Who was the best player of the 90's after Jordan?

[EGarrett]

I was thinking about this.

Who was the best player of the 90's, not counting Michael Jordan?

Was it Scottie Pippen? A lot of people don't say he got enough credit.

Hakeem won two rings. A lot of people say Karl Malone was denied only because of Michael. Or maybe Charles?

What about Shaq? He didn't really peak until 99-00, though. Some wouldn't count that as the 90's.

[Jeffx]

The Dream, no question. Shaq was still raw at the time.

If Jordan never retired the first time, it would have been interesting to see how the Rockets would fare against a fully-loaded Bulls team.

[John-John Joe]

Great topic!

I went with Hakeem man, and I didn't even hesitate. Talk about dominance? WHOA.

[Jeffx]

His performance in the '95 playoffs was plain sick.

[Matthew]

Hakeem was simply dominant in those years mj was MIA. But I think I'm going to have to go with pippen. He was so unselfish towards the bulls, accepting his role when mike was around and him and pippen at times were virtually unstopable. Then when mike left he took his game to a whole new level and carried the bulls. I love the way he didnt complain about mj leaving, and attempted to get them back into the finals. Lets have a look at the stats from the two years mike was gone:
93-94:
22.0 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 5.6 apg, 2.93 spg, 0.81 bpg

94-95:
21,4 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 5.2 apg, 2.94 spg, 1.13 bpg

The man literallly did everything for chicago, and in 94/95 he lead chicago in all those categories. The amount of steals Scottie had in those two seasons was remarkable. The Bulls didn't have a dominant shot blocker patrolling the lane (Pip was their best shot blocker), so he had to be more careful of when to go for his steals. It's a huge testament to how good Pippen was defensively when you look at those numbers.

Then when Jordan came back, they were considered equals on that bulls team, which is such a huge testiment to pippen. Remember the title of this thread: "Who was the best player of the 90's after Jordan?". Well scottie was considered an equal to mike for the second 3 peat. I give my vote to him, with hakeem a 2nd, and malone 3rd. Then theres a significant drop.

[#12]

Of course its pippen

[air gordon]

why hakeem? let's think about it....

if we're talking strictly the 90's, i'm not sure it's hakeem. his career started in the mid 80's and imo his best years were behind him after 96. and as great as hakeem was in the those 2 championship years, who considered the rockets a perennial contender before then. hehe i could be wrong here

maybe it's karl malone or david robinson whose careers were in their prime for almost the entire 90's

maybe grant hill who had some amazing years towards the latter part of the decade

or even pippen- jordan didn't start winning title until he arrived

in terms of success, talent, dominance... it came down to pip, dream, and the admiral.

all 3 game were big influences on the game: dream and admiral brought forth the atheltic big man versatile enough to play away from the paint. pip brought back the point-forward position. all 3 were defensive stalworths. their statistical accomplishments and accolades won are too many to list.

i had to give to hakeem.

[John-John Joe]

Damn, no love for Sir Charles huh?

[Donatello]

whoever voted shaq is on craq

[j.23]

pip, the guy was simply amazing on both ends of the floor
olajuwon was pretty good too but i'm being biased her because im a pippen fan

where's grant hill?

[Drex]

where's grant hill?

In the others category

[Matt]

Matthew what does MIA stand for???

I'd say hands down Olajuwon (does anyone remember the game where he isolated David Robinson, crossed him over and faked him out twice before scoring....damn!)

others would be Barkley, Pippen and Grant Hill.

[Colin]

Matthew what does MIA stand for???

Missing In Action

It's Dream no question. Such a nimble big fella. I only watched him in the tail end of his career, but always liked it.

[fgrep15]

Didn't even have to think about it, Hakeem..

[[Q]]

Um, yeah, Gary Payton anyone?
voted for other... I think Other is the best player of the 90's... he should get the most votes

[Micchy_boy]

i know the popular choice was The Dream. He fought great battles agains Ewing, Admiral, Mourning and Shaq or even Muresan. He led the Rockets to back to back champ but with a little help from Jordan and Drexler.

But i will go for the The Mailman.

After his rookie season, malone would play 980 out of the next 984 games (until the lockout season). Think about that for a minute. Shaq has had trouble the past 4 years playing 60 games a year, and malone only missed 4 out of 984. Amazing

2 time nba mvp (dont underated this accomplishment. 2 time mvp is somthing only a handfull of nba players can say they've done)

11 time all nba 1st team member, 2 time 2nd team, and one 1 time 3rd team.

14 time allstar, with 10 straight appearances, and two time all star game mvp.

Malone has the record for consecutive seasons with 2,000 points, at 11. considering you have to be around 26 ppg or higher to get 2000 points, and for malone to get this 11 STRAIGHT years is amazing.

All time leader in ft's made

2nd to kareem in points overall.

7th all time in rebounds

he might not get all of that in the 90's but definitely most of them. esp those consecutive 2000 points for 11 years.

and i know you will compare him to the dream having 2 rings in his fingers but still i vote for Malone.

[Jimi]

I voted for the Mailman:

YEAR TEAM G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG
85-86 UTA 81 76 30.6 .496 .000 .481 2.10 6.70 8.90 2.9 1.30 .54 3.44 3.60 14.9
86-87 UTA 82 82 34.8 .512 .000 .598 3.40 7.00 10.40 1.9 1.27 .73 2.89 3.90 21.7
87-88 UTA 82 82 39.0 .520 .000 .700 3.40 8.60 12.00 2.4 1.43 .61 3.96 3.60 27.7
88-89 UTA 80 80 39.1 .519 .313 .766 3.20 7.40 10.70 2.7 1.80 .88 3.56 3.60 29.1
89-90 UTA 82 82 38.1 .562 .372 .762 2.80 8.30 11.10 2.8 1.48 .61 3.71 3.20 31.0
90-91 UTA 82 82 40.3 .527 .286 .770 2.90 8.90 11.80 3.3 1.09 .96 2.98 3.30 29.0
91-92 UTA 81 81 37.7 .526 .176 .778 2.80 8.40 11.20 3.0 1.33 .63 3.06 2.80 28.0
92-93 UTA 82 82 37.8 .552 .200 .740 2.80 8.40 11.20 3.8 1.51 1.04 2.93 3.20 27.0
93-94 UTA 82 82 40.6 .497 .250 .694 2.90 8.60 11.50 4.0 1.52 1.54 2.85 3.30 25.2
94-95 UTA 82 82 38.1 .536 .268 .742 1.90 8.70 10.60 3.5 1.57 1.04 2.88 3.30 26.7
95-96 UTA 82 82 38.0 .519 .400 .723 2.10 7.70 9.80 4.2 1.68 .68 2.43 3.00 25.7
96-97 UTA 82 82 36.6 .550 .000 .755 2.40 7.50 9.90 4.5 1.38 .59 2.84 2.60 27.4
97-98 UTA 81 81 37.4 .530 .333 .761 2.30 8.00 10.30 3.9 1.19 .86 3.05 2.90 27.0
98-99 UTA 49 49 37.4 .493 .000 .788 2.20 7.30 9.40 4.1 1.27 .57 3.31 2.70 23.8
99-00 UTA 82 82 35.9 .509 .250 .797 2.10 7.40 9.50 3.7 .96 .87 2.82 2.80 25.5

He averaged over 25 ppg and 11rpg in the entire 90's. Missed just 3 (!!!) games in 10 years! He was the ultimate leader after MJ. HE never won a ring because he didnt have 20+ppg sidekick, nor a rebound sidekick. I mean, Stock was the ultimate passer, but that just wasnt enough. I think he should've left Utah much earlier, before his best years were over. He was definately the most consistent player of the 90's

[Robby]

Karl Malone because he simply played much better than Hakeem during the 90s. He not only had better individual stats but the Jazz also never missed the playoffs during his watch, but Houston did miss the playoffs with Hakeem playing. The Rockets beat the Jazz twice in the 90's and the Jazz beat the Rockets twice. The only difference was that Utah had to play Chicago in the Finals while Houston played NY and Orlando.

Also, people tend to forget or not know just how good Malone was because he's playing so long and people's views are biased by his later days. Also those who say Duncan and Garnett are better than him, please tell me when was the last time a power forward had a line like this.

89-90 UTA 82 82 38.1 .562 .372 .762 2.80 8.30 11.10 2.8 1.48 .61 3.71 3.20 31.0

He was the ultimate leader after MJ. HE never won a ring because he didnt have 20+ppg sidekick, nor a rebound sidekick. I mean, Stock was the ultimate passer, but that just wasnt enough.

Thank you for saying that. As much as people belittle Malone, Stockton never shares the blame for Utah's loses. Take Game 6 of the 98 Finals. Jordan had 45 points and just one assist while Malone had 31 points and 7 assists. Stockton had only 10 points and 5 assists in a game the Jazz lost by one. Had he played beter, the Jazz would have ended up winning the game.

As for Hakeem's performance during the 95 playoffs, it should be noted that Malone's numbers were just as good as Hakeem's but Malone had no help. When Houston faced elimination in game 4 against Utah, Hakeem and Clyde put up 40 points each but when the Jazz were faced with elimination in game 5, Malone put up 35 to better Hakeem but no other Jazz player came close to matching Clyde's numbers.

[beau_boy04]

Hi ! tough choice but I wonder why Clyde Drexler is no there? he has to be up there. Anyways, its either Pippen or Hakeem. And if i had to choose one of them I would pick Pippen over Hakeem. Why? because I don't think Hakeem would have complemented MJ as well as Pippen did.

Thanks.

[EGarrett]

The vote distribution is actually pretty spread out. A lot of people have different opinions, which is cool.

I voted for Hakeem. His numbers were similar to Malone and David Robinson, but you can never discount the rings. Hakeem also seemed to do it with less help. I think he had Drexler one year but the year before it seemed the most assistance he had was John Starks.

Of course, in subsequent years the Jazz would knock off the Rockets in the WCF, but the ring's the thing.

[patrixxx73]

"If ever Michael Jordan is a 7 footer, He would be Hakeem Olajuwon!"

[air gordon]

robby, you make it sound like the mailman was playing on the mitch richmond sacramento kings.

the guy was playing with one of the best pg's of all time almost his entire career

who was hakeem's best teammate? a then 32yr old clyde drexler? a young, but still ugly sam cassell? a robert horry who used to be a dunk machine before he caught 3pt disease?

as for stockton's bad games, you know it goes both ways. we had this conversation about the mailman not delivering in the finals