Question for all the ol school Rocket fans: Watching an old tape of Ralph Sampson in his prime, I've never seen anything like him. At 7'4, he played like a guard, and ran the court like anything I've ever seen. Hypothetically speaking, if he never had his knee problems, how good could the twin towers have been? Also, could Ralp Sampson have been the greatest center of all time? I don't know. But watching tapes of him, he was probably BETTER than Hakeem(might be reaching). You're thoughts.
I've heard alot about Ralph but i was born i was much too young to watch him play. Haha, I was born in 1985, so that may have caused a problem. But doing some research on the Rockets (when I first started liking them in '96) I heard alot about him. If he didnt have problems, maybe we could've have a title much earlier than '94.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Rock4life:</div><div class="quote_post"> Also, could Ralp Sampson have been the greatest center of all time? I don't know. But watching tapes of him, he was probably BETTER than Hakeem(might be reaching). You're thoughts.</div> Are you joking man, what in the world would make you think he could have become the best center of all time? better than hakeem, you need to change your name...
IMO dream was and is the best center in the NBA. Honestly i didn't watch sampson too much but I religiously studied hakeem. His footwork, talent and heart were the best. No disrespect to ralph but Dream for sure!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Lamont:</div><div class="quote_post">Are you joking man, what in the world would make you think he could have become the best center of all time? better than hakeem, you need to change your name...</div> When Dream came in the league, Sampson was already there. At the time, Sampson was indeed better than Hakeem. That part was obvious. You must haven't seen any tapes of Ralph Sampson. He was on his way to being a hall of famer but tore his knees up. Too must of you guys weren't watching the Rockets back in the 80's
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Lamont:</div><div class="quote_post">Are you joking man, what in the world would make you think he could have become the best center of all time? better than hakeem, you need to change your name...</div> When Dream came to the Rockets, Sampson was already there. At the time, Sampson was indeed better than Hakeem. That part was obvious. You must haven't seen any tapes of Ralph Sampson. He was on his way to being a hall of famer but tore his knees up. Too bad most of you guys weren't watching the Rockets back in the 80's, probably still in diapers
^^^yep unfortunately I still was...LOL.....but no telling how many titles we could've had with Ralph and Hakeem side by side..........just picture a line up of C. Ralph Sampson F. Hakeem Olajuwon F. Robert Horry G. Clyde Drexler G. Kenny Smith with a bench of O.T.,Cassell,Elie,etc.........that looks incredibly dangerous.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting THE DREAM:</div><div class="quote_post">^^^yep unfortunately I still was...LOL.....but no telling how many titles we could've had with Ralph and Hakeem side by side..........just picture a line up of C. Ralph Sampson F. Hakeem Olajuwon F. Robert Horry G. Clyde Drexler G. Kenny Smith with a bench of O.T.,Cassell,Elie,etc.........that looks incredibly dangerous.</div> Unstoppable! I think we'd of probably won just as many titles than the Bulls did (no lie). Remember if I'm not mistaken, Hakeem's rookie season was the year that we took Boston in the finals. Just imagine Hakeem and Ralph playing for 10 years plus
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Rock4life:</div><div class="quote_post">Unstoppable! I think we'd of probably won just as many titles than the Bulls did (no lie). Remember if I'm not mistaken, Hakeem's rookie season was the year that we took Boston in the finals. Just imagine Hakeem and Ralph playing for 10 years plus</div> Um..yes Sampson was better than hakeem when he got there, because hakeem was a rookie. Your only defense for sampson was that he hurt his knees, big deal, there is still no proof whatsoever that he would have became one of the greatest centers. p.s sampson wasn't a center he was a pf.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Lamont:</div><div class="quote_post">Um..yes Sampson was better than hakeem when he got there, because hakeem was a rookie. Your only defense for sampson was that he hurt his knees, big deal, there is still no proof whatsoever that he would have became one of the greatest centers. p.s sampson wasn't a center he was a pf.</div> If he happened to be a PF, he'd be the tallest PF in NBA history(7'4). As far as being one of the greatest centers of all time, he was definitley on the verge of being in that class. If you need proof of that, then you probably don't watch too much tv. Imagine Yao Ming being able to run the court, shoot, and dribble like a guard, that's what Sampson was. These are facts, this is no defense, Sampson was incredible when he was healthy. If your still not convinced of how good this guy was, catch one of those old Rockets/Celtics games in the finals.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Rock4life:</div><div class="quote_post">If he happened to be a PF, he'd be the tallest PF in NBA history(7'4). </div> <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> His NBA career quickly deteriorated as he became burdened with numerous knee injuries, as though he was well over 7 feet tall, he played power forward for the Rockets and often bent over to guard men much smaller. This was because 7'0" (2.13 m) Akeem Olajuwon played center and the versatile Sampson preferred to play forward.</div> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Sampson Anybody who watched Roclets basketball knew hakeem played center while he played pf.
I always thught that Hakeem played PF in those days. Well I never watched any of those games, but that would've been nice to see.
I was looking at his numbers in a Rockets media guide recently, and the man posted some nice stats...19 ppg, 8-9 boards...could pass, shoot, run the floor...and was so agile and versatile for a man who is 7'4"...its a shame his career was shortened by injuries...that Olajuwon-Sampson frontline was just dangerous, and those two together led us to the 1986 Finals...
Yeah, Samps wouldv'e been great. I v seen(on classic replays) Samps rebound the ball, run the break and dunk. Only a few other players in NBA history are scarier running the break(like Shaq).
