Hakeem Olajuwon Tribute Thread

With Dream's retirement tomorrow, a great chapter in Houston Sports History will close. Pay tribute to one of the Greatest Players in NBA History. Share your favorite memories, articles or pics of the Dream.

Olajuwon -- a Houston landmark
By EDDIE SEFKO
Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle
The names bring back so many memories as they rattle through the brain, off the tongue and into Houston sports history.

There is Nolan Ryan, flinging heat that would have to slow down to be a blur. And Earl Campbell, plowing over defender after defender, then having enough in the tank to blow by the last would-be tackler.

Carl Lewis goes flying down the track, or maybe really goes flying toward a cloud of sand in the long-jump pit. Elvin Hayes spins for that fadeaway shot that nestles so sweetly in the net. Warren Moon's passing. Jeff Bagwell's hitting. Gordie Howe's skating. The list goes on.

But of all the top athletes who have called Houston home, one name stands above all others.

Hakeem.

The mere mention of the name conjures up mental images of all those highlights of which he has been part -- championships, parades, MVP awards, the Dream Shake, Final Fours and, yes, even heartache in Albuquerque, N.M.

When he showed up on the banks of the bayou, nobody suspected he would become the one-name wonder who would become synonymous with the Houston sports scene. But nearly two decades after he arrived, Hakeem Olajuwon is still going strong, his place in the archives secure.

He is the greatest athlete in Houston history.

For 17 years, he has played basketball in Houston and for Houston. He knows the end is near. The day is coming when there won't be an Olajuwon in the local sports spotlight. But, as he says, he's already done it all. He can't help but use a basketball analogy to capsulize his career.

"If you're playing the game now, it's over," Olajuwon says. "There's 10 minutes left in the game, but you won the game in the third quarter.

"You still have to finish the game. You're not slacking off. You might win by more. But the game is over. You put it away in the third quarter. And you've already won.

"Now, just don't blow the lead."

Don't worry. In a city that knows a thing or two about blowing big leads, this one truly is insurmountable.



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The Rockets will open their 31st season on Friday. It will be their 27th year in Houston. More than half of that time, Olajuwon has been the anchor of the franchise. Going into his 14th season with the club, he remains the ultimate rarity in sports, a player who spends his entire college and professional career in the same city.
"He's a part of Houston," says another local institution, coach Rudy Tomjanovich. "Just like you see certain sights around here and certain traditions, Hakeem is part of that. The Transco Tower, NASA, Hakeem.

"He's had a high level of performance. There are a lot of great players who have been here for a while and done great, but he's Mr. Rocket. He's one of the greatest players of all time. I've been here all that time, too, and it's been a pleasure for me to be associated with him. And he's such a good person. I think he feels comfortable here. This is home."

And in an odd sort of way, the 34-year-old Olajuwon says it always has felt like home, even when he first arrived from Nigeria and didn't know a soul. He stepped out of that taxi at the University of Houston and, somehow, it just felt right.

"Once I got here, I didn't want to leave Houston," Olajuwon says. "That was one of the motivations to come out of school (after his junior season at UH), because the Rockets had a chance in the coin flip.

"Moving from Nigeria to Houston was so natural. I went to a boarding school in Nigeria. So coming to Houston, it was the same kind of campus lifestyle. You get to know who is who, who your friends are. It was the same lifestyle. I left home when I was 12 to go to boarding school. For five years I was there, then I came here. So living in Houston was very natural.

"But leaving Houston to go to another city or state was a whole new world for me. So that's why I didn't want to leave Houston. I was very comfortable here. Even if I played somewhere else, I would still live in Houston. Here, I fit in. Leaving Houston would be the most difficult thing for me."

One of Olajuwon's close friends, former UH teammate Lynden Rose, who now is an attorney in Houston, says watching Olajuwon's growth from raw talent to skilled superstar has been quite an experience. When Olajuwon first got to Houston, it didn't take a brain surgeon to figure out he had a bright future. But it was a combination of things that led him to greatness.

"First of all, Hakeem had the best timing of any big man we had," Rose says. "He could jump and he would block every shot. A lot of it was goaltending because he was used to international rules. But even when you goaltend, timing is very important. You have to have timing to block it.

"Secondly, Hakeem could run with anyone. He was as fast as anyone baseline to baseline, regardless of size.

"So all the potential was there. You could see it was there. It's not like the kid didn't have coordination. His hand-eye coordination because of his table tennis skills. Nobody could beat him at table tennis. And he was a good volleyball player. And what is volleyball but jumping and timing? And he was a soccer goalie. Those are all things that work for you in basketball.

"And his work ethic, he's had that all along. You should have seen him his first year. He spent more time in the gym playing against anyone and everyone. We were concerned. We'd tell him, `Hakeem, you can't play against the football players.' I mean the football players were guys he'd play with everyday. He'd play six or eight hours a day. And I'm not exaggerating."

Olajuwon's legendary pickup games at Fonde Recreation Center have been well-documented. He began playing there when Moses Malone was a member of the Rockets and the two formed a close bond. But the story about Malone schooling Olajuwon has been blown somewhat out of proportion, Rose says.

"At Fonde, the competition was better, but it wasn't like Hakeem was at a disadvantage," Rose said. "He could compete right away. He was ready. Hakeem gets a little offended when people say what Moses did for him. I mean he appreciates what Moses did -- a lot. But when Hakeem went to Fonde, he was ready."

The foundation to Olajuwon's game in those days was defense. He was a shot-blocker, first and foremost, and a rebounder second. Even he admits his scoring ability wasn't overpowering. Olajuwon was taught early in his basketball development that scoring wasn't necessarily the most important thing, especially for a center.

"An average big man will get drafted in the NBA," he says. "That's what I was taught. If you have anything where you can do just a little more, you are special. So I was taught the importance of the big man. What is your role? It's your role to have a presence. To block shots. To rebound. The coach said, `You don't have to score points.' You can do so much more to help the team to win. You can make a living just off of that.

"So the game was very clear. In high school, they put me on the national team, which was very difficult. It's like putting somebody from high schools to the professionals. So I played in the African Championships. I didn't play very much, but I was playing on the men's team.

"Then I went to the junior team and I was the captain of the junior team. That's where I was discovered, in Angola at the junior tournament there. I was MVP of that tournament because I had been playing with men, but when I got with my age group, I was dominating."

He says his first thought when he arrived in Houston was one of shock. Not like culture shock, but a strange feeling that the game of basketball was somehow different in the U.S than he had been taught in Nigeria.

"When I came to the States, and I saw a pickup game, people were going to the basket," he recalls. "I thought, `Wow, nobody's challenging that shot.' I was taught to go after everything. In fact, Guy Lewis had to tell me to stay down and not go after every shot. So I had to make that adjustment. Sometimes, I'd block a shot and they'd call goaltending. So I'd argue with them. That was an adjustment I had to make."

But Olajuwon learned quickly, mostly because he spent as much time as he could soaking up knowledge on the court.

"Basketball to me is so much fun," he says. "Just playing the game for the joy of competition. In college, you would play, then go to the cafeteria to eat, then go back and play some more. To get the opportunity to do what you enjoy doing, it was fantastic."

As time went on, Olajuwon developed the offensive game that turned him into one of the top five centers in basketball history. But that's not all he developed.

Early in his NBA career, he said he did all the crazy things that most young pros do when they find themselves on the road constantly and pulling down millions of dollars.

"Earlier in my career, I did all that stuff, going out and stuff," he says. "But you grow out of that. It's good to have experienced it because if you don't experience it, you think you're missing something. Once you experience it and you're out of it, you don't have to go back. You grow out of that stage."

Similarly, Olajuwon grew as a person. Though he experienced success quickly as a Rocket, going to the NBA Finals and losing in 1986, it wasn't until early in the '90s that his career and personal life found perfect balance. He credits his first pilgrimage to Mecca as the turning point in his life.

"Obviously, he's grown tremendously, both from a personal and professional standpoint in two decades," says Steve Patterson, who was in the Rockets' front office until 1993 and has seen many of the changes Olajuwon has undergone. "He's one of, if not, the premier talent in his profession. And he's experienced incredible growth spiritually.

"When you combine longevity at the college and professional level, he ranks No. 1 at his level. It's hard to argue against him. These days, it's such a rarity for an athlete to have his college career and his pro career in the same city."

By the time Olajuwon reaffirmed his faith to Islam, the Rockets were getting closer to being an elite team. Tomjanovich took over as coach in 1992 and the Rockets began their upward surge.

"When they say real life is more interesting than fiction, what Hakeem has done is better than a movie," Tomjanovich says. "Here's a guy who didn't play a lot of basketball when he was over there (in Africa), comes here unknown, gets to a good university, grows as a player, becomes a pro and not just any pro, but one that some people call the best player in the league. That's just amazing. If you wrote that up and tried to sell it to somebody they'd say, `Come on, that stuff doesn't happen in real life.' "

But it did in Olajuwon's life. When he led the Rockets to NBA championships in 1994 and '95, it was the climax to his career. All the years of work had paid off.

And rest assured, it has been a lot of work. For as many God-given talents as Olajuwon has, he has done a wonderful job of getting the most out of them.

"Family values and morals that were instilled in him as a kid are what carry him now," Rose says. "Respect. Being a gentleman. It's family values. That's part of what makes him who he is.

"Without question, he's the greatest athlete in Houston history. I'm not taking away anything from Carl Lewis or a lot of other guys. But Hakeem not only has two rings, he has done it all against the greatest players of all time."

Despite his celebrity status, Olajuwon has been able to maintain a fairly private existence. He got married last year with minimal fanfare. His life is spent mostly behind closed doors. Unlike Charles Barkley, Olajuwon doesn't spend a lot of time in fancy restaurants or nightclubs. He prefers a quieter lifestyle.

"We go out all the time, but we go to visit friends and family," Olajuwon says. "For example, we are people who eat at home with small family-to-family gatherings. So I'm out of the mainstream. That makes my life so much easier, because I'm not the kind of person who needs that outside world. I'm the opposite of Charles. It's only if I have to (be out in public). My lifestyle is that I'm very content to be with family and friends at home."

That doesn't mean it's always easy.

"People drive by my house just to say, `There's Hakeem's house,' " he says. "I never really thought that would happen. And I still don't think that way. I still don't look at myself that way. I don't feel comfortable like that. But it happens."

Just like arriving in a town unknown, showing raw basketball skills, growing into a superstar and spending nearly two decades becoming Houston's greatest athlete happens.

"It almost seems like yesterday," he says. "I remember it clearly when I came to Houston. And all my experiences in college are very clear. And then, you think about it, and it seems like so long. It's been a blessing. Just look at how everything has fallen in place. If I tried to write a book, I don't think I could write it any better. Things have fallen in place naturally. It's not like it's a pre-plan.

"God willing, I hope I stay in Houston the rest of my career. Every step now is like icing on the cake. I've been here for 18 years. Through college and my whole professional career. And being part of the team that got the city its first championship, that's something special. Everywhere I go in Houston, the way people have responded, I have to thank them for making me feel so comfortable at home here."

Rest assured, Hakeem, the pleasure has been ours.

THANK YOU HAKEEM OLAJUWON!!!

 

NBA Superstars Shaquille O'Neil and Hakeem Olajuwon model the latest fashion trend in Super Cool headgear, the Beany Cap, in this TV. commercial for Taco Bell, directed by Spike Lee.

 

Thanks Tim.