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Quick Facts
- NAME: Hakeem Olajuwon
- OCCUPATION: Basketball Player
- BIRTH DATE: January 21, 1963 (Age: 50)
- EDUCATION: University of Houston
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Lagos, Nigeria
- Full Name: Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon
- Nickname: "The Dream"
- AKA: Hakeem Olajuwon
- ZODIAC SIGN: Aquarius
Best Known For
Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon led the Houston Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships during the peak of his magnificent 18-year professional career.
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Play NowHakeem Olajuwon. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 01:53, May 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/hakeem-olajuwon-21101363.
Hakeem Olajuwon. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/hakeem-olajuwon-21101363 [Accessed 19 May 2013].
"Hakeem Olajuwon." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 19 2013, 01:53 http://www.biography.com/people/hakeem-olajuwon-21101363.
"Hakeem Olajuwon," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/hakeem-olajuwon-21101363 [accessed May 19, 2013].
"Hakeem Olajuwon," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/hakeem-olajuwon-21101363 (accessed May 19, 2013).
Hakeem Olajuwon [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/hakeem-olajuwon-21101363.
Hakeem Olajuwon, http://www.biography.com/people/hakeem-olajuwon-21101363 (last visited May 19, 2013).
Hakeem Olajuwon. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/hakeem-olajuwon-21101363. Accessed May 19, 2013.
Having secured his U.S. citizenship, Olajuwon won a gold medal with the 1996 U.S. Men's Olympic Basketball Team. Soon afterward, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History as part of a campaign to mark the league's 50-year anniversary. However, after one more typically huge season, his performance on the court began to taper.
Olajuwon retired after spending the 2001-02 season with the Toronto Raptors. Over the course of his 18-year career,
he was named to the All-NBA First Team six times, and to the NBA All-Defensive First Team five times. He finished with impressive averages of 21.8 points and 11.1 rebounds per game, and a record 3,830 total blocks.
A Dream Retirement
After leaving the hardwood, Olajuwon reinvented himself as a successful real-estate dealer in Houston and became a coveted instructor for NBA players seeking to improve their moves around the basket.
When not tending to business in Houston, Olajuwon spends his time with his family at a home in Jordan, where he studies the Koran.
Olajuwon was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008, a fitting coda to the career of one of the game's all-time greats.
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