Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| "... Basketball is losing an artist" |
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| Arsalan |
| 03/20/01 at 15:10:07 |
| If this is it for Olajuwon, basketball is losing an artist March 20, 2001 Dave D'Alessandro The Sporting News Bill Fitch had a story about Hakeem Olajuwon, one he loved to tell. He was the Rockets' coach at the time, just getting into his hotel room during the 1984 preseason, when the phone rang. "Coach, this is Akeem," Olajuwon said in the broken English he spoke at the time. "Can you tell me how . . . how we go . . . to the game?" Fitch laughed to himself, then patiently explained to his 21-year-old rookie that the players and coaches would meet in the lobby and take a bus to the arena. Olajuwon, only three years removed from his Nigerian homeland, wasn't getting it. After another minute or two of this tongue-twisting exercise, Fitch finally realized Olajuwon wanted to know what clothing he should wear to the game. If we have seen the last of Hakeem, that story is the best place to start, a story of pure innocence and decorum. That's what he always has represented. In a league too often driven by restless young men eager to strut and preen before TV cameras, this always has been a man who is utterly comfortable with who he is. Rather than giving in to what people think he should be, he is a man who shuns self-promotion and bombast, whose character is like a great river whose depth we cannot see. If we have seen the last of Dream, whose 17th season ended last week with the discovery of a blood clot in his leg, he will go down as one of the five greatest centers the game has produced. The Russell-Wilt-Kareem troika remains the standard. Moses Malone also gets an edge -- albeit a slight one -- because without Moses bouncing him around during all those afternoons at the Fondy Rec Center in the early 1980s, there might never have been a Hakeem. Then again, how many players had signature moves that not only defined them, but were named for them? The Dipper Dunk. The Kareem Sky Hook. The Dream Shake. If we have seen the last of Hakeem, we'll remember him fondly because he refused to get caught up in such comparisons. "That would be a form of trash talk," he once explained. "I don't talk the trash. That is not interesting to me. That is not sensible. I only want to be with sensible people. This is a game of skill, not conversation." Nobody had his special skill, not before or since. He had the feet of a ballet dancer and the hands of a surgeon, but what separated him from all the rest was undoubtedly the footwork. Every post move reminded us why basketball, more than any other sport, inspired comparisons to the creative arts. And he had it all: the fadeaway from the left baseline, the jump hook, the entire Kevin McHale drop-step series, with fakes and spins and step-throughs and up-and-unders and shots delivered from impossible angles. It is a repertoire David Robinson still has nightmares about. If this is the last we've seen of Dream, his crowning achievements will be the titles he won in '94 and '95. But we had the best view of his astonishing competitiveness during the '95 Western Conference finals, when he won three games on the Admiral's court and torched the reigning MVP for 35.3 points per game. All that, however, tells only half his story as a player. This is, after all, the only man ever to win the regular-season MVP, the NBA Finals MVP, and the Defensive Player of the Year awards in the same season. The lateral quickness he showed around the goal actually served him just as well when he defended it -- one of the benefits of being an ex-goalie from Lagos. Perfect? Hardly. He had his temperamental moments, mostly with Rockets management during the late '80s and early '90s, when he was frustrated with being stuck on a team floundering in mediocrity. That was followed shortly by a spiritual reawakening, a return to his Muslim beliefs and the remarkable tranquility with which he comports himself to this day. When other players read box scores in their spare time, he reads the Koran. When teammates went first class in their commercial flying days, he insisted on sitting back in coach, just so he could meet new people. When other players somehow felt they were better than the fans who worshiped them, Olajuwon was unfailingly polite. If this is the last we've seen of Hakeem, his elegance and class always will endure. Teammate Steve Francis actually puts it best: "He is what I want to be like when I grow up. I want people to respect me. So when people walk in the locker room, they know I'm there, and I don't even have to say anything. That's how it is with Hakeem." And, in what could be his final act, Olajuwon proved at 38 he still deserved to be at the center of the Rockets' red glare, elevating his game and lifting his team back into playoff contention just when both ideas seemed preposterous. Now he'll be a free agent, and the Rockets' first priority will be Chris Webber. If that big score comes through, there won't be the cap room to justify re-signing Hakeem -- if he can play at all after three to six months of blood thinners and other medications. But if this is the last we've seen of him, nothing can tarnish his legacy. In the future, when coming generations have no direct experience of the man and the memories of his greatness are muted, Hakeem still will be remembered as one who faithfully reflected the game's artistic possibilities and answered its call for role models. Will there be another one like him? In your dreams. |
| Re: "... Basketball is losing an artist" |
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| Anwar |
| 03/20/01 at 20:21:01 |
| Aslamu alaikum wa rahmatullah I must say that Hakeem Olajuwon is the only Muslim sportsman who I know of, that has come accross as being sincere and a decent Muslim amongst all other so called "Muslim sportsmen" who are prominant nowadays, especially those in the UK. There was shown a documentry about him a few years ago in which he said "that his religion is more important to him than anything else in his life, including his basketball career". In contrast their are other sportsman that have claimed to have found Islam or that they are Muslim yet their speech and actions suggest otherwise, this is very sad since they are in the public eye and their behaviour gives a bad impression of Islam to the rest of the world. May Allah (swt) bring other Muslims like Hakeem Olajuwon into the public eye, Ameen. |
| Re: "... Basketball is losing an artist" |
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| AbdulBasir |
| 03/21/01 at 11:44:05 |
| Great article Arsalan...it will be hard to envision the NBA without him... Br. Anwar, you mentioned there are many Muslim sportsmen in the UK? I was just wondering who are some of these ppl? The only one I know of is Prince Naseem Hamed... |
| Re: "... Basketball is losing an artist" |
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| Everlast |
| 03/21/01 at 02:25:47 |
| I think Hakeem should hang 'em up. He probably still has a couple good yrs left in him but he is injury prone and I'd hate to see the brotha go out like that. |
| Re: "... Basketball is losing an artist" |
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| Anwar |
| 03/21/01 at 11:35:07 |
| Aslamu alaikum wa rahmatullah I did not mention that there are *many* but yes there are a few here and I do not wish to name them. wa salam |
| Re: "... Basketball is losing an artist" |
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| AbdulBasir |
| 03/21/01 at 11:45:37 |
| [quote]Aslamu alaikum wa rahmatullah I did not mention that there are *many* but yes there are a few here and I do not wish to name them. wa salam[/quote] oh that's cool...I was just wondering...you said amongst all the other Muslim sportsmen, so I interpreted that being more than a handful...I only know of a handful in the states so figured there might be more in the UK...hence the use of the word "many"...I don't know much about the English sports scene other than a few sports... alhamdulillah the ones over here (the few) are very good, as far as I know...Allah knows best... [slm] |
| Re: "... Basketball is losing an artist" |
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| Saleema |
| 03/27/01 at 20:36:20 |
| Assalam ualykum, Hakeem's the best! :) I won't be a rocket's fan when he leaves. :( there's no rockets without Hakeem. :( the muslim sportsman here in the US are very good mashallah! so far they haven't done anything to give a negative image about Islam. unless you consider mike tyson. he is still muslim right? or was he ever muslim? i'm confused now. but he was doing all this before he became a muslim. it would have been nice if michael jordan became muslim, maybe then he wouldn't deal with nike. i don't like michael jordan at all, never did like him. who cares if he is a good player? look at his code of ethics. wassalam |
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