Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Hakeem Olajuwon
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at #3 and Hakeem Olajuwon at #12.
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The case for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
The most decorated player ever by individual hardware, and the owner of the most unstoppable single weapon in basketball history. Abdul-Jabbar's six regular-season MVPs remain the record, his 38,387 points stood as the scoring record for 39 years, and his six championships span an almost implausible arc — Finals MVP as a second-year player in Milwaukee in 1971, Finals MVP again at age 38 in 1985. The skyhook gave him a shot that was never solved: he shot 55.9 percent for his career and remained an elite scorer past age 40, retiring with 19 All-Star selections and 17,440 rebounds. His dominance predates the NBA: three straight NCAA titles and three tournament Most Outstanding Player awards at UCLA, where the NCAA banned dunking in 1967 largely because of him — he answered by perfecting the skyhook. The knock is that he was the clear second star on several 1980s title teams, but a career that runs from beating Wilt Chamberlain to feeding off Magic Johnson, spanning 20 elite seasons, has no parallel for sustained excellence at the center position.
The case for Hakeem Olajuwon
The most skilled defensive center ever and the owner of one of the sport's great individual peaks. In 1993–94 Olajuwon became the only player in NBA history to win regular-season MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and Finals MVP in the same season, then defended the title in 1995 as a sixth seed by beating four consecutive teams that had won at least 55 games, out-dueling David Robinson, Karl Malone and a young Shaquille O'Neal along the way. He is the all-time leader in blocked shots with 3,830, added a second Defensive Player of the Year award and nine All-Defensive selections, and paired that rim protection with the Dream Shake — the most refined post footwork the game has seen, so coveted that Kobe Bryant and LeBron James later sought his tutelage. Career figures of 21.8 points, 11.1 rebounds, 3.1 blocks and 1.7 steals describe a two-way completeness no center has matched. A Nigerian who did not play organized basketball until age 15, he stands as both a global pioneer and, at his 1994–95 apex, briefly the best player alive.