Hakeem Olajuwon would not have had an 18-year legendary legacy in the NBA and a $300 million dollar empire if not for Islam.
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Everyone remembers Olajuwon as one of the most humble players in the league. But during his college career and early years in the NBA, he was often undisciplined, talking back to officials, getting in minor fights with other players and amassing technical fouls.
As “The Dream” became a more devout Muslim, he was an entirely different person. Hakeem once recalled, “I studied the Quran every day. At home, at the mosque… I would read it on aeroplanes, before games and after them. I was soaking up the faith and learning new meanings each time I turned a page. I didn’t dabble in the faith, I gave myself over to it.”
That phase should have come earlier for the 12x All-Star because it almost cost him his life during a game in the early 90s when the Rockets visited Seattle to face the Supersonics.
As they were trailing the game at half-time, Vernon Maxwell, the 3&D specialist of the team was coming off the court in anger, cursing and spitting continuously on his way down to the locker room. That’s when Olajuwon told him to stop and be a professional.
Vernon Maxwell would have stabbed Hakeem Olajuwon if policemen weren’t pointing a gun at him
Not exactly revealing the exact timeline of the incident, Mad Max, told this story to Gilbert Arenas and Josiah Johnson on fubo Sports recently. It started when Max wouldn’t stop cursing, sitting in the locker room and suddenly saw a 7’0 towering figure standing in front of him.
“This MF slapped the sh*t out of me… hit me so hard, knocked me out the chair. I jumped up, I grabbed my chair, busted glass all over the damn locker room… police come with guns drawn… They got the guns on me at a professional halftime… I broke the glass and I picked up a big piece of glass, and I was going to chase Dream and stab the shit out of him… That’s how it was before (he became Muslim).”
Admitting himself that Olajuwon had the hands that could cut meat, Max told the story in the most fun way that a horrific tale could have been told.
Imagine what would happen if the police didn’t arrive in time or at all. It could have been the last day on earth for either Hakeem or Max and the other one would still be in jail.
So, Olajuwon’s rejuvenated faith in Islam not only helped him in making a fortune of $300 million as a businessman after he retired from the NBA but also helped him solve his anger issues and possibly get himself killed even before becoming one of the GOATs.
