Good Hakeem Article

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/bk/bkn/977624

Hakeem seems out of place elsewhere
By MICKEY HERSKOWITZ
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle

So Karl Malone and John Stockton have a double date with a Dream? Maybe not, but isn't it a howl just to know people are asking?

Or maybe Hakeem Olajuwon will be tempted to send his regards to Broadway, able to give the New York Knicks in his dotage more style and leadership than Patrick Ewing in his prime.

Or will he wind up in Toronto, the hottest presence in a really cold town since Sergeant Preston of the Yukon?

As difficult as it is to picture the Nigerian prince sleeping with the enemy, determining the destination of Hakeem for this coming NBA season remains for now the most popular parlor game in Houston.

The guess here is that the Rockets will find a way to convince him he is loved and wanted and belongs right where he is, as much a part of the Texas prairie as the San Jacinto Monument. But, mercy, in the meantime what fun this must be for Olajuwon, this parade of pilgrims praying at the shrine.

There is so much irony involved in the Olajuwon Derby one hardly knows where to begin. Long ago, the fans concluded that when athletes say it isn't about the money, you could take it to the bank. It is always about the money, including the interest and deferred payments.

But now, in many cases, in these strangest of times, the issue has gone so far beyond money that the athletes no longer accept the calls of Alan Greenspan when he wants to know if the Federal Reserve should cut its rate another quarter point.


More to decision than money
Today, athletes are insulted by the kind of money they would have sold their souls for 10 years ago. We doubt this is a sticking point for Hakeem. One of his attractive qualities, among many, is that he seems to be comfortable with reality. One city's $4 million looks pretty much the same as another city's $5 million.

He will go where he feels he is more likely to turn back the calendar, and inspire respect and fear as part of a team with potential. He has to ask himself if any team meets the criteria as well as the Rockets.

A month ago, there appeared to be no takers for the greatest center of his era. Now we watch the traffic jams around Hakeem's house and wonder: Is he a New York kind of guy? Maybe so. Maybe it would be nice to have Madison Avenue fawning over him and the New York media hovering over his every word, swooning over the rhythm of his speech. And having the crowds buzz when he appears, not just at the Garden, but at the Schubert Theater.

Insiders say New York is a long shot, as are most of the others. Can you picture Hakeem in Cleveland? Or Indianapolis, which is a great town if you drive through it at 200 miles an hour. Utah would be perfect, if only because the idea of Olajuwon's joining Malone, the Mailman, and Stockton, the Little General, is so appealing. The Jazz has turned out terrific teams without ever having a championship center, competing with the likes of Greg Ostertag, Greg Foster and the occasional Cyborg just passing through.

But what a grand farewell tour those three would create on whatever is left of their skills, wits and hearts. You would have to charge the rest of the team to let them watch Malone, Stockton and Olajuwon play in concert.

Logic tells us Toronto has the edge because the Raptors are the only team that can close the deal without swinging a sign-and-trade. Toronto would be a nice change of scenery, an international city, eager to embrace anyone's future Hall of Famer.

Olajuwon admires the coach, Lenny Wilkens, and in Vince Carter the Raptors have a designated Michael Jordan pretender.

On the other hand, in spite of the occasional bumpy night in any relationship that lasts 18 years, there is a bond between Hakeem and Rudy Tomjanovich, who is not a touchy-feely guy. Rudy has been his faithful advocate, honoring him as a person and a symbol of the best years the Rockets franchise has seen.

If Hakeem plays another year or two or three elsewhere, it will not undo what he meant to us -- the back-to-back championships, the MVP trophies, the power moves, the feet of a dancer.

He was 18 when we first glimpsed him on the University of Houston campus in 1980. He was out of Africa, hardly a primitive, but a young man so unspoiled that he wore basketball shoes two sizes too small and never complained. He didn't correct us for several years when people misspelled his name as Akeem.

His loss would be bigger than that of Nolan Ryan or Earl Campbell because his career lasted twice as long. But you take nothing for granted. They play The Star-Spangled Banner before every game, and one team still loses.

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"I would like to live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were ever supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."
-Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss Universe contest