worst record at 20-62, but managed to win the draft lottery and selected power forward Tim Duncan out of Wake Forest with the top overall pick. Like Olajuwon and Sampson a decade earlier, Robinson would team with fellow number one pick Duncan to form a new “Twin Towers” combination. Individually, while Robinson was still an All-Star caliber player, the torch was clearly being passed to Duncan (who would go on to become arguably the greatest power forward in NBA history in his own right) and Robinson would take a backseat as more of a mentor and supporting player rather than the superstar he had been pre-injury. After playing together for six seasons, Robinson retired after the 2002-2003 season at age 37.
Much as they were similar in stature and build, Olajuwon and Robinson have very similar career numbers. On one hand, Olajuwon has slightly higher career averages in points (21.8 to 21.1), rebounds (11.1 to 10.6), and blocks (3.1 to 3.0; Olajuwon is the NBA’s all-time blocks leader, though blocks did not become an official stat until 1973-1974, so who knows how many blocks Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain had…), while on the other hand, Robinson was a more efficient shooter in terms of both field goals (51.8% to 51.2%) and free throws (73.6% to 71.2%). In part due to his greater longevity (four more seasons and ~250 additional games played), Olajuwon holds the edge in most career awards and accolades, including All-Star Games (12x to 10x), All-NBA (12x to 10x), Defensive Player of the Year (2x to 1x), and All-Defensive Team (9x to 8x), though both players won MVP honors once. Interestingly, when you look at the advanced stats, Robinson actually comes out ahead in terms of both Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and career Win-Shares. Any way you look at it, both centers had surefire Hall of Fame careers and were appropriately recognized post-retirement, with Olajuwon being inducted on the first ballot in 2008 and Robinson likewise one year later in 2009.
Regular Season Statistics
| Hakeem Olajuwon | Player | David Robinson |
| 18 (1984-2002) | Seasons | 14 (1989-2003) |
| 1,238 | Games Played | 987 |
| 21.8 | PPG | 21.1 |
| 11.1 | RPG | 10.6 |
| 2.5 | APG | 2.5 |
| 3.1 | BLK | 3.0 |
| 51.2% | FG% | 51.8% |
| 71.2% | FT% | 73.6% |
| 23.6 | PER | 26.2 |
| 162.8 | Win Shares | 178.7 |
| 12x | All-Star Games | 10x |
| 12x | All-NBA | 10x |
| 1x | MVP | 1x |
| 2x | NBA Titles | 2x |
| 2x | NBA Finals MVP | – |
| 2x Defensive POY, 9x All-Defensive, All-Rookie | Other Awards | 1x Defensive POY, 8x All-Defensive, ROY, All-Rookie |
| 2008 | Hall of Fame Induction | 2009 |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
Though both Olajuwon and Robinson were frequent visitors to the playoffs (Olajuwon in 15 of 18 seasons and Robinson in 12 of 14 years), they played in an era that included dominant teams like the Lakers, Celtics, Pistons, and Bulls, and thus took a number of years to reach the pinnacle of winning an NBA title. In terms of their career postseason numbers, Olajuwon has the clear edge – his numbers are largely in-line or better than his regular season averages, while Robinson’s are generally worse, in large part due to the Spurs experiencing their greatest postseason successes towards the end of his career.
After Michael Jordan’s retirement after the first Chicago Bulls three-peat in 1992-1993, Olajuwon would finally break through and lead the Rockets to two consecutive NBA titles. In 1993-1994, Houston would defeat the New York Knicks in seven games and individually, Olajuwon would get revenge vs. his longtime rival Patrick Ewing from their meeting in the NCAA Finals a decade earlier. In the Finals, Olajuwon outplayed Ewing, averaging 26.9 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 3.9 blocks per game to win NBA Finals MVP; in fact, he is the only player to win regular season MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, an NBA title, and Finals MVP in the same season. The following season, after the Rockets acquired Olajuwon’s old “Phi Slama Jama” teammate Clyde Drexler, they would repeat by sweeping Shaquille O’Neal and the Orlando Magic; during that series, Olajuwon again outplayed his counterpart at center, averaging 32.8 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks per game to once again claim Finals MVP.
Likewise, while Robinson led the Spurs to a number of playoff runs, they could not quite get over the hump until they added Duncan. Then, in the strike-shortened 1998-1999 season, the Spurs finally delivered a championship to the city of San Antonio by beating the Knicks in five games; though Duncan was the MVP, Robinson had a strong showing on both ends of the floor, averaging 16.6 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 3.0 blocks per game. In his final NBA season, Robinson was a champion once again as the Spurs beat the New Jersey Nets in six games – Duncan was once again the MVP and while Robinson was steady but unspectacular, he did score 13 points and grab 17 rebounds in the title-clinching Game 6 in which would be his final NBA game.
As their careers largely overlapped for teams in the same state, Olajuwon and Robinson played against each other many times – during the seven year stretch from 1989 to 1996, the two centers matched up head-to-head 30 times, with Olajuwon averaging 26.3 points per game on 47.6% shooting to Robinson’s 22.1 points per game on 46.8% shooting. In their only head-to-head postseason matchup in the 1995 Western Conference Finals, Olajuwon, who was one season removed from his MVP campaign, thoroughly outplayed MVP Robinson as the Rockets defeated the Spurs in six games – in that series, Olajuwon averaged 35.3 points on 56.0% shooting with 12.5 rebounds and 4.2 blocks per game to Robinson’s 23.8 points (on only 44.9% shooting), 11.3 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game.
In addition to their NBA achievements, both Olajuwon and Robinson represented Team USA at the Olympics. As a collegian, Robinson won a bronze medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul (the last US basketball team without professionals), and was then part of the pro-led “Dream Teams” that easily won gold at both the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta; on that 1996 team, he was joined by Olajuwon, who had previously played for his native Nigeria as a youth, but became a naturalized US citizen in 1993.
Playoff Statistics
| Hakeem Olajuwon | Player | David Robinson |
| 145 | Games Played | 123 |
| 25.9 | PPG | 18.1 |
| 11.2 | RPG | 10.6 |
| 3.2 | APG | 2.3 |
| 3.3 | BLK | 2.5 |
| 52.8% | FG% | 47.9% |
| 71.9% | FT% | 70.8% |
| 25.7 | PER | 23.0 |
| 22.6 | Win Shares | 17.5 |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; as we have seen, while Olajuwon and Robinson were both immediate superstars, they did inevitably fall off later in their careers due to injury and age. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Hakeem Olajuwon | Player | David Robinson |
| 1986-1996 | Decade of Dominance | 1989-1996, 1997-2000 |
| 750 | Games Played | 679 |
| 24.7 | PPG | 24.5 |
| 12.4 | RPG | 11.5 |
| 2.9 | APG | 3.0 |
| 3.7 | BLK | 3.4 |
| 51.4% | FG% | 52.3% |
| 72.8% | FT% | 74.1% |
| 24.9 | PER | 27.2 |
| 114.1 | Win Shares | 149.9 |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
Across their respective decades of dominance, both Olajuwon and Robinson had even more impressive numbers; on a relative basis, the same trends are generally true – Olajuwon has the slight edge in most per-game averages, while Robinson has the better efficiency and is viewed more favorably by advanced statistics.
My Thoughts
Given the way the NBA has evolved to its current state, we may never see such a glorious age for big men again as we did in the 1980s and 1990s, where Olajuwon and Robinson reigned supreme along with other great centers such as Patrick Ewing and Shaquille O’Neal. At their respective peaks, the two centers were equally dominant on both the offensive and defensive ends, as evidenced by their successive MVP seasons. Overall, though, I think a couple of factors differentiate Olajuwon and Robinson – one, Olajuwon had the longer period of greatness; two, he was the key driver behind Houston’s two championships, while Robinson was more of a complementary piece to Tim Duncan for the two titles the Spurs won; and finally, three, in head-to-head matchups, most notably in the Western Conference Finals, Olajuwon clearly outplayed Robinson.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Hakeem Olajuwon
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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