Then there’s the upcoming NBA training camps, which mean players can’t individually fly to Texas to get that one-on-one work. Olajuwon (a former teammate of current Knicks coach Mike Woodson) wants to help, for a price, and the Knicks need the tutelage. Why not make Hakeem the guy who is flying in this time. Eh? Eh. Go New York, go New York, go.
Hakeem Olajuwon, one of the greatest players in NBA history and the architect of the legendary “Dream Shake” post move, will spend several days next week training some of their players at the team’s practice facility in Greenburgh, N.Y.
Olajuwon worked out with Stoudemire earlier this summer, training the Knicks center for two-and-a-half weeks in the gymnasium on his 400-acre ranch outside of Houston. Olajuwon, who was able to excel alongside superstar teammates Ralph Sampson and Clyde Drexler, said there’s no reason Stoudemire and Anthony can’t have similar success playing next to one another.
“They both have to realize that the most important thing is not how great you are individually,” Olajuwon said. “You’re remembered for how many games you win. So to get to play with another great offensive player should help you. It should make your job easier. You have to work well together. You can’t be competitors with one another.”
You’ll notice that Broussard left Charles Barkley and Scottie Pippen out of the list of superstars Olajuwon excelled with. It’s probably accurate, and an interesting footnote as Hakeem takes to the Knicks.
Barkley joined Drexler and Olajuwon before the 1996-97 season, and though the team was bereft of second-tier stars following the depth-destroying deal for Charles (rounding out the roster with rookie scale types and veterans like Eddie Johnson who were making the NBA minimum), they still eked out 57 wins and were one John Stockton jump shot away from making their third NBA Finals in four years.
The wins piled up. The offense, seventh overall in spite of hefty minutes given to role players, was good enough. And the team nearly took it, losing just barely to a championship-level Utah Jazz team in a close sixth game.
By the second year, though, teams were sort of on to these Rockets.
The injuries piled up, as Barkley and Drexler’s repeated absences were a big part of the swoon that left them at .500 on the year, but it was the nature of Barkley and Olajuwon’s attack that left them an easy team to guard. Either Hakeem would head to the left low block to post up, while four people stood around, or Barkley would. When Scottie Pippen took Drexler’s place before the 1999 season, he found a stilted and easy-to-cover team that barely resembled the free flowing Chicago Bulls he played with the season before. Left block, back ’em down.