We've seen it coming for a while now, but that doesn't lighten the feelings. The guy I've rooted for my whole life won't be playing for the team I've rooted for my whole life. I hope that Dream does indeed put Toronto over the top. Good luck Dream, I love you man. ------------------
Thanks for everything Akeem. You will truly be missed, along with all the great memories you have given us. I am a little relieved that all this nonsense is over. The Rockets are a loyal organization and can now get down to business, by signing Maurice,Mooch,Bull, and possibly Shandon. Right now, the Rockets are stumped at the center position, but I am not worried. For one, I trust CD and company to fill our void fairly quickly. Secondly, I have a few connections in Denver. Lafrentz is NOT untouchable, only Antonio and Nick Van Exel are. Take it for what it's worth, but I wouldn't be suprised to see Raef somewhere else next season...but not necessarily Houston. Cod ------------------ The Number One Cuttino Mobley Fan! Don't hate..Congratulate!
I watched you first when you were young and couldnt make a free throw to save your life. I watched you as you blocked shot after shot after shot after shot. I watched you embrace the 1994 NBA Championship trophy as I ran around my buddies house screaming and yelling at the top of my lungs. I watched you embrace your closest teamate and longtime compadre: Clyde Drexler as you won your second, and back to back NBA World Championship. I watched you shake and bake doing the dream shake. You spawned my intrest in basketball. You made me proud to be a basketball fan. You made me proud to be a Rocket fan. Thank you for all of the great, long lasting, and wonderful memories I have of you and the Houston Rockets. Thanks Hakeem..... ------------------ I stole your money and I did your daughter at Texas A&M University
I shall keep my Dream blocking MJ wallpaper untill the first regular season game for the Rockets. Dream, you are a very beautiful boy. Thanks for the memories. I personally will miss you. . peace ------------------ -jbond77 "truth be told, my car is dead, and I'm having am radio withdrawl symptoms"
Thanks Akeem, for all the great memories!!! Thanks for always being humble, but always hungry. Thanks for letting me love the Rockets for life! ------------------ "Instinctly u recognize things,now take advantage of what u just recognized!".. Hakeem..
Bye. Even though you left long ago. I'll see you twice a year, when the Rockets kick the crap out of the Raptors. ------------------ The time for logic and reason has come and gone. It's homer time now. Believe. [This message has been edited by Tolpatcsh Verkinder (edited August 02, 2001).]
I'm truely sadden to see you go. I today and maybe for the rest of my life will always see you as a rocket. I have watched you play for as long as I can remember. As a child I pretended to be you as I played basketball with my childhood friends. You have given me much joy and much pride in being a rocket and basketball fan. I could never replace the memories I have of you playing on the court. You have showed me that nothing is impossible and anything can be accomplished with the will and heart of a champion. As time goes by no matter how old you are or what team you will play for you will always be the same dominating Hakeem that I have only known. I could not begin to describe the respect and honor I have for you. You will be forever remembered as the greatest basketball player I have ever seen...farewell Hakeem "the Dream" Olajuwon ------------------
To the man who made me a sports fan: Hakeem "the Dream" Olajuwon, I am saddened beyond words to see you leave. You will always be not only my favorite Rocket, but my favorite athlete. Stay humble and stay hungry. Good luck in Toronto. I can't wait to see #34 hanging proudly in our rafters. Good luck Hakeem. Thank you for all the memories. We will miss you. ------------------ "I have no regrets except that I wasn't up to keep Randy from getting on that plane." --Ozzy Osbourne on guitarist Randy Rhodes
So long Hakeem ... best of luck !! The rockets made a big mistake. There is NO SUPERSTAR on the team now. Some quality players, yes, but nothing that will reach the finals. Oh well .... Too bad the rockets could not show more respect to Dream ... they may not realize now what they lost ... but they will. It won't be long until they realize what they lost ... some of us already know tho ... ------------------ -Irwin Fletcher
Dream is an ICON ... there is no bigger, more identified Houstonian than Hakeem. He represented what this city aspired to be ... but the Rockets let him walk .... . . . . . . I'm not sure if I'm sad, or angry, or both ...well ok I AM sure I am angry with the Rockets .... big mistake ... huge ... ------------------ -Irwin Fletcher
It is still very hard to believe that Hakeem chose to go to Toronto.It's like a bad dream or like a long time girlfriend leaving you. But I guess that says alot about him. I've followed Hakeem since the 82 final four where UH lost to the Tar Heels. Even though Hakeem has always been my favorite player and placed him on a pedestal, I can't but help but having feelings of anger,betrayal and resentment towards him. I"m sure these feelings will subside eventually. But it was Hakeem who only about a month ago said we should not pursue Webber and keep the team intact. I assume thats why the Rockets decided not to pursue CWebb.So now we're left w/neither. Not to say that Webber would have come but it sure was a possiblity. Maybe he felt insulted that we did not offer him Robinson type money, but if he felt loyalty to the franchise and his teamates (as did Barkley did a couple years ago,taking only 1 million) he would taken our offer and given it a few more shots w/the franchise that he's been w/all his life. W/him in the lineup last year we had a very good team, he knows that. And w/Griffith we were poised to have a very good season. Maybe he didn't like deferring to the younger guys and still wanted to one of the first options on offense. Maybe he just wanted to get out the west. I'm sure we'll eventually find out, but for now I have nothing but disdain for Hakeem. I hope to get over this bitterness cuz Hakeem meant so much for this franchise and the city and I will always be very appreciative for what he did for our team. Anyways time to move on and look forward to our bright future, I've been a rocket fan before the Dream came on board and will always be no matter who's on the team.
I've followed Hakeem since the very beginning of his Hall of Fame Career (I was and remain a huge University of Houston fan). He was the foundation that changed Houston from a football town with a (mostly ignored) basketball team. Besides his magical, incredible play, he also was the ultimate professional and gentleman. While his leaving may pave the way for the Rockets to spend the money on a player (or players) with less sentimental value and more left in the tank. When we are enjoying our new players in our new playpen, I will always remember that it is very much the House Hakeem Built!! Good luck in Toronto Dream! Wish you well, in every game, except the two you play against us!
In 1981 my mother was a professor at the University of Houston teaching intro psychology. She had a student named Akeem Olajuwon who failed to show up for the first few classes. Under University rules she was supposed to drop him. Just when she was about to drop him she got a frantic visit from an assistant basketball coach pleading that she reinstate him so he wouldn't drop below the minimum number of credits to play on the team. She reluctantly reinstated him and next day Akeem showed up at class. My 5'2" mom confronted the 7' foreign student and ordered him to see the TA to catch up on the material he missed. After that she never saw him again in person and although she ended up failing him she kept him on the class list so he had enough credits to play. Akeem went on and played in two NCAA championship games and became the greatest athelete in Houston history. Twenty years later teaching my own tardy and absentee undergrads I'm still proud that Mom bent the rules that time for the large young man who failed to show up for class. Hakeem. Thanks for all the memories. Particularly the one of you blocking John Starks in the closing minutes of the 1994 Finals to cement Houston's first Championship and leading to another young man to do back flips down Commonwealth Ave. a thousand miles away. There are few athletes of your level and even fewer who have played and lived with such honor and dignity. If you ever read this I hope you remember you owe a small part of your success to a small Chinese woman at the University of Houston. Good Luck in the Great White North. Always a Dream fan, Sishir Chang
Uh. well, not always. I've seen him throw sucker punches, damage his team's chemistry, leave his team in the lurch (twice now), demand to be traded (several times), take complaints public without even speaking with his coach or management (several times), and b**** at the refs instead of running back on D. On balance, though, I always put him on a higher plane than other NBA players, until now. Not that I dislike him, mind, but I do see him as "just another superstar" now. I understand why he left, and I understand why the Rockets didn't want him back. They say they did, but if they did, they bungled the negotiations to the point of incompetence. All they did was go through the motions to keep the fans happy. They were just hoping for more than a #28 pick in the draft and a trade exemption they probably won't even use, like the last one they had. As for Hakeem, he realizes he can't play three more years, and wants to return to the finals this year or next. Who can blame him? And in Toronto he might. They were a jump shot away last year, and Carter will make more of those than he misses in his career. (And why can't I shake the feeling that Hakeem was going East to run away from Shaq?) I wish Olajuwon well, and the Raptors, too. I love the city of Toronto! The Rockets? Maybe. I feel a little betrayed. But they do have a bright future. I guess I 'll hope for the Hakeem to cause the Raptors to have major chemistry problems next year, as Pippen did for the Dream-Chuck-Pip Rockets, have Toronto barely make the playoffs, then make a magical run thru the East to reach the finals. Then we all get what we want: Hakeem gets to the finals but has to eat a little humble pie, and the Rockets make the best of a bad situation by getting the #14 pick in the draft. Oh, well, I can Dream, can't I?
thx Dream. And a word of advice: Watch out for those cold glasses of water in Canada. They can injure a man worse than our cold water can. Drink them slowly.
