Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon
He is a Nigerian American former professional basketball player. From 1984 to 2002, he played the centre position in the National Basketball Association for the Houston Rockets and eventually the Toronto Raptors.
1963
Lagos, Nigeria
Nigerian American
2× NBA champion (1994, 1995)
2× NBA Finals MVP (1994, 1995)
1× NBA MVP (1994)
2× NBA Defensive Player of the Year (1993, 1994)
6× All-NBA First Team (1987, 1988, 1989, 1993, 1994, 1997)
3× All-NBA Second Team (1986, 1990, 1996)
3× All-NBA Third Team (1991, 1995, 1999)
5× NBA All-Defensive First Team (1987, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1994)
4× NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1985, 1991, 1996, 1997)
12× NBA All-Star
Olympic gold medalist (1996)
Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996).
Named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team
Olajuwon ended his career in the top eleven all-time in blocks, scoring, rebounding, and steals. He is the only player in NBA history to retire in the top eleven for all four categories (he is now 13th all-time in rebounding).
Olajuwon was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 2008, as well as to the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2016.
Ranked #10 in ESPN’s All-Time #NBArank: Counting down the greatest players ever (published in 2016)
Ranked #12 in SLAM Magazine’s 2018 revision of the top 100 greatest players of all time (published in the January 2018 issue)
During his youth, Olajuwon was a soccer goalkeeper, which helped give him the footwork and agility to balance his size and strength in basketball, and also contributed to his shot-blocking ability. Olajuwon did not play basketball until the age of 15 in high school, when he entered a local tournament while at the Muslim Teachers College in Lagos, Nigeria. It has been said that a coach in Nigeria once asked him to dunk and demonstrated while standing on a chair. Olajuwon then tried to stand on the chair himself. When redirected by staff not to use the chair, Hakeem could initially not dunk the basketball.
Olajuwon emigrated from Nigeria to play basketball at the University of Houston under Cougars coach Guy Lewis. Olajuwon was not highly recruited and was merely offered a visit to the university to work out for the coaching staff, based on a recommendation from a friend of Lewis who had seen Olajuwon play. He later recalled that when he originally arrived at the airport in 1980 for the visit, no representative of the school was there to greet him. When he called the staff, they told him to take a taxi out to the university.
Olajuwon was highly skilled as both an offensive and defensive player. On defence, his rare combination of quickness and strength allowed him to guard a wide range of players effectively. He was noted for both his outstanding shot-blocking ability and his unique talent (for a front court player) for stealing the ball. Olajuwon is the only player in NBA history to record more than 200 blocks and 200 steals in the same season. He averaged 3.09 blocks and 1.75 steals per game for his career. He is the only centre to rank among the top ten all-time in steals. Olajuwon was also an outstanding rebounder, with a career average of 11.1 rebounds per game. He led the NBA in rebounding twice, during the 1989 and 1990 seasons. He was twice named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year, and was a five-time NBA All-Defensive First Team selection.
On offence, Olajuwon was famous for his deft shooting touch around the basket and his nimble footwork in the low post. With the ball, Hakeem displayed a vast array of fakes and spin moves, highlighted in his signature `Dream Shake’. He was a prolific scorer, averaging 21.8 points per game for his career, and an above-average offensive rebounder, averaging 3.3 offensive rebounds per game. Additionally, Olajuwon became a skilled dribbler with an ability to score in `face-up’ situations like a perimeter player. He is one of only four players to have recorded a quadruple-double in the NBA, which have only been possible since the 1973–74 season, when blocked shots and steals were first kept as statistics in the NBA.
Parents – Salim and Abike Olajuwon
Spouse – Dalia Asafi
Children – Abi, Abdullah, Aisha, Rahman Olajuwon
https://www.nba.com/stats/player/165/career accessed 12/04/2022
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hakeem-Olajuwon accessed 12/04/2022
https://www.si.com/nba/rockets/news/michael-jordan-feared-hakeem-olajuwon-nba-finals accessed 12/04/2022
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/hakeem-olajuwon-9663.php accessed 12/04/2022
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/hakeem-olajuwon-quotes#:~:text=Hakeem%20Olajuwon-,I%20was%20successful%20materially%2C%20but%20I%20know%20life%20is%20much,thanks%20is%20obedience%20to%20God.&text=I%20don’t%20think%20Michael,you%20win%2C%20it%20commands%20attention. Accessed 12/04/2022
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_Olajuwon accessed 12/04/2022
