Olajuwon, Houston a Match Made in Hoops Heaven

2008/09/06 12:25:05 @NBA.com: News

In the HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Fran Blinebury writes "before there was a monument outside the Toyota Center, before a Hall of Fame career, before two championships, before Phi Slama Jama, there was a skinny 17-year-old kid sitting on a gym floor one hot afternoon in Lagos, Nigeria. As the coach spoke, he listened to the instructions, but his eyes and his mind wandered. His gaze kept rising toward the rim. When the talk ended and his teammates began to stand slowly, stretching their legs and their arms before the start of practice, he rose like a shot. Gathering the leather basketball into both hands, he went up, up, up. Bam! 'My first dunk ever,' said Hakeem Olajuwon.'Oh, I remember, because the coach had been trying for weeks to get me to dunk the ball. I had never seen anyone do it. I didn't really think it was possible, the coordination of the jump and holding the ball.'"
[ VIEW FULL COVERAGE @NBA.com: News ]