4-time NBA champ says ‘Jokic wouldn’t stand a chance vs Hakeem’

Sam Cassell just won a second title with the Boston Celtics, coaching them alongside headman Joe Mazzulla to the championship months ago. Cassell was a player on the 2008 team toward the end of his career which included the high of back-to-back titles with the Houston Rockets in the 1990s.

Cassell nearly played 1,000 games in the NBA and averaged about 20 points a night for the better part of a decade where he spent time with Houston, Milwaukee, Minnesota, New Jersey, Phoenix, Dallas, Boston and the Clippers. Cassell’s best play as an individual came with the upstart T-Wolves led by Kevin Garnett. The two went to an All-Star game together but the team was derailed by a wild owner and a physical altercation. But there’s no doubt that Cassell has seen some of the game’s best bigs up close, like Garnet, Joel Embiid and Hakeem Olajuwon.

“Hakeem is a beast in every sense on the floor. He’s in the Top 10 in every NBA category—steals, rebounds, points,” the four-time champion Cassell said to four-time champion Draymond Green on the forward’s podcast. “I think Jokić would score more points, but Hakeem would win because he would constantly pressure him. Jokić wouldn’t be able to do damage in the post; it simply wouldn’t happen”

The current Celtics coach continued.

“On the other end of the floor, Jokić wouldn’t stand a chance. Joel Embiid gives him problems, and he wouldn’t have any hope against Hakeem. I believe Hakeem would have an answer for whatever Jokić tried defensively.”

All it takes is a brief look at Cassell’s resume to notice he’s long been on the wrong side of Jokic beatings, with the bias of being taken to the promised land by Hakeem. Cassell was fired from the Clippers staff after several seasons in Los Angeles after the team blew a 3-1 series lead to Jokic-led Nuggets in the bubble. The former point guard then joined the 76ers staff where he saw Jokic beat out Embiid for MVP awards.

Cassell obviously knows ball but he is extremely biased on the comparison. So what would the former MVP and 12-time All-Star, The Dream, have to say about Jokic?

In the past, the Hall of Famer anointed Jokic “The One,” saying he “loves The Joker.”

“He’s playing the game, and you think he’s not serious, but he’s so effective… His shot, his fakes, they are very difficult to time,” Olajuwon told SI in 2023. “You don’t know when he’s faking and when it’s real. He has tricks. He’s the one.”

The retired two-time Defensive Player of the Year is known just as much for his work on offense in the post as he is on defense. While Jokic has the Sombor Shuffle, he also has borrowed Olajuwon’s Dream Shake at times. And that’s likely why Olajuwon views him so highly. The all-timer has been tasked with coaching many elite bigs in the past on their post-work, from Anthony Davis to Shaq to more, and it seems as if Jokic may have Olajuwon’s essence down better than anyone.

In fact, Jokic’s six post-ups a game this last season were the most in the NBA. He scored a league-high 6.9 points per game out of that action, making for the second season in a row he led the NBA in post-up scoring. It’s impossible to say how exactly Jokic would fare one-on-one against prime Olajuwon but the two obviously view each other in the same vein of greatness, something Cassell fails to understand.