Hakeem Olajuwon's Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Speech

welcoming Hakeem to the Hall of Fame as Clyde Drexler ladies and gentlemen Hakeem Olajuwon thank you first of all I first of all like to give thanks to God for this opportunity I think as I was introduced so you can see that all my career really is a dream career growing up in Nigeria then I didn't really know anything about basketball I was just growing up just like any kid growing up in Nigeria playing sports sports in Nigeria very big which is soccer number one sport for all the kids going on but all this positive play I did not realize that these are building giving me a fundamentals the table tennis which gives me the iron and high coordination playing soccer in Nigeria team on ball and I'd like to thank the coach his name is called you knew he was the first coach that was pushing me to play basketball he was going out of his way every time just to encourage me to play basketball and I was paying other sports except baskerville but the first time I gave it a chance to play basketball he was unbelievable day for me because he gave me a job description give me the concept the big picture of my position in Baskerville if you do play basketball let me tell you let me show you what you can do as a position so given his description of the role of a Center in basketball and this was amazing because he was a state legal state coach they were practicing he gave the assignment to his assistant coaches to go to the other side of the court and he called a point guard and himself and gave me this attention that let me give you the job description the role of a center so all the team is at legal state team they were practicing on the other side of the court and I was amazed I was humble just to see that that's the kind of attention that he brought to me and immediately I realized the importance of my position in basketball that his center that he has a center position impact the game in so many ways so he gave me this concept of this big picture telling me I've seen you play a team on ball I've seen you play soccer but let me tell you how you can help us win some games because they were going for a tournament he told me I know that you didn't know the rules but we can just stand in the middle of the pins and just block everything that comes in and that was his advice for you then also if the miss initial just tried to grab everything that come out you know just grab heaven rebound it gave me this concept of the of the paint this paint this is your area you ruled it so I was imagining this kind of domination office what the center can do a basketball then after a couple of hours that he called the rest of the team that we have to play together so I was following his instruction try to block everything so I was go tendon then Daniela tell me again that when the ball is coming coming down let it go so because this was my first introduction to basketball this is a great honor as everybody knows that the how special it is to be an all of Famer is a great honor for any player to end up as an all of Famer this was never a dream of mine because I didn't I did not really know about all of him you know that's I didn't have the big dream to be an all of him but I know the happy competitive competitive nature just to compete and every spot I play I try to be good at it and I tried to win so I played to win and it's amazing when you understand what it takes to win you play to win there will be a lot of byproducts others the benefit that my focus is not to be an all-star or and all of him but my role for my team is to Alder middle we can control the middle and help your team wins then the credit become later so I've been very fortunate to play on great teams starting from college that are coming to to America and to have the opportunity to be on a great team from the beginning so players like Clyde Drexler which I watched my first year and I did not play but I watched him and just amazing just to see his talent and his way a style of play which I really love from the beginning playing the team like that give me so much confidence from the beginning that gave me the introduction to basketball I was very fortunate that to play in Houston in the summer there is a pond a Recreation Center in Houston where all the pros and college players played and now there's a big reputation about this Center that everybody comes to use in the plane some a Moses Malone used to play there and this was my first year going to been going to be in the freshman and I had the opportunity to play against Moses that summer preparing for a college career playing against Moses Moses was the best big man in the pros in the NBA that time I'm playing against Moses in this summer gave me a huge advantage and confidence going as a freshman that how can any big guy in college be a fizzy as physical or better than Moses Malone so I got that introduction and someone I was very that's that's very own you are that's not something that is common that a lot of we look at my career a lot of things that happen is amazing it is a dream but by my my freshman year playing on a team that the name that was given to the team that I still mentioned up to today after about 20 20 years 21 years ago phi slamma jamma and the people every Final Four they watch we have to remind us about the game we playing against the North Carolina that were lost so we worthy hua still the people's champion even though we didn't win because people keep coming back to me and tell me how much they enjoy that game but we have we are we have so many great talent in college can you imagine how many college players that's trying to make into the pros and to have the very few that have this opportunity to get there how many players in the pros and we have thousands of players in college and high school Australia for example where I'm so grateful that we have this kind of organization starting from the Hall of Fame that said the highest level of accomplishment for any player then the MVA that promotes the game on a global level where the last 15 years I've seen the MBA grow tremendously we're everywhere I travel happy everybody all the kids you see the jerseys of the you know of the different players of different team in different part of the world that I travel so MBA is doing a fantastic job and tank-tank your Davis than the conventional voice you know his global vision what he has accomplished then the NCAA college to have this broad way of developing the grassroot wear from from from high school to college to the pros to the media system you know there's a different level and it's all covered so we are very fortunate to be to be in America because America have that's why they're the leading country in the world because of their structure and their global vision that helped the leadership that are that they are live in poverty well I'd like to thank my parents for instilling me some of my values the humble beginning the basic work ethics honesty to stay humble it is that all the all the necessary qualities and values that you need to handle success I was you know they were prepared me very well and I can see the the benefits are the more I as I grow become mature I understand more solve these values and this advises that we didn't give in me and I've been very fortunate to have a lot of people that were in very instrumental in my life that made a huge impact in my in my life the statin from my my college coaches coach Guy Lewis he was a mentor and also he motivated because he knows how to prepare his players for the next game and I think when you play for him he demand the best and your best is not good enough because sometimes maybe you have a great game and they write a good article about you but the coach is not impressed he sees what you can do better so he give me that that that he said us high standard for me to keep striving to be the best I can be then coaches like billfish I can take him a lot because my first year in the pros coming into the league for the first time you can imagine being the fourth player draft before speak in the draft that's a lot of pressure but playing for billfish I forgot about the pressure outside because the pressure from the coach to demand he demand the best so he really gave me the platform to come into the league to compete in that level then well my last coach that are played for purity he gave me his freedom the confidence that believes in my decision he gave me the green light I came back I'm freelance in the structure of the team and worked for coach to have that aura confident his player was a huge responsibility not for him to be disappointed in my decision so that that may be much more conscious on my decision not to take a bad shot to make a good decision if I make a mistake is clear and it's clearly known as the basketball mistakes is not intentional so I have this great career is what I did not have this great dream it was just step by step the next game when I was in college I wasn't thinking about the pros I was having fun because our college team was great team and I was having fun when it's time to leave the college for the pros have to think twice was I enjoy college life so much that I didn't wanna go to the pros but as a businessman you see the opportunity and you and you afraid of the injury to my Apple in college so I have to move on to the pros and to see my career and oppose and ended up in all of Fame in a Canada I thank you all for being here to give me this opportunity Elijah taking the rocket organization I mean I think there are being so like the tank Ness Alexandra is the quad easy rocket owner for his devotion and education to bring a championship back to the city a Latina is doing a great job is not afraid to make to take a risk to trade to make move to bring the temperature back to the city so I'd like to thank you les for his outstanding job that is done the city of Houston has embraced me that's home and I'm very very blessed to be in Houston one of those players that played college carrier and using and got opportunity to be drafted from the same city so my case is very unique and special and is a dream the dream for mater come true and I'd like to thank dick Motta that give me that nickname the dream because so I cannot thank you enough god bless you thank you you

Channel: OfficialHoophall

Views: 558,212

Keywords: Hakeem Olajuwan, Speech, Basketball Hall of Fame, Enshrinement, basketball, history

Id: SAsKKy93Wr4

Length: 18min 4sec (1084 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 21 2012