Ranking the Greatest NBA Defenders of All Time | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Let's start here: Hakeem Olajuwon is the only player in Basketball Reference's database with at least 3,000 blocks and 2,000 steals.

While those two categories are far from the only considerations for this exercise, Olajuwon's singular status is one good indicator of his unique capacity for disruption. His hands were just everywhere, transported into position by the best feet any big man has ever had.

A two-time DPOY who made nine Al-Defensive teams (five first teams), Olajuwon led the league in defensive win shares for four straight seasons from 1986-87 to 1989-90, topping the league in blocks per game three times, including an absurd average of 4.6 swats per contest in 1989-90. He's the only player with three career seasons of at least 8.0 defensive boards and 4.0 blocks per game.

There's more!

The Dream registered 17 seasons with at least 1.0 block and 1.0 steal per game, the highest total ever. He also has four seasons with an average of at least 2.0 blocks and 2.0 steals, which is a big deal because there have only been six such campaigns in league history. Olajuwon strung that quartet of 2.0/2.0 seasons together consecutively from 1987-88 to 1990-91, putting that stretch on the short list of the best individual defensive runs the league's ever seen.

Preternatural timing and lightning-quick elevation made Olajuwon a fierce standstill shot-blocker. That he could also cover so much ground, smothering opponents' attempts with instantaneous help rotations, rendered his brand of defense unfair.

Sticking with a perimeter player was also no problem for him.

Gifted with balletic balance and agility, he was difficult to dislodge, despite lacking exceptional strength. And don't forget his ridiculous speed in the open floor, which made victims of many guards who thought they had clean breakaways.

In the post, nobody was better at leaning hard into the back of his man's shoulder on one side, suckering a guard into a post entry pass to the other...which Olajuwon, bait taken, would deftly slide over and steal, sometimes poking the ball away and sometimes using a slick swim move to (seemingly) teleport around his man, ending up all the way in front and receiving the pass as if it had been intended for him.

In the aftermath of that statistical tidal wave and accompanying aesthetic beauty, you're surely wondering why Olajuwon doesn't rank higher. Part of the reason is that his teams lacked the consistent excellence of our top two defenders, and part of it is because, well...we're in the rarest of air here. It's hardly a knock to say a guy is the third-best defender of all time.