Chron: Rockets Want Olajuwon (and others) Back

Rockets want Olajuwon back

Signing center key to free-agency plan
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle


The conference room planning boards in the Rockets' Westside Tennis Club offices are filled with names. The name in the center, Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said, has not changed. Not through this month's free-agent negotiations. Not in 17 years.

Negotiations have moved slowly, and Hakeem Olajuwon will not be among the players signing today when the NBA allows contracts to be completed.

But Tomjanovich said if there were any doubt, he absolutely wants Olajuwon back at center for an 18th season with the Rockets and has made his feelings clear to Olajuwon. And though a deal is not imminent, Tomjanovich remains optimistic the Rockets' strategy to re-sign each of their five free agents from last season's rotation, starting with their icon center, will fall into place as planned.

"I think he genuinely knows how I feel about him," Tomjanovich said. "I've said it to him personally, I've said it publicly. It's just the truth. When we do our ... planning for the future and work our workboards, we have Dream right there as our center. I mean, it is the way it is.

"That's what I tried to express to him. We understand he has freedom to talk to a lot of people. But our feelings for him are very strong, not only of gratitude but about where we can be with him today."

Tomjanovich would not discuss details of the Rockets' offer to Olajuwon. But Olajuwon had expressed reservations this week about the Rockets' feelings regarding his place and ability to contribute on a retooled team.

Olajuwon, 38, occupies $24.5 million of cap space, requiring the Rockets sign him first, or renounce their rights to him, before signing any other players in their allotted cap space. Forward Maurice Taylor has no "Larry Bird" rights, which would allow his contract to exceed the salary cap, and would have to fit in the cap space to remain with the Rockets. Free agents Shandon Anderson, Moochie Norris and Matt Bullard have at least partial "Bird" rights.

Excluding the space occupied by unsigned free agents, the Rockets have committed roughly $24 million to players under contract. The new salary cap is expected to be worth $42.5 million.

The Rockets, sources said, are trying to fit Olajuwon, Taylor and Anderson into the cap space.

Tomjanovich said he believes the Rockets would be able to sign their other free agents.

"Our plan is to get our team back and add the young guys, and keep moving in the right direction, in a good direction," Tomjanovich said. "I just have a good feeling. I'm not in on the every-day, every conversation Carroll (Dawson, Rockets general manager) has with these guys. We feel good about the direction we're going, the way things are going."

But while much of the rest of the NBA can begin that process today, nothing will happen for the Rockets until Olajuwon signs or the Rockets give up the chase.

But from the slow start to recruiting Olajuwon -- when Tomjanovich tried to make a 12:01 a.m. call to Olajuwon at the first permitted minute to speak to free agents only to find Olajuwon out of the country -- to Tuesday's eve of the league's signing day, the team has seemed to have had difficulty getting Olajuwon to accept Tomjanovich's sentiments.

"First I apologized for that call," Tomjanovich said of his conversation with Olajuwon last week. "I had some wrong information. A friend of his said he would be back in time. We knew he did some traveling. (The friend) said he was coming back the day before, that we could talk to him. It was just miscommunication.

"It was more of a personal call, not a negotiation. I wanted him to know I felt very good about him and his team. We didn't get into money. I don't get into all the salary cap stuff. He said he didn't know all the ramifications of the salary cap. He talked about being excited about the way we were going. He was very positive. I thought it was a very good conversation. There was no commitment on his side. That wasn't the purpose of the call. The purpose was to let him know how I feel. And the way I feel represents how everybody in this organization feels."

But for whatever difficulties there have been in negotiations, or frustration that no contracts will be signed today, Tomjanovich said he believed the team's nucleus would remain in place.

"You never know, but everybody in our organization is very positive," Tomjanovich said. "We just feel good.

"I was very happy with the way the team played last year. I loved our chemistry. I thought that we were competitive with the higher-level teams. I think we're headed in the right direction. I would like to continue in that direction.

"Hakeem is a very big part of that as far as I'm concerned. Everyone in our organization feels very good about the way Dream played. After we cleared up some things, I thought he was very happy and played extremely well. We would like to continue in that direction. When I talked to him, that was my intent, to let him know. When I talked to him, it was to tell him I would love for him to be a part of this."

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How the hell should I know why God would allow the Holocaust. I don't even know how the electric can opener works. - from Hannah and Her Sisters