One of NBA's most outstanding basketball players is Hakim Olajuvon. Any athlete can envy the number of his team victories and personal titles. What is the secret to the success of this outstanding personality? Hakim Olajuvon’s biography will help us figure this out.
early years
Hakim Abdul Olajuvon was born in January 1963 in the largest Nigerian city of Lagos.
From childhood, the future legend of basketball was fond of football. In particular, the boy stood at the gate in the local team.
Hakim came to basketball from the age of fifteen. Even then, his height reached 205 cm. But as soon as Hakim Oladzhyuvon became interested in basketball, he realized that all other sports for him are secondary, and to be a basketball player - his vocation.
Success came to young talent quite quickly. Soon he began to be invited to play for the Nigeria national team.
Relocation to the USA
In 1981, Hakim moved from Nigeria to the American city of Houston to study at the university. But his main goal was still not study, but the continuation of his basketball career. Oladzhuyvon was accepted into the local student team, which was considered the first step taken in the direction of getting into the NBA elite basketball league.
The young basketball player immediately showed his best side. Between 1981 and 1984, his team entered the Final Four of the most prestigious student league in the United States three times, not least because of the game that Hakim Olajuvon demonstrated. He was trained at that time by such a famous specialist as Guy Lewis.
NBA Career
A promising center could not fail to notice the experts in the NBA. He was invited to play for the local Houston Rockets team.
True, it should be noted that Hakim Oladzhuvon according to Bill Simmons, a well-known basketball analyst, getting into the most prestigious basketball league in the world owes not only his talent, but also luck and luck. The likelihood that a young man from Nigeria, under the age of 15 who focused on football, will become an NBA player at age 21 is really very small.
Although in the first 10 years of his performance for Houston Rockets, Hakim Olajuvon proved himself to be a player of the highest class, but there were no harbingers that he could grow to the level of a legend. Over the years, he played in tandem with another great player, Ralph Sampson, and only after the latter left the team became the undisputed leader of the club. During this period, among Hakim’s significant achievements, only the Houston Rockets reached the NBA finals in 1986 can be distinguished.
For example, Michael Jordan, who began his basketball career at the same time as Hakim, not only became the greatest basketball player of our time by 1993, but even managed to announce the end of his career. Olajuvon also had to prove what he really is capable of and what titles and awards he deserves.
Finest hour
That year 1993 was a turning point in the career of a Nigerian basketball player. First of all, this year he received the American citizenship that he had been seeking for so long. But this is not the most important thing. At the end of the 1992-1993 season, the legendary Michael Jordan announced his retirement, leaving the throne of the best NBA player vacant. Many outstanding basketball players claimed it at once, including Patrick Ewing, Clifford Robinson, Dennis Rodman, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Scotty Pippen and rising star Shaquille O'Neill. But only Hakim Olajuvon managed to take a vacant place then.
Even in the 1992-1993 season, Olajuvon received the title of the best defensive player. In the 1993-1994 season, mainly due to Hakim's fantastic game, Houston Rockets became the NBA champion for the first time in its history, and Olajuvon himself became the best basketball player of the championship and the most valuable player in the final. To get all these titles in one season before him, not a single athlete was able to. In the next season of 1994-1995, Houston again celebrates its victory in the championship, and Hakim receives another title of the most valuable player in the final.
The 1995-1996 season turned out to be less successful, as Houston in the NBA championship managed to reach only the semi-finals of the conference. In the same season, Michael Jordan resumed his professional career, who led the Chicago Bulls after a two-year break to the NBA championship and overshadowed all the other championship stars with his game.
In 1996, the US team won the gold medals of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. One of the best players on the team was Hakim Oladzhuvon. A photo of this star team of Olympic champions is located below.
In the same 1996, Olajuvon was on the list of 50 greatest NBA basketball players of all time.
But at the same time, it is necessary to state the fact that the best times for Hakim and his club have passed. In the 1996-1997 season, Houston Rockets still managed to get to the final of the conference, but in the next two seasons dropped out in the first rounds of the playoffs. The seasons 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 were even worse, as the team could not even reach the playoffs.
Transition to Toronto Raptors and retirement
In 2001, Olajuvon switched to playing for the Toronto Raptors NBA team. Before that, he had never played for another club in the NBA, except for the Houston Rockets team. However, the stay in the new team was short-lived and lasted only one season.
In the 2001-2002 season, Toronto barely managed to break into the playoffs, but there they lost in the first round. The game of 38-year-old Hakim was far from his best years.
In 2002, Olajuvon announced the end of his basketball career.
Career summary
For the seventeen seasons that Hakim Oladzhuvon spent in the NBA, he scored almost 27 thousand points and made more than 13.5 thousand rebounds. In addition, he has a record for the NBA in block shots - 3830.
This player twice became the NBA champion, was once recognized as the most valuable player of the season, and also twice became the best defensive player and the most valuable basketball player of the final. As part of the US team, Olajuvon is the Olympic champion.
The importance of this player is evidenced by the fact that in 1996 he was included in the list of the 50 best NBA players of all time, and in 2008 was entered into the Hall of Fame. Thus, Hakim Olajuvon is indeed one of the best basketball players that world history has known.