1560am: Morning Show dedicated to Hakeem Olajuwon on Wednesday (4/9)

Hakeem Olajuwon is the reason I love the Houston Rockets.

I was a boy growing up in California when I was first introduced to NBA Basketball during the 1993-94 regular season. I remember watching the Rockets one night (it might have been the first game I ever watched) and I loved how they played, more importantly I loved Dream and how he made everything look so easy. When the playoffs started I was hooked. I watched every game that came on NBC. I remember Hakeem treating Felton Spencer like he wasn't even there, then the comeback against the Suns, and the triumphant Game 7 over Knicks. It was outstanding. Most kids around that time had jumped on the Michael Jordan bandwagon, I might have been too if I had started watching any other year... but not this year... This year belonged to the Rockets and they won me over. The next year was no different. I was immersed in NBA fandom. I started collecting all the basketball cards that came out. It wasn't until 5 years after I had become such a big fan that I found that Hakeem and I shared a common bond. The day I was born... June 19th, 1984 was the same day the Rockets took Dream 1st overall. I guess you could say it was destiny in a way.
By the time I was 17 I had a Hakeem Olajuwon shrine. 300 different cards of his, jerseys, magazines, newspapers, figurines. I've been a die hard Rockets fan ever since and now I live in Houston and I get to see them play live on a regular basis. After being such a big fan for 12 odd years... finally getting to go to a Rockets game was a great feeling. I love this team for better or worse... and it all started with Hakeem.

 

Isn't it so awesome how he had so many fans when he was thug life akeem, and transformed to graceful hakeem? Amazing how he changed his game so much from a banger to a smooth pivot man and still owned EVERYONE at the pf/c spot. Dream is unbelievable on so many levels. Go dream!

 

Dave on now !

I am on hold........

Glad you guys are talking about Aaron Brooks that is what I wanted to bring up but got cut off.

DD

 

I heard them go back to you but you had hung up. At least that's what I thought. It was great hearing your voice on the air and Dave too. This is awesome!

 

I started talking at the same time as Dave, and thought I was on mute. Usually when you are producing a show you let the caller hang on until the end so you can hear what they say....I thought they had cut me off...so I hung up.

My bad....I wanted to ask a follow up about ABrooks and whether he gets to stay in the rotation now that Rafer is back.

DD

 

Hakeem was and will always be THA MAN...I love to see Tracy and Yao dominate from time to time but Hakeem was dominant (yes, kidz--there's a difference). Check this NY Times write up from 1994...let's go back...

OLAJUWON: A Problem Without A Solution
By WILLIAM C. RHODEN,
Published: May 27, 1994

Although the team's chartered flight to Salt Lake City was scheduled to leave in 15 minutes, John Stockton, the Utah Jazz's All-Star guard, and Karl Malone, an all-N.B.A. forward, lingered in a near-empty locker room Wednesday evening studying stat sheets from the game that had ended 45 minutes earlier. Utah had dropped a bitterly fought 104-99 decision to Houston and faced a 0-2 deficit in their four-of-seven-game series with the Rockets in the Western Conference finals.

On Monday, Utah was routed, 100-88, in Game 1. Wednesday night was much better. Stockton scored 18 points, Malone 32, but it still wasn't enough.

Hakeem Olajuwon, Houston's iron-man center, had obliterated the Jazz with a stunning display of muscle, acrobatics and versatility. On at least two occasions he had blocked a shot at one end of the floor, then raced down to the other to finish off the subsequent break with a thundering dunk.

Olajuwon was especially awesome in the fourth quarter when he scored 14 points. Someone asked Stockton if he thought the Jazz might try to run more people at Olajuwon in Games 3 and 4. Stockton answered with a barely discernible edge to his voice.

"You're only allowed to play five guys at a time," he said. "I don't know how many you need to run at him to stop him."
Stockton's exasperation is understandable: he's in his 10th season as a pro, perhaps with a final opportunity to reach the N.B.A. championships and he's facing an opponent his team cannot control.

For the second game in a row, Hakeem the Dream had been Utah's nightmare. In two games, Olajuwon had scored 72 points against the Jazz -- 31 on Monday, 41 on Wednesday. He had gobbled up Wednesday night from the pre-game ceremony when he was presented with the N.B.A. Most Valuable Player award, to his final 4-foot bank shot with 39 seconds left. The evening belonged as much to Olajuwon as Felton Spencer did. Utah's 7-0 center tried valiantly but vainly to contain his counterpart. He couldn't stop the spin, couldn't stop the roll and fade, couldn't stop the he dunk. He just couldn't.

"I did the best that I could," Spencer said, repeating a refrain from Monday's game when Olajuwon scored 31 points.

Karl Malone had been brilliant in his own right. After starting slowly, in what has become his playoff pattern, Malone caught fire and finished with 32 points.

There was a two-minute stretch of brilliance midway through the fourth quarter when the Dream and the Mailman stood like two trumpeters on the stage, each trying to top the other with a phrase, a move that was more brilliant than the last. The lead changed with each call, the momentum swung with each response:

Malone makes a foul shot -- Utah, 87-85

Olajuwon ties the game with a hook, 87-87

Malone nails a 14-foot jumper -- Utah, 89-87

Olajuwon ties the game with a jump shot, 89-89

Malone makes two foul shots -- Utah, 91-89

Olajuwon ties the game with two foul shots, 91-91

Malone hits a 15-foot jump shot -- Utah, 93-91

Olajuwon ties the game with a layup, 93-93 Fun, in Retrospect

Afterward, Olajuwon reflected on the back-and-forth duel.

"Now I can say it's fun," he said, "but at the time, the concentration level was so intense: hoping that he missed and when we got the ball hoping that we score. Now that it's over and you can think back and replay, it's fun."

 

holy sht can someone get this hakeem song on mp3??? i MUST have it as my ringtone!!!

 

Caught that part it was awesome! missed the early morning stuff

 

can someone give me the more info on this? it sounds awesome.