“Hakeem Olajuwon redeemed himself by blocking Michael Jordan on a game-winner”: How ‘The Dream’ saved the game for Houston by rejecting the Bulls superstar in the clutch

Hakeem Olajuwon blocked Michael Jordan at the buzzer on a game winning attempt, leading to a Houston Rockets win over the Chicago Bulls. 

One of the biggest travesties in NBA history has to be the fact that Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls never faced off against a prime Haleem Olajuwon’s Houston Rockets in the NBA Finals. Hakeem’s 1994 season remains to be one of the greatest seasons, start to finish, in league history as he did everything by winning DPOY, MVP and Finals MVP. 

However, due to Jordan’s absence from the NBA from 1994-1995, neither of the two championship Rockets teams faced off against ‘His Airness’ on the biggest stage of them all. Despite NBA fans not being able to enjoy this matchup in the Finals, they did bear witness to 23 matchups between Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan in regular seasons over the years.

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Though they do not play the same position, it’s quite interesting to note the stats they put up in these 23 head-to-heads. Hakeem edges out Jordan, slightly, with 13 wins to his 10 but stats wise, ‘His Airness’ has been beat for the most part. Mike averaged more points, assists, steals, and free throws made than Olajuwon. 

Hakeem Olajuwon saved the game for the Houston Rockets by blocking Michael Jordan. 

Hakeem remains to be one of the greatest mismatch threats the game had ever seen. Michael Jordan himself said that ‘the Dream’ was more of a small forward with great footwork rather than a traditional center. The Rockets legend could switch onto positions from 1 to 5 with relative ease and on the offensive end of the floor, got what he wanted against quite nearly everybody. 

In a game during the 1991 season, a Bulls-Rockets game came down to the wire and saw Jordan seemingly come up clutch yet again. He banked in a shot right over Hakeem with less than a minute remaining in the ballgame to give Chicago a one point lead. 

In the waning minutes of the game, Olajuwon blocked a perimeter shot attempt from Michael Jordan to seal the deal for the Rockets. Though he only had 13 points in the game to Jordan’s 34, he did redeem himself with the fantastic, buzzer beating block.

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