Encomium
Basketball icon, Hakeem Olajuwon will, this week feature on CNN’s African Voices Changemakers, a 30 – minute magazine programme sponsored by telecommunications company, Globacom.
The twelve-time NBA All-Star,and two-time NBA champion will, in a chat with CNN’s Larry Madowo shares his inspiring journey from Nigeria to the United States, where his extraordinary talent earned him the iconic nickname “The Dream.”
The 7-foot center who discovered basketball in 1978 at the Muslim Teachers’ College, Lagos was born in Lagos, Nigeria, on January 21, 1963 later relocated to the United States in the early 1980s to play college basketball for the University of Houston Cougars.
Olajuwon’s professional career launched when the Houston Rockets selected him as the first overall pick in the legendary 1984 NBA draft, which also featured top basketballers like Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and John Stockton.
Beyond his historic club career, he won an Olympic gold medal with the United States national team in 1996 and was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. His outstandibg career secured him inductions into both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2016.
Olajuwon was further celebrated on the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team in October, 2021. He retired as the league’s all-time leader in blocked shots (3,830), remaining one of only four players in NBA history to record a quadruple-double and the absolute leader in 5×5 games.
African voices comes up on DSTV Channel 401 this Saturday at 12:00 AM and 8:30 AM (West African Time), with repeats scheduled for Sunday at 4:30 AM and 7:00 PM, Monday at 4:00 AM and 6:45 PM, Tuesday at 6:45 PM, and continuing next week on Saturday at 12:00 AM and 8:30 AM, Sunday at 4:30 AM and 7:00 PM, and Monday at 4:00 AM.
