The Dream an Untold story of a Lagos street Boy

 Olajuwon was born to Salim and Abike Olajuwon, middle-class Yoruba owners of a cement business in Lagos, Nigeria. "Olajuwon" translates to "always being on top" in Yoruba. He was the third of six children. He credits his parents with instilling virtues of hard work and discipline into him and his siblings; "They taught us to be honest, work hard, respect our elders, and believe in ourselves".Olajuwon has expressed displeasure at his childhood in Nigeria being characterized as backwards. "Lagos is a very cosmopolitan city...There are many ethnic groups. I grew up in an environment at schools where there were all different types of people."

During his youth, Olajuwon was a soccer goalkeeper, which helped give him the footwork and agility to balance his size and strength in basketball, and also contributed to his shot-blocking ability. Olajuwon did not play basketball until the age of 15, when he entered a local tournament. However, he quickly became taken with the game: "Basketball is something that is so unique. That immediately I pick up the game and, you know, realize that this is the sport for me. All the other sports just become secondary."

 
Hakeem now is a retired Nigerian-American professional basketball player widely considered one of the best centres to play in the NBA. He was born on January 21, 1963 to Yoruba parents in Lagos. As a child he played football (in the position of goalkeeper) and first tried basketball at the age of 15, later playing for a Nigerian junior team at the All-Africa Games. He moved to the United States soon afterwards where he enrolled at the University of Houston and joined the Cougars, their basketball team. During his second and third years the Cougars were finalists in the NCAA Division I championships and Olajuwon won the NCAA Tournament Player of the Year award in 1983.

Despite these successes, he chose to join the NBA early instead of completing his final year at the university. This turned out to be a lucky decision as the Houston Rockets, his top choice NBA team, recruited him as the first pick in the 1984 rookie free agent draft. He went on to play for the Rockets from 1984 until 2001, gaining many accolades including two championship rings and championship Most Valuable Player awards in 1994 and 1995, overall season MVP in 1994 and twelve All-Star game selections. He played a final season with the Toronto Raptors before retiring in 2002 at the age of 39. Both the University of Houston and the Rockets retired the #34 jersey in his honour.

Olajuwon is known for being a devout Muslim: he was famous for keeping his Ramadan fast even while playing NBA games. He became a naturalised US citizen in 1993 and was a member of the national team that won the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but keeps close ties to his country of origin. In 1996 he was selected as one of the 50 Greatest Players in the NBA and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.

Sources

http://zodml.org/Nigeria/nigeria_the_diaspora_content_articles 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_Olajuwon

http://www.nba.com/history/players/olajuwon_bio.html

http://www.nba.com/playerfile/hakeem_olajuwon/index.html

Photo source: http://sportige.com/top-ten-nba-all-time-scorers