There are few players, if any, in basketball history who have been more pleasurable to watch than Hakeem Olajuwon. The legendary Rockets center was poetry in motion on the court, all seven feet of him. His Dream Shake is one of the most iconic moves of all time, and even that was just a small window into the fact that the Nigerian-born 12-time All-Star had the deepest bag we’ve ever seen at the center position.
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Olajuwon was a terror in college, teaming with Clyde Drexler to lead the Phi Slama Jama Houston Cougars, which is still the runaway winner for best team nickname ever. He was drafted No. 1 overall in 1984, and it’s a testament to the totality of Olajuwon’s career that he was drafted above Michael Jordan and yet the Rockets have zero regrets on not taking the greatest player of all time.
When Jordan left to play baseball in the mid-90s, putting a halt to a Bulls dynasty that was reigning back-to-back-to-back champions, Olajuwon and his Rockets filled the void. They beat the Knicks in seven games in 1994, then repeated a year later, with Olajuwon outshining Shaquille O’Neal by scoring over 30 points in each game of a four-game sweep.
Olajuwon sat down with Kevin Durant this week on the latest episode of the Boardroom podcast, and he told his fellow icon that despite having one of the most complete careers we’ve ever seen, there’s one part of basketball that stands out to him above all the rest.
When KD complimented Olajuwon by saying, “Shot-blocking just came so natural to you,” Olajuwon revealed, “I enjoyed that part of the game more than anything else.” Watching KD look surprised, Olajuwon added, “Yeah, of course,” and explained why.
“The toughest part for a shot-blocker is to get his shot blocked. You feel so defeated. I would take a bad shot before you would block my shot,” he laughed.
Think about the era that Olajuwon played in, and it’s easy to see why he took such pride in this part of his game. He went against Shaq, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing and Dikembe Mutombo, among others.
While the game has evolved now to be more of a perimeter-focused affair, back then there used to be wars in the paint, and Olajuwon was like a five-star general with the biggest arsenal at his disposal.
After Robinson controversially won the MVP over him in 1995, the Dream dropped 35.3 points per game on the Admiral’s head in the Western Conference Finals, while also blocking more than four shots a game.
Olajuwon had already gone through Karl Malone and Charles Barkley just to reach that point, and then he outplayed Shaq to win his second title in a row. That may be the most ridiculous big-man gauntlet ever assembled in a single postseason run, and when the smoke cleared, Olajuwon was the one left standing.
Whether you were around to see him play or not, the entire conversation between Olajuwon and Durant is a must-listen.
