The Greatest of All Time?
"Hakeem has to be ranked with the all-time greats," says Coach Rudy Tomjanovich , nicknamed Rudy T.
I agree. Although there were and are so many great players in the NBA, there are always the greater ones. Maybe a fifty players up to this moment. Among them are for sure: Mikan , Russel , Chamberlain , West , Jordan , Magic , Ewing , Barkley.... and Hakeem for sure.
"He blocks shots like Bill Russell, has the power of Wilt Chamberlain, runs like David Robinson, and can pass like Bill Walton. He is courageous and determined to win. To top it off he's a considerate and wonderful person who is a dream to coach", said Tomjanovich also.
Youtube gives us a chance to see every great game move, dunk, assist or buzzer-beater shot. I love to compare NBA basketball then and now. After hours and hours of watching and comparing centers, I can conclude that twenty years ago there were more skilled centers with a great clutch shot technique, dominant back-down style and today are bodybuilder-like players who know just to dunk the ball and nothing else. Too bad.
Hakeem is just perfect example of ideal center. He was so unique in 80's and 90's ,and may I say, virtually unstoppable. Just look at this videos and you will see!
Hakeem's First Basketball Steps
Hakeem Olajuwon was born on January 21, 1963, in Lagos, Nigeria. His parents, Salaam and Abike Olajuwon, owners of a concrete business, raised Olajuwon along with his four brothers and one sister in a one-story, three-bedroom red concrete house in a neighborhood inhabited by Nigeria's relatively small middle class.
During his childhood, Olajuwon played soccer as a goalie and excelled as a team handball player. He did not play basketball until he was a high school senior at Moslem Teacher College, after a Nigerian basketball coach spotted the six-foot-nine-inch, 170-pound Olajuwon on the soccer field and talked him into trying the game.
During his childhood, Olajuwon played soccer as a goalie and excelled as a team handball player. He did not play basketball until he was a high school senior at Moslem Teacher College, after a Nigerian basketball coach spotted the six-foot-nine-inch, 170-pound Olajuwon on the soccer field and talked him into trying the game.Although Olajuwon instantly loved basketball, learning to play was difficult because basketball games were not televised in Nigeria, and soccer dominated the nation's sports news. Nonetheless, under the tutelage of coach Richard Mills, 17-year-old Olajuwon quickly became a leader on the Nigeria national basketball team, which took third place in the All-African tournament in 1979.
The following year Olajuwon traveled to the United States to visit colleges. Disdaining the cold wind that greeted him when he arrived in New York in October of 1980, Olajuwon enrolled in the University of Houston, which offered him both a place on the basketball team and a much more familiar climate.
Here is Hakeem's career top 10:
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