Joel Embiid has become one of the premier centers in the league in the past few years. The 2023 MVP has also received a lot of praise from NBA legends and current players in the league. But even when Embiid was a tall, scrawny, skinny seven-footer back in high school, his teammates knew he was destined for greatness. The reason was his obsession with Hall of Famer and two-time NBA champion, Hakeem Olajuwon.
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Before transferring to The Rock School in Gainesville, Embiid attended high school at Montverde Academy. During his time there, the Cameroonian prodigy shared the court with Kasey Hill, who recently revealed Embiid’s routine of watching Olajuwon’s highlights 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“When I first saw Jojo play basketball, he was, as you can tell, he was gonna be nice. He just didn’t know what to do. Like, he had no experience but dude used to—Bro, dude was so good. He used to sit and watch Hakeem Olajuwon every day on the iPad. Like, every day or every week, he was getting better. It was just a matter of time,” Hill said about his high school teammate.
Hill may have only shared the court with him for a brief period but he could tell that the sky is the limit for Embiid. And it wasn’t just Kasey who felt that way, as his coach also predicted that the Cameroonian would make it to the NBA.
“I remember one time we was in practice bro and he did some type of move and Coach Boyle made his a** go to the bathroom so he couldn’t hear like what he was saying. He was like, ‘That’s why in a couple of years, this dude is gonna be in the NBA.’ And that sh*t happened.”
As a center, Embiid’s game needs to be based around his time in the paint. Post moves, internal passing, and rim runs were defining for a center’s legacy, and nobody did it better than 2x FMVP, Olajuwon.
The Nigerian was one of the pioneers when it came to post-moves. His footwork in the paint was so impeccable that he got the best of everyone who tried to guard him. Olajuwon even popularized the Dream Shake, which is widely used by both guards and big men in the league today.
So, Embiid could not have chosen a better icon to take pointers from other than The Dream. Jojo had revealed his desire to work out with the Houston Rockets legend, and he has also named Hakeem as his idol growing up.
The 76ers star’s initial interest growing up was in soccer and volleyball. It wasn’t until he turned 15 that he picked up a basketball. But he would still go on to become the superstar that he is today.
So, it makes Embiid’s skill set all the more impressive when you take into consideration how late he started playing the game and the short amount of time it took him to reach stardom.
