I think a young Tim Duncan (when he was a lot more agile and had his elite lateral quickness for a guy his size) could have checked Hakeem (not saying he would have shut him down, but I also wonder if Hakeem could have guarded TD any better than TD guarding him). Tim was also on that US select team that pushed the US and he held his own against those All-star big men before being in the NBA. David Robinson (when he and Tim were going against each other in practice) said Tim was already better than him before Tim even played his first game for the Spurs. It's debateable that Hakeem was much better than D-rob let alone TD.
Anyway, I always used to say, if I were starting a team, I'd pick either TD or Prime Hakeem (I wouldn't pick Jordan as my first pick as I'd always start with a great big man that can play both offense and defense. I also want my big man to be skilled in the low post and be able to run offense through him if needed), having said that, Horry is really annoying me with these ridiculous takes (he's completely disrespecting TD for what reason, I don't know) and putting me off Olajuwon all together. Really, Hakeem only had a few years were he was great and put it all together. He wasn't anywhere near the leader TD was throughout his whole career and also was known to be very selfish earlier on. That is not conducive to winning anything. TD had it all from day one, and like TD21 said in a post above, if not for Tim's issues with his leg in the latter half of his career, this wouldn't even be a debate at all IMO. TD basically won finals MVP in the 2013 finals (against a prime Lebron, Wade, Bosh) if not for that final 27 seconds where he was not even on the court. That is on one leg. Tim was also great in the 2014 playoffs (Spurs MVP for the whole playoff run despite Kawhi getting finals MVP ), and then you got the 2015 series against Clippers with an in prime Griffin and DeAndre Jordan at their athletic peaks and Tim almost got the Spurs over the line in that one too (despite his teammates like Kawhi, TP, Manu playing poorly). Hakeem was completely done once his athleticism was gone. Tim was still battling some amazing players when his was done as his basketball IQ was off the charts.