Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon (born January 21, 1963), nicknamed "the Dream", is a Nigerian and American former professional basketball player who played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), primarily with the Houston Rockets. He is a two-time NBA champion, two-time NBA Finals MVP, two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, and the 1994 NBA MVP. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players and centers of all time.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Olajuwon traveled from his home country to play for the University of Houston under head coach Guy Lewis. His college career for the Cougars included three trips to the Final Four. Olajuwon was drafted by the Houston Rockets with the first overall selection of the 1984 NBA draft, a draft well known for its immense talent, which also included players such as Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and John Stockton. He combined with the Ralph Sampson to form a duo dubbed the "Twin Towers". The two led the Rockets to the 1986 NBA Finals, where they lost in six games to the Boston Celtics. After Sampson was traded to the Golden State Warriors in 1988, Olajuwon became the Rockets' undisputed leader. He led the league in rebounding twice (1989, 1990) and blocks three times (1990, 1991, 1993).
Despite very nearly being traded during a bitter contract dispute before the 1992–93 season, he remained in Houston. He became the first non-American to be an NBA All-Star and start in an NBA All-Star Game, the first non-American to win the NBA MVP, the first non-American to win NBA Defensive Player of the Year, and in the 1993–94 season, he became and remains the only player in NBA history to win the NBA MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP awards in the same season. His Rockets won back-to-back championships. The Rockets' 1994 championship against the New York Knicks was the first in franchise history, with Olajuwon avenging his college championship loss to Patrick Ewing. The following year, after a lackluster regular season, Olajuwon's Rockets swept Shaquille O'Neal's Orlando Magic in 4 games in the NBA Finals.
Olajuwon was a member of the 1996 Olympic gold medal-winning United States national basketball team, and was selected as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2016. In October 2021, Olajuwon was honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. He ended his career as the league's all-time leader in blocks (3,830), is one of four NBA players to record a quadruple-double, and is the all-time leader in 5x5 games (when a player has at least 5 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals and 5 blocks) with six.
Early life Olajuwon was born to Salim and Abike Olajuwon, working-class Yoruba owners of a cement business in Lagos, Nigeria."Hakeem Olajuwon" . NBA.com. Retrieved January 3, 2007.Olajuwon and Knobler, p. 15. He was the third of eight children. He credits his parents with instilling virtues of hard work and discipline into him and his siblings: "They taught us to be honest, work hard, respect our elders, and believe in ourselves." Olajuwon has expressed displeasure at his childhood in Nigeria being characterized as backward. "Lagos is a very cosmopolitan city ... There are many ethnic groups. I grew up in an environment at schools where there were all different types of people."Blount, Terry (May 22, 1994). "Hakeem: For the record/'Kunta Kinte' image was way off" . Houston Chronicle. Retrieved November 6, 2010.
During his youth, Olajuwon was a soccer goalkeeper which helped give him the footwork and agility to balance his size and strength in basketball, and also contributed to his shot-blocking ability.Howerton, Darryl. "It Was All A Dream". NBA.com. . Retrieved January 2, 2007. Olajuwon did not play basketball until the age of 15 in high school, when he entered a local tournament while at the Muslim Teachers College in Lagos, Nigeria. It has been said that a coach in Nigeria once asked him to dunk and demonstrated while standing on a chair. Olajuwon then tried to stand on the chair himself. When redirected by staff not to use the chair, he could initially not dunk the basketball.Rapaport, Ron (April 4, 1983). "Olajuwon: He's not the best – yet" . Spokane Chronicle. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
Despite early struggles, Olajuwon said, "Basketball is something that is so unique. That immediately I pick up the game and, you know, realize that this is the life for me. All the other sports just become obsolete."Hakeem Olajuwon: Hakeem the Dream. NBA TV. March 1, 2007.
College career
Olajuwon emigrated from Nigeria to play basketball at the University of Houston under Cougars coach Guy Lewis. Olajuwon was not highly recruited and was merely offered a visit to the university to work out for the coaching staff, based on a recommendation from a friend of Lewis who had seen Olajuwon play.Newman, Chuck. Foreign-born players migrating to U.S. college basketball in ever-higher numbers. , November 15, 1995, accessed March 9, 2007. He later recalled that when he originally arrived at the airport in 1980 for the visit, no representative of the school was there to greet him. When he called the staff, they told him to take a taxi out to the university.NBA TV Over Time:Hakeem Olajuwon, NBA TV, air date December 26, 2006.
After redshirting his freshman year in 1980–81 because he could not yet get clearance from the NCAA to play, Olajuwon came mostly off the bench and served as the Cougars' sixth man as a redshirt freshman in 1981–82, averaging 8.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.5 blocks, shooting 60% from the field in 18 minutes per game as Houston was eliminated in the Final Four by the eventual NCAA champion, North Carolina. Olajuwon sought advice from the coaching staff about how to increase his playing time, and they advised him to work out with local Houston resident and multiple NBA MVP winner, Moses Malone. Malone, who was then a center on the NBA's Houston Rockets, played games every off-season with several NBA players at the Fonde Recreation Center. Olajuwon joined the workouts and went head to head with Malone in several games throughout the summer. Olajuwon credited this experience with rapidly improving his game: "The way Moses helped me is by being out there playing and allowing me to go against that level of competition. He was the best center in the NBA at the time, so I was trying to improve my game against the best."
Olajuwon returned from that summer a different player. He was nicknamed "the Dream" during his basketball career after he dunked so effortlessly that his college coach said it "looked like a dream." He and his teammates (including Clyde Drexler) formed what was dubbed "Phi Slama Jama", the first slam-dunking "fraternity", so named because of its above-the-rim prowess. In his sophomore and junior years he helped the Cougars advance to consecutive NCAA championship games, where they lost to North Carolina State on a last-second tip-in in 1983 and a Patrick Ewing-led Georgetown team in 1984. He averaged 13.9 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 5.1 blocks in 1982–83 and 16.8 points, 13.5 rebounds, and 5.6 blocks in 1983–84.Basketball – Cougar Style , uhcougars.cstv.com, accessed January 3, 2007. Olajuwon was voted the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 1983,Career Summaries of the First 56 Final Four Most Outstanding Players , collegesportingnews.com, accessed January 3, 2007. when he was also named the Helms Foundation Player of the Year. He was named a consensus first-team All-American in 1984.
After the 1983–84 season, Olajuwon debated whether to stay in college or declare early for the NBA draft. At that time, before the NBA draft lottery was introduced in 1985, the first pick was awarded by coin flip. Olajuwon recalled: "I really believed that Houston was going to win the coin flip and pick the first draft choice, and I really wanted to play in Houston so I had to make that decision (to leave early)." His intuition proved correct, and the toss placed Houston ahead of the Portland Trail Blazers.
Professional career
Houston Rockets (1984–2001)
Olajuwon–Sampson duo (1984–1987)
Olajuwon was selected first overall by the Rockets in the 1984 NBA draft. In his autobiography Living the Dream, Olajuwon mentions an intriguing draft trade offered to the Rockets that would have sent Clyde Drexler and the number two pick in the 1984 NBA draft from Portland in exchange for Ralph Sampson.Smith, Sam. Draft deal stranger than '1984', The Chicago Tribune, June 26, 2007, accessed March 24, 2013. Had the Rockets made the deal, Olajuwon states the Rockets could have selected Michael Jordan with the number two pick to play alongside Olajuwon and Drexler, who had established chemistry playing together during their Phi Slama Jama days in college. Sportswriter Sam Smith speculates that such a trade "would have changed league history and maybe the entire Michael Jordan legend." From 1991 to 1998, every NBA championship team included either Jordan or Olajuwon; furthermore, at least one of Drexler, Jordan, and Olajuwon was involved in every NBA Finals from 1990 to 1998.NBA & ABA Playoff Index , basketball-reference.com, accessed March 24, 2013.
Teaming with the 1984 Rookie of the Year, 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) Ralph Sampson, the "Twin Towers" duo brought immediate success during Olajuwon's rookie season, as their win–loss record improved from a 29–53 record in 1983–84 to 48–34 in 1984–85,Houston Rockets page , databasebasketball.com, accessed January 2, 2007. and they qualified for the playoffs for the first time in three years. Olajuwon averaged 20.6 points, 11.9 rebounds and 2.68 blocks in his rookie season.Hakeem Olajuwon stats , nba.com, accessed January 28, 2007. He finished as runner-up to Michael Jordan in the 1985 Rookie of the Year voting, and was the only other rookie to receive any votes. The Rockets lost in the first round of the playoffs, three games to two, to the Utah Jazz.Hafner, Dan (April 29, 1985). NBA Playoffs Roundup : Akeem Throws Punch, Jazz KOs Rockets. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 4, 2026.
The Rockets began 1985–86 with a 9–2 recordBlinebury, Fran (February 16, 2006). After promising '86 run, Rockets a lost dynasty. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved August 4, 2026. and finished 51–31. Olajuwon averaged 23.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 3.4 blocks per game during his second season and was selected to his first All-NBA Team. The team advanced all the way to the Western Conference Finals where they faced the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers. The Rockets won the series fairly easily, four games to one, shocking the sports world and landing Olajuwon on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Olajuwon scored 75 points in victories in games three and four, and after the series Lakers coach Pat Riley remarked "We tried everything. We put four bodies on him. We helped from different angles. He's just a great player."Simmons. pg. 192 The Rockets advanced to the 1986 NBA Finals where they lost in six games to the Boston Celtics, whose 1986 team is often considered one of the best teams in NBA history.Top 10 teams in NBA History , nba.com/history, accessed January 3, 2007.