Why did the Rockets consider trading Hakeem?

There was a dispute over an injury Hakeem had during the season. If I recall correctly, someone in the Rockets at the time accused Hakeem of not really having an injury. Charlie Thomas was the owner at the time. At the beginning of the season the Rockets went to Japan to play the Sonics for 2 games. During the flight Thomas and Olajuwon worked things out and Hakeem was not traded. The Rockets made the playoffs that year and lost in the 2nd round to the Sonics. They won a championship the next season.

 

Different circumstances. The problems with Yao are on the court, the problems with Hakeem were off the court. He didn’t get along with management. The GM accused him of faking an injury as a ploy to get more money from the Rockets.

 

There were some people at the time who knocked Hakeem for not passing the ball enough though. Of course he became a great passer when Rudy surrounded him with 3 point shooters and made the offense go inside out through Hakeem.

 

It had something to do with the Gm thinking Hakeem was faking and injury and Hakeem wanting a contract extension.

Glen Rice and Ron Siekley were almost Rockets because things got real tight there for awhile.

heh, thats the greatest trade never made, in any sport.

 

One possible trade was going to be Akeem (it was still Akeem at that time, I think) to Philly for Barkley. Both were perceived as superstars with attitude problems.

 

One thing people forget about Hakeem is that his career took a pretty strange path. He started out very well with the Rockets, going to the finals with Sampson in his second year. But when Sampson went down, Hakeem just could not pick up the slack. There was a period between the twin towers era and the Rudy era when Hakeem could not lead the Rockets at all, and looked more like a malcontent star than a leader for a championship contender.

Hakeem didn't start playing his best basketball, and secure his place among the all-time greats, until around 92 or 93. It was really the twilight of his career when Hakeem started to absolutely dominate the court.

 

i always thought they were going to trade him to the clippers for stanley roberts.

 

then you had the toronto trade that did not happen... wasnt it two lottery picks and doug christie.. i know t mac was in the deal somewhere something like this. it was reported then rudy backed off it

 

Jeff Van Gundy?

 

ok here was the offer

They were offering Kevin Willis, Doug Christie, and two first round draft picks

and i think both of the picks were lottery picks

 

That one was later. Well after we had won two championships.

 

This is not true at all. If you go back and look at his stats and game tape he was dominant through his whole career. After Sampson went down and half the team got suspended for cocaine use they never surrounded him with good enough players until the early 90's.

 

At the time, Hakeem had also made some subtle comments to the media suggesting that management was not surrounding him with quality supporting players -cough- sleepy floyd-cough-

I seem to remember a potential Ron Seikaly and Steve Smith to Houston trade that was thrown around

 

Hakeem had asked for the extension and it was not given to him. Then a short time later the mysterious injury occurred. Steve Patterson called Hakeem out and Hakeem got pissed.

 

I think Reggie Miller and Rik Smits were rumord to have been offered for Hakeem too.

 

There were a # of rumors during the Steve Patterson fiasco, but the one that almost happened involved Seikaly (whom I thought was pretty solid at the time, and had a chance to be damn good...stupid me)

 

where is Hakeem now? .... and btw, i still have a bottle of "H2O" ....lol....remember that? and i bouth L.A. Gear shoes b/c of him.... "UNBEATAAAABBBLE" ....lol

 

did you ever buy a pair of etonics also?

 

Hakeem travels the world now he has a lot of business ventures that has him all over.