I mainly only started following the Rockets when Hakeem was in his prime, so all I know about Hakeem's early years I've seen on NBA.com TV. Anyway, I have a couple of questions for those of you who have followed the Rockets at least since Hakeem was drafted. I know that Hakeem's offensive skills were pretty raw when he came into the league, but he still averaged 20 points for his first few years. My questions are, how did Hakeem score? What was his main offensive weapon for his first few seasons? Also, what season did he start developing the dream shake moves we all know and love today? I know he always had good foot work, but when did he start developing it into his classic Dream Shake? ------------------ Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon is the greatest player in the history of basketball. If you disagree, you are not a Rocket fan.
As far as I can remember he came up with it it the early 90s. I remember him saying that he wanted to change the way a center is perceived from a big man in the middle who scores up close and blocks shots to a player that does just that but also has some of the capabilities of a guard as in dribbling, fade shots, and stealing on the defensive side. ------------------ Arkansas' Biggest Rocket Fan!
It seemed early in his career he was doing much dunking and garbage buckets - plus he ran the floor real well. ------------------
Once in a while on ESPN Classics, they show UH games from the Phi Slama Jama days... Seeing a young Olajuwon brings a tear to my eye... The "kid" could seriously fly! He was able to jump 2-3 times consecutively, faster than any big man I've ever seen... In other words, he was a 6-11 Shawn Marion... Clyde was also pretty athletic himself... ------------------ "Awesome baby!" Dick Vitale
So it was pretty much garbage points and jump hooks until the dream shake came around, right. That's the way it seems to me. Still, you have to be a pretty damn good player to average 20+ points on garbage points, and then a legend, to develop those moves of his. My respect for Hakeem grows every day. ------------------ Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon is the greatest player in the history of basketball. If you disagree, you are not a Rocket fan.
Don't forget his jumper became a weapon around the mid-90's... He can score with a variety of ways from 20 ft. and in... ------------------ "Awesome baby!" Dick Vitale
i remember Dream using an "early" version of the Dreamshake back in the 80's. it definitely wasn't as fluid and graceful as it later became, but still pretty effective. i know it was early in his career because i remember him doing a Mcdonald's (or RON'S chicken or something) commercial where he does the Dreamshake before dunking a nugget in his mouth. ------------------
witness, you are right on. Dream had raw versions of most of his moves even in college -- i was watching him play on espn classic the other day and saw him hitting a turnaround or two that were admittedly primitive precursors to his later fluid dreamshakes. The moves that were really brand new that he developed over the years were the baseline spin and the jump hook to the lane. Back in his first two or three years in the NBA he scored a hell of a lot of points after getting offensive rebounds. I believe the early Dream was probably the best offensive rebounder ever behind Moses. Well I never saw Wilt but you get my point. However Dream's strong offensive rebounding efforts also used to cost him fouls and hence playing time, so becoming more particular about when to go for offensive boards was probably a smart long term move by Dream. ------------------
Dream learned the drop step at the UH, and most of his moves are predicated off of that one. In the early NBA days, dream was a FEROCIOUS offensive rebounder. He just went crazy for the boards, he led the league in that category a few times I believe. Also, Dream played with Ralph Sampson, and he commanded the other teams attention as well, so he was able to flourish with another star...ala Cat and Franchise now. I remember during the 1986 playoffs, Pat Riley had his 3 keys to the game on the Lakers blackboard, here they are.... 1. Keep Dream off the glass 2. Keep Dream off the glass 3. Keep Dream off the glass They didn't and they lost. DREAM !!!! DaDakota ------------------ If you like RTS games, check out this one. www.frontierwars.com coming soon to a PC near you.
