It's Olajuwon's pride that's talking By FRAN BLINEBURY This is getting harder and harder now, like touching my toes without bending my knees, and if you were on the inside of this body on the day after that last session of dumbbell lunges you'd know what I mean. I'm talking about the twists and turns, the weird contortionist positions, the pretzel logic it takes to see where Hakeem Olajuwon is coming from these days. And I think I do. Pride. One of the Seven Deadly Sins and the one most often fatal to the great ones. Another day, another nightmare on Dream Street. Where does it all end? I don't think he knows and that, of course, is the nut of the problem. Olajuwon is feeling hurt, confused, wounded, bewildered, insulted, perplexed and a handful of other emotions, some real and some imagined, as what should have been a final season to celebrate a glorious career for the greatest athlete to ever wear a Houston uniform has turned into a bizarre soap opera. How's this for a wild script: Talk show host: Hello, you're on the air with Rudy T. Caller: Yes, this is Hakeem from Sugar Land and I'd like to apologize to my coach. I'll hang up and listen to your comments. OK, we thought it would be a good idea for Olajuwon and Rudy Tomjanovich to try to communicate better. But these over-the-air barings of the soul weren't exactly what we had in mind. Oops Olajuwon is contrite, embarrassed, ashamed even that this latest round of controversy quickly grew bigger than a mushroom cloud. Yet to tell the truth, he isn't actually sure what he did wrong. It was just a pre-game conversation Tuesday night, to hear him tell it, when a couple of reporters from south Florida newspapers engaged him in a chat about what it might be like to play for coach Pat Riley and the Miami Heat and it went on from there. He does a lot of thinking and fantasizing and talking inside his own head these days because, quite simply, he cannot rectify the notion of being a part-time player in his own mind. This is how it is with the great ones, never realizing when the sharp edges begin to erode, allowing the softness to creep into their game. In their minds and in their memories, they will always be the ones who are making the difference when the game is on the line, not making room for someone else to perform the heroics. His pride has been telling Olajuwon that, at 38, he can still be the player he once was in leading the Rockets to back-to-back championships in the middle of the last decade. And now, healthier than he's been in nearly three years, he wants a chance to prove it. His pride tells Olajuwon that if he had some members of the cast of young legs that now make up the current Rockets roster - Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, Shandon Anderson - in the prime of his career, maybe there would be more than just two championship rings in his jewelry collection. Sad situation His words and his sense of being an older teammate say to Tomjanovich on the eve of the season opener that the Rockets are free to use him any way they see fit this season. But the key word is "use" and Rudy T did not pick up on that. His pride would never let Olajuwon simply go along for the ride. The lead horse will accept nothing less from himself than pulling the wagon and that is where the first breakdown in communication came. One would have thought the Rockets would want to use Olajuwon. After all, they are not over-stocked at the center position. Kelvin Cato is currently on the injured list with a dislocated shoulder and when he is healthy, he is, well, Kelvin Cato. So Olajuwon tells himself that he should contribute significantly to what the Rockets are trying to do and he is right. He also looks around the league and he is still as good as many other NBA centers and he is right. But the great one can always be good, even at the end. That's proof of their greatness. It is not proof of who they still can be. But he doesn't want to play a cameo. He wants to compete. Which is why in his meeting with team owner Leslie Alexander last week Olajuwon did ask to be traded to Miami or released so he could sign with the Heat. The two sides agreed to wait a month or so to see where the Rockets are in the standings and then re-evaluate their positions. All was calm then. Until a conversation made ripples in the pond and Olajuwon's pride sent his mind racing again and his mouth carrying him back into deep water. We know where this is going. Which is why it's getting harder. And sadder. Double duty for the columnist with the most out of control random metaphor and simile generator known to man. ------------------ Me fail English? That's unpossible.
Nothing wrong with this at all except when he pulls a Homer and starts saying it out loud what he is going over in his mind. Did I think that or Say that??? ------------------ CUT Tino These Heaves are just getting Ridiculous!
The Alexander part is what I find interesting. This is what I was predicting in my thread, that he might release him if the ROckets are out of the playoff picture. Similar to Ray Borque in Boston last year. DaDakota ------------------ If Mankind evolved from monkeys and apes, then why are there still monkeys and apes?
So Dak, if they are still below .500 come the 28th of february you think he will be released???? ------------------ CUT Tino These Heaves are just getting Ridiculous!
