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Was Hakeem Olajuwon better than Shaquille O'Neal?
Hakeem Olajuwon, 1984-2002, against Shaquille O'Neal, 1992-2011. The numbers levelled to one league, then the call.
Method, stated plainly: scoring is adjusted to a league averaging 114 points per team per game. Rebounds and assists are printed as they were recorded, with the league scoring rate beside them, because a rebound in 1962 came out of a different number of missed shots and we will not pretend one multiplier fixes that. Career lines for active players run through 2024-25.
What the numbers say
Adjusted to a league averaging 114 points a game, Shaquille O'Neal is the bigger scorer: 34.7 a game in 1999-00 against 30.7 for Hakeem Olajuwon in 1993-94. That is a real gap of 4 points, not an era illusion — Shaquille O'Neal's league averaged 97.5 and Hakeem Olajuwon's averaged 101.5.
Away from scoring they are nearly the same player on paper: 11.9 and 13.6 rebounds, 3.6 and 3.8 assists. The separation is in what their teams asked of them, not what they could do.
Hakeem Olajuwon: The only player to win MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and Finals MVP in one season, and the all-time leader in blocks. Shaquille O'Neal: The most physically unanswerable player of the last 40 years, in the lowest-scoring era since 1955.
The numbers are free. The verdict is in the Vault.
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