Hakeem Olajuwon biography
Hakeem Olajuwon, in full Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon, byname the Dream, (born January 21, 1963, Lagos, Nigeria), Nigerian-born American skilled basketball participant who led the Houston Rockets to consecutive National Basketball Association (NBA) championships in 1994 and 1995.
Olajuwon was unfamiliar with basketball till age 15, as a substitute enjoying affiliation soccer (soccer) and workforce handball in Lagos, Nigeria. After two years of familiarizing himself with the game, the 7-foot (2.13-metre) centre was recruited to play collegiate basketball within the United States on the University of Houston. In Olajuwon’s first season, Houston superior to the Final Four (nationwide championship semifinals) of the 1982 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) match (see March Madness). The subsequent yr, Houston returned to the Final Four however misplaced the nationwide championship sport to North Carolina State University in a dramatic upset; even so, Olajuwon was named the match’s Most Outstanding Player. In 1984 Houston once more superior to the NCAA match’s remaining sport, however the nationwide championship eluded Olajuwon as soon as extra as his workforce fell to Georgetown University, led by star participant Patrick Ewing.
Olajuwon left faculty after his junior yr and was chosen by the Houston Rockets with the primary decide within the 1984 NBA draft. The Rockets reached the play-offs in his first yr with the workforce, and in his second they narrowly did not win the championship, shedding to the Boston Celtics within the NBA finals. The Rockets regressed barely within the following years, advancing previous the primary spherical of the play-offs simply as soon as between 1987 and 1992, however Olajuwon continued his spectacular particular person play, which was highlighted by his tenacious defensive capability and his extremely nimble footwork on offense. His signature transfer was often called the “Dream Shake,” a sequence of feints, spins, and drop steps he would carry out near the basket that always confounded opposing defenders and left Olajuwon with an open shot.
Olajuwon reached the pinnacle of his profession within the mid-Nineties. He was named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year for the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons and was additionally the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1993–94. His MVP season was capped with a seven-game victory over the New York Knicks within the NBA finals, and Olajuwon was named finals MVP for his efforts. He led the Rockets to a second championship the next yr and was once more named finals MVP. His manufacturing slipped due to accidents and age within the late Nineties, and in 2001 he was traded to the Toronto Raptors, the place he performed just one season earlier than retiring in 2002. At the time of his retirement, Olajuwon ranked seventh in profession factors scored within the NBA (26,946) and eleventh in profession rebounds (13,748); he was additionally the league’s all-time chief in blocked pictures (3,830). A 12-time All-Star, Olajuwon was named one of many NBA’s 50 best gamers in 1996, and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.