My first impression of him was in seventh grade ('97) when the Rockets came to our school for some fund raising event. We were waiting for him and the Rockets in the gym. I remember I needed to pee so badly, but he still had not arrived. However, I still waited painfully just so I wouldn't miss him coming in!
My first impression was he was the guy who missed tons of dunks. I'm like why does this guy try to slam it so hard?? I'm glad he never listened to me
I first thought.... HOLY MOLEY GUACAMOLE! That big dude runs faster than all the other little dudes on the floor!!! Is he using steriods? I was only 13 in 1984 but I had the weird ability to see the surge in anabolic steroids that will take over the sports landscape!
I remember thinking when UH played Arkansas in the SWC tourn "man, he and Joe Klein are going to have some epic battles when they get to the NBA." LOL.
I always thought he looked like a nice guy when I was a kid, had a friendly face, seemed like a father figure looking guy. Shaq looked like -and is- full of himself from the day he got drafted.
My cousin was going to UH when "Akeem" was there and Phi Slamma Jamma was born... I was still in elementary school... Anyway, the story goes my cousin bumped into Dream on several occasions... even bought me a Phi Slamma Jamma hat... but he never thought to get Dream's autograph... I had an "Akeem" t-shirt from right about the '84 time frame... I knew he was good, but didn't realize his greatness until years later. I guess my very "first impression" was that he was this guy my cousin went to college with... and at the time I probably though my cousin was cooler.
UH was playing NC State in the finals, and I so wanted UH to lose. I was from Southern VA at the time. So my first impression was rooting against him (not really an impression, but you get the idea). The next year I moved to Houston, became a Rockets fan and was able to root for him.
"My first impression of him was in seventh grade ('97) when the Rockets came to our school for some fund raising event." I wanted to see him so badly that I didn't want to miss the opportunity to see him coming in, so I just endured the pain.
I heard about him before I saw him. I grew up with the Bunce brothers, so I followed their careers at UH. Kept hearing about this Nigerian guy... could end up being decent if he can solve his health problems. Saw him a few times... really unpolished, but you could see the potential. For some reason, I started rooting for him right away. The second year he was amazingly improved and it seemed he got better every game.
Before we drafted him I was making a list of who I thought we should draft. My first thought: Now how do you spell that again?
When Craig Roberts changed his named to Craig HRoberts when Dream put the H on. I ate Chicken McNuggets cause it was suppose to make you 'unbeat-a-ble'
it was at amateur night at the apollo theater in 1986, i just kept saying 'unbeatable' over and over again, but i still got the hook.
The first time I saw "Akeem" Olajuwon play I was a graduate student at Texas A&M. I went to the UH game at Jolly G. Rollie. I do not remember if it was Hakeem's freshman or sophomore year. I remembered that the game reminded me of men playing boys. There was nothing the Ags could do to stop Hakeem. He dunked on the Ags all night long. I wanted my team to win. They didn't. But, I also knew that I had the rare privledge of viewing the beginnings of an incredible basketball career. I knew he was someone special. I followed his career until his final basket. And I will applaud loudly when he is inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame. Hakeem, thank you for the many beautiful memories.
'' That african guy really likes ice cream!'' Those were my words in 82. Alvin Franklin was my neighbor and he brought dream to la marque. Alvin and dream was in a maroon 300zx eventhough alvins mother was a school custodian. So I was 12 hanging with clyde, alvin, and dream. We go to the pizza shop that also sold blue bell. Dream had a hard accent and had never had ice cream. Once he ate it, he couldn't stop. Of course being a 12 yr old hanging with the big boys was a blast. I told dream I didn't know he liked ice cream so much. It was his 1st time eating it. Later, I found out as I was trying to put words together because of his strong accent that we have the same birthday. True story, don't have pics to prove it though.
