Finally, the real truth about Olajuwon's age.

In the NBA, I do not think age is as much of a factor towards deteriorating skills as wear and tear. Players that have been through the wars (with the exception of Malone - he is just a physical freak) break down quicker. That is one reason Jordan has a much better shot at a comeback than Barkley. Jordan played on the perimeter, and took several years off. Due to wear and tear, I think Jordan is one player who could come back.

As such, I could see Dream being at least a couple years older than his listed age, and it not be such a big deal, because he picked up basketball so late.

David Robinson might disprove this theory, because he took a couple of years off, and has still shown signs early of breaking down. However, this is easily explainable because he is soft. .

 

<B>2) As anyone who has ever fallen for one of the hundreds of fraudulent investment schemes in that country will tell you: Never take the word of a Nigerian "businessman" at face value. </B>

Hey wait a minute. I've gotten several emails telling me that a part of the Nigerian government has collected $20-$40 Million and that if I help them move it to US dollars (just by giving them my bank account number), they will give me 15% of it.

Does this mean that is not legit?!?!

 

I am going to write my friend at the Chronicle with this information and see if he is interested. All any reporter needs is two sources, and Hakeem's school records should be easy enough to uncover.

Personally, this sounds like a rumor that was started in Lagos and now has worked its way across the Atlantic to masquerade as fact.

Achebe does make an interesting point about how blacks age so darn well compared to whites. If some of my black friends at the Cy Creek Y did not have gray hair, you would never be able to tell their age.

 

The stuff from the "classmates" sounds believable enough on the face of things.

But if they're right, then Hakeem hit his career peak between the ages of 34 and 38. How plausible is that?

And if any of you guys has images spanning Hakeem's career, did he really look 26 or 27 as a rookie? Does the time span when his body filled out match up to that, or to someone closer to his officially stated age?

Just an opinion, but I'll guess there are more people from Nigeria claiming to have gone to school with Hakeem than would fit into any "classroom" smaller than a soccer stadium.

Then again, I really did ride the same bus to high school as Heather Locklear, so maybe I shouldn't be so skeptical.

 

In my friend's telling, it was his acquaintance's brother who was a classmate of Hakeem's.

swopa, did you ever get to sit by her and lean on her on some of those curves (in the road, I mean)?

 

Nope, never got the chance. Anyway, at that age the only curves would have been on the road -- she was about as curvy as Dan Langhi.

Although as skinny teenagers with braces go, she was pretty hot. (It's taken years of therapy to repress the memory of how dorky I looked. )

 

I really think it is time that we SOLVE this mystery once and for all.

We have the resources in people, we need to use all of our connections and researching skills, like finding a birth certificate or a Nigerian Newspaper article, or something...

I am pretty sure he is 5 years older now...it just makes sense, but lets blow this out of the water...get some plublicity....

 

If this was actually true and the Raptors were unhappy I am sure they could appeal to the NBA to void the deal and possibly bring Hakeem back. This is all just too crazy though.

 

if he's 43, why do we want the NBA to void the deal?

I like Hakeem but I dont want to pay a 43-year old 3yrs 10 million.

thats freaking crazy, no matter who it is.

 

If this is all true than Dream would have been in his mid to upper 30's in his prime.

 

It's ok ROCKET!!!,

not very many people believed me either.



rH

 

OK, if we really want to know we need to uncover some more info about the Nigerian culture and methods of school attendence.

We have what I call RUMINT (rumors intelligence) right now. We need some HUMINT (human intelligence) that can be confirmed as a credible source.

If !!! can vouch for the sources credibility that's one. However, Rich is going through third hand info and we need another source to verify.

It would be great if the Chronicle picks this up and goes for it, but I doubt it...maybe ESPN or Sporting News might bite. We need someone to travel to Nigeria and do some digging.

 

rockHEAD's post was the first one that I really read and I couldn't believe it when he even produced pictures of Olajuwon. It was after seeing and reading this is when I decided I wanted to join. I had come to this site because I had read somewhere (I can't remember where), that this was a great site ot get inside info on the Rockets. Of course, I was growing impatient because I hadn't heard anything from ESPN, Sporting News, and other sports sites on what the Rockets were going to do other than "trying to re-sign Dream." After reading rockHEAD's post, I was not surprised that Olajuwon left.

It just made me mad that he said that the best thing that the Rockets could do was keep the same team together and not try to bring in anyone else. Then he bolts.

I always had a suspicion that he wasn't coming back, but rockHEAD's post confirmed it.

 

I think Hakeem knew he wasn't going to play for us when he walked off the court last season. It was his final game as a Rocket but not as an NBA player. I think he had his mind made up and he already new he was ready 'for a change.'

Dream waited to see what Houston could offer, then waited for the next highest bid, and took it. The NBA is all a business and his last business venture (the Rockets) did well, so it's off to new pastures to graze in the green... grass, that is... and snow.

rH

 

Ok. Here we go again. I am Nigerian. Its been sort of a myth for quite sometime that Hakeem's older than he's actually listed at (In the Nigerian community at least). How much older....I do not know....but it does make his accomplishments look even more amazing.

 

I think it is an urban legend, he did not look like a 23 year old freshman at UH, he looked like a skinny 19 year old kid.

I think Hakeem is what he says he is, don't you think someone would have researched this at some point in his career?

DaDakota

 

I don't have a hard time believing that Dream's 43.

 

There's a good reason no one's researched this: no one cares.

In the good ole USofA when you say you're 19, and you look 19, people just accept it at face value. When you come here from Nigeria (without an American birth certificate), and you've got people from a local university telling INS officials that you're 19, then they agree that you're 19. Or 18. Or 53. Or 5. Doesn't matter, they don't care.

Hundreds of thousands of people come in from Mexico every year legally without birth certificates, tell INS how old they are, and walk on past. No big deal, no one really cares. My guess is that no one has ever really thought to investigate the matter. Why? When Hakeem was 19 (or 24) he looked 19, and no one cared. And when he was 38 (or 43) he looked 38 and no one cared.

Who cares how old he is? Only his body cares about that. Let Toronto find out the hard way. He's their property now.

 

I don't believe the rumor about his age. His face matured from the time he was a freshman in College to about his second year in the pros. A young man's face of Hakeems listed age would have done that, someone that much older would not have had that much of a change.