October 25, 2024 • 8 mins
Mirin Fader just wrote 'Dream: The Life and Legacy of Hakeem Olajuwon' and she joined The A-Team. She talks about how other players viewed Hakeem during his playing career. "The Dream" had a bit of a temper in his younger days.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And as promised, we're joined by the author of Dream,
The Life and Legacy of Hakeem Elijahuan, a new book
out on, of course, one of the greatest athletes that
ever done a Houston jersey in this town, and of
course the author of that, Mirn Fader, and Miren. I
hope I'm pronouncing your first name right. We were talking
about this before the show, so if I mispronounced it,
(00:21):
please correct me now.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
No, you're good, Thank you?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
All right, good deal. Well, what was when you're sitting
down to write a book about a guy like Akim Elijuan,
who's probably one of the most unique athletes from a
personality standpoint, is much from a playing standpoint. What were
you looking forward to most about this project before it
ever even began?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Oh? Man, I wanted to know where the shape came from.
I wanted to know about his childhood in Nigeria. You know,
I feel like there was just nothing about that. I
obviously loved basketball, and you know, I'm a fan, I
admire him, but I don't think much was really known
about his childhood, and so I was really looking forward
to just kind of see, like, okay, what made dream?
(01:02):
What were the inspirations that he had what were the
early beginnings beyond he played soccer.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I'll tell you what. A lot of books like this
are storytelling from a lot of people who knew him.
Bess played against him, most teammates, of his coaches, of
his all along the way, whatever the case may be.
And I figured this word would show up in the book,
not so ironically, but to me rather obviously, considering his
nickname was the Dream. I figured the word nightmare would
(01:30):
show up in the book at least fifty to one
hundred of the players he played against. And I know
it did show up a few times. To just share
a little bit about maybe one or two of the
interviews one of the players that was describing his game
and why he had said maybe a better nickname would
be the nightmare.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yes, that's such a good question. Michael Thompson was like,
I cannot believe he just called him a dream. He
was no dream. He was my nightmare. I had to
practice and call help, you know, like I was an
opera singer. A lot of people use nightmare. In fact,
I had to limit it because I couldn't just have
everyone saying he's a nightmare. Michael Cooper, you know, saying like, God,
(02:09):
I hated playing against Himmy, that's a nightmare, you know.
I think it's just the respect that people had for him, right,
Like I can't stop him. I can only admire, but
damn he got on my nerves.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
No.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I mean I there are big names and you know,
just regular names from NBA history that have you know, shared,
you know, similar sentiments. And I think one thing that
us here in Houston when we're talking about Hakeem and
I'm very, very very biased, but I feel like because
of his personality away from the floor, away from the game,
(02:43):
really I think he doesn't get the credit that's due.
And yet at the same time, when guys like Michael
Jordan and Shaq for example, talk about Hakeem the way
they do and still do to this day, I think
that kind of lends itself to to how the people
who know really do respect it and put him in
that upper echelon of the all time greats.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Absolutely. I mean, Shaq was one of my favorite interviews
of the book. He was like, look, I put Hikeem
before me on the all time list. You know, every
single time he was the one person I couldn't intimidate.
I think that former generations, current generations, future generations, they
respect to Kim. In the NBA community, the respect is
so palpable. That's why these players from Lebron to Kobe
(03:28):
the Yannis continue to seek out his mentorship. But for
the average fan or somebody who is under thirty years old,
who wasn't around during this era, or who isn't from Houston,
they don't give him the credit that he deserves. I
think that was one of the reasons why I wanted
to do this book. I just felt like, you know,
Hikeem's fingerprints are all over the modern NBA and he
gets no credit. The way that it's international now, the
(03:51):
way that it's dominated by African superstars, the position list basketball,
all of these things to me trace back to the King.
So I really almost saw this book like I want
to continue to give flowers because we really need to,
you know, tell the stories and respect those that came before.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I think it's very interesting sitting in our seats that
you said people who aren't from Houston. I think you
mean people specifically from Chicago who don't realize that it
does that part. Yeah, those championships are just as legitimate
as every other championship that's been one any other year, right, Right,
Why do you.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Got to put an asterisk on it? You know, I
actually I'm from Los Angeles, but I have a very
deep respect for what you all go through. When people
say that because of my first book, I'm the honest
this feeling of people from Milwaukee saying they don't respect us,
they don't. There's always oh, the only one because of this,
the only one because of that. Well, I think it's
fitting that to this day, nobody from Houston is ever
(04:44):
like we should have drafted Jordan. No.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
That's I mean, that's probably the biggest compliment you could
give Hakeem is that he was in the same draft
as MJ who many think or is the all time goat,
and he was picked two spots ahead of him, and
nobody really ever says anything about that.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Never, never, And you know, that was the fun part
of the draft chapter of just talking to people who
were there during that time and you know, intimately making
those decisions. I mean Rob Thorn, the blows GM at
the time, like TiVo, the assistant coach, who you know
went to maybe ten of Hackem's practices. He was like, look,
if we had the number one pick, we would have
went with the LaJuan. And even when they picked Jordan,
(05:24):
if an owner said to them he'd better work out,
this better work. So I think it just tells you
something that, you know, the respect that Haquin had, even
at that point when he wasn't even as developed offensively
anywhere near what he would become, the potential was so great,
the defense was so strong that he was the unanimous
number one pick.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Did you uh?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And I haven't.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I have to admit I haven't read the whole thing yet,
so that's why I'm asking this question. Did the topic
ever come up with with dream about the trade that
wasn't where he Clyde, Drexler, and Michael could have all
been rockets.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yes, but you know, actually talking with rockets personnel at
the time, I don't think that would have been likely.
You know. It's one of those things that I think
people like to embellish over the years, like, oh, this
could have happened, but I don't think it. I mean,
even you look at other potential things. There was even
a rumblings of perhaps a trade involving Worthy in the Lakers,
(06:22):
and I really don't think any of those scenarios would
have happened. I think the Rockets were very jad set
on this idea of having two twin towers, having this
you know, Ralph Sampson at seven four and a Keem
at near seven feet. And I think even though they
entertained some of these you know, behind the scenes potential
deals and trades, I really think the plan all along
(06:42):
was to get Hkeem.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
No.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Again, I think it all worked out the way it
was supposed to. It's always something that I think, especially
in the NBA, you get a lot of what ifs, right,
But yeah, you know, it's funny. I there was a
story in the book, and this is why I thought,
you know, this book is to compliment you. If you
can find something that I didn't know about, that's impressive
(07:06):
and again refresh my memory. Tell the story about the
time Hakeem was in a convenience store and ended up
assaulting the clerk.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, So this is part of the
you know, talking about what did I know beforehand or
what didn't I know beforehand? I knew I learned through
this process that you know, during the late eighties early nineties,
when the Rockets were particularly having rebuilding in down years,
Haden had a temper, and I thought at first it
(07:36):
was just limited to the court, not that he was
going after people. But I got a lot of former
players to talk about how the only way they could
stop him was to foul the crap out of him,
and they admitted that to me, and that was glorious,
And so he would get all these objections. He clearly
had a temper. But when I learned that he had
issues off the court, you know, he and his girlfriend
(07:56):
at the time, lad of Spencer, had gone to a
convenience store and allegedly the convenience store man of the
worker there had said something to them that they didn't like,
and a team assaulted him, and yeah, it was really bad.
And looking at the Chronicle and the Post archives at
the time, I mean, lots of the writers were basically saying,
(08:19):
what the heck has happened to Hakeem? He's so far
from the innocent, lovable, you know player that we saw
in college. What has happened to him? Mirin?
Speaker 1 (08:29):
We appreciate we got to cut it right there. We
appreciate the time so much. The book is called Dream
The Life and Legacy of a chem Elijuan. It is
out now.
And as promised, we're joined by the author of Dream,
The Life and Legacy of Hakeem Elijahuan, a new book
out on, of course, one of the greatest athletes that
ever done a Houston jersey in this town, and of
course the author of that, Mirn Fader, and Miren. I
hope I'm pronouncing your first name right. We were talking
about this before the show, so if I mispronounced it,
(00:21):
please correct me now.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
No, you're good, Thank you?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
All right, good deal. Well, what was when you're sitting
down to write a book about a guy like Akim Elijuan,
who's probably one of the most unique athletes from a
personality standpoint, is much from a playing standpoint. What were
you looking forward to most about this project before it
ever even began?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Oh? Man, I wanted to know where the shape came from.
I wanted to know about his childhood in Nigeria. You know,
I feel like there was just nothing about that. I
obviously loved basketball, and you know, I'm a fan, I
admire him, but I don't think much was really known
about his childhood, and so I was really looking forward
to just kind of see, like, okay, what made dream?
(01:02):
What were the inspirations that he had what were the
early beginnings beyond he played soccer.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I'll tell you what. A lot of books like this
are storytelling from a lot of people who knew him.
Bess played against him, most teammates, of his coaches, of
his all along the way, whatever the case may be.
And I figured this word would show up in the book,
not so ironically, but to me rather obviously, considering his
nickname was the Dream. I figured the word nightmare would
(01:30):
show up in the book at least fifty to one
hundred of the players he played against. And I know
it did show up a few times. To just share
a little bit about maybe one or two of the
interviews one of the players that was describing his game
and why he had said maybe a better nickname would
be the nightmare.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yes, that's such a good question. Michael Thompson was like,
I cannot believe he just called him a dream. He
was no dream. He was my nightmare. I had to
practice and call help, you know, like I was an
opera singer. A lot of people use nightmare. In fact,
I had to limit it because I couldn't just have
everyone saying he's a nightmare. Michael Cooper, you know, saying like, God,
(02:09):
I hated playing against Himmy, that's a nightmare, you know.
I think it's just the respect that people had for him, right,
Like I can't stop him. I can only admire, but
damn he got on my nerves.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
No.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I mean I there are big names and you know,
just regular names from NBA history that have you know, shared,
you know, similar sentiments. And I think one thing that
us here in Houston when we're talking about Hakeem and
I'm very, very very biased, but I feel like because
of his personality away from the floor, away from the game,
(02:43):
really I think he doesn't get the credit that's due.
And yet at the same time, when guys like Michael
Jordan and Shaq for example, talk about Hakeem the way
they do and still do to this day, I think
that kind of lends itself to to how the people
who know really do respect it and put him in
that upper echelon of the all time greats.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Absolutely. I mean, Shaq was one of my favorite interviews
of the book. He was like, look, I put Hikeem
before me on the all time list. You know, every
single time he was the one person I couldn't intimidate.
I think that former generations, current generations, future generations, they
respect to Kim. In the NBA community, the respect is
so palpable. That's why these players from Lebron to Kobe
(03:28):
the Yannis continue to seek out his mentorship. But for
the average fan or somebody who is under thirty years old,
who wasn't around during this era, or who isn't from Houston,
they don't give him the credit that he deserves. I
think that was one of the reasons why I wanted
to do this book. I just felt like, you know,
Hikeem's fingerprints are all over the modern NBA and he
gets no credit. The way that it's international now, the
(03:51):
way that it's dominated by African superstars, the position list basketball,
all of these things to me trace back to the King.
So I really almost saw this book like I want
to continue to give flowers because we really need to,
you know, tell the stories and respect those that came before.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I think it's very interesting sitting in our seats that
you said people who aren't from Houston. I think you
mean people specifically from Chicago who don't realize that it
does that part. Yeah, those championships are just as legitimate
as every other championship that's been one any other year, right, Right,
Why do you.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Got to put an asterisk on it? You know, I
actually I'm from Los Angeles, but I have a very
deep respect for what you all go through. When people
say that because of my first book, I'm the honest
this feeling of people from Milwaukee saying they don't respect us,
they don't. There's always oh, the only one because of this,
the only one because of that. Well, I think it's
fitting that to this day, nobody from Houston is ever
(04:44):
like we should have drafted Jordan. No.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
That's I mean, that's probably the biggest compliment you could
give Hakeem is that he was in the same draft
as MJ who many think or is the all time goat,
and he was picked two spots ahead of him, and
nobody really ever says anything about that.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Never, never, And you know, that was the fun part
of the draft chapter of just talking to people who
were there during that time and you know, intimately making
those decisions. I mean Rob Thorn, the blows GM at
the time, like TiVo, the assistant coach, who you know
went to maybe ten of Hackem's practices. He was like, look,
if we had the number one pick, we would have
went with the LaJuan. And even when they picked Jordan,
(05:24):
if an owner said to them he'd better work out,
this better work. So I think it just tells you
something that, you know, the respect that Haquin had, even
at that point when he wasn't even as developed offensively
anywhere near what he would become, the potential was so great,
the defense was so strong that he was the unanimous
number one pick.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Did you uh?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And I haven't.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I have to admit I haven't read the whole thing yet,
so that's why I'm asking this question. Did the topic
ever come up with with dream about the trade that
wasn't where he Clyde, Drexler, and Michael could have all
been rockets.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yes, but you know, actually talking with rockets personnel at
the time, I don't think that would have been likely.
You know. It's one of those things that I think
people like to embellish over the years, like, oh, this
could have happened, but I don't think it. I mean,
even you look at other potential things. There was even
a rumblings of perhaps a trade involving Worthy in the Lakers,
(06:22):
and I really don't think any of those scenarios would
have happened. I think the Rockets were very jad set
on this idea of having two twin towers, having this
you know, Ralph Sampson at seven four and a Keem
at near seven feet. And I think even though they
entertained some of these you know, behind the scenes potential
deals and trades, I really think the plan all along
(06:42):
was to get Hkeem.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
No.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Again, I think it all worked out the way it
was supposed to. It's always something that I think, especially
in the NBA, you get a lot of what ifs, right,
But yeah, you know, it's funny. I there was a
story in the book, and this is why I thought,
you know, this book is to compliment you. If you
can find something that I didn't know about, that's impressive
(07:06):
and again refresh my memory. Tell the story about the
time Hakeem was in a convenience store and ended up
assaulting the clerk.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, So this is part of the
you know, talking about what did I know beforehand or
what didn't I know beforehand? I knew I learned through
this process that you know, during the late eighties early nineties,
when the Rockets were particularly having rebuilding in down years,
Haden had a temper, and I thought at first it
(07:36):
was just limited to the court, not that he was
going after people. But I got a lot of former
players to talk about how the only way they could
stop him was to foul the crap out of him,
and they admitted that to me, and that was glorious,
And so he would get all these objections. He clearly
had a temper. But when I learned that he had
issues off the court, you know, he and his girlfriend
(07:56):
at the time, lad of Spencer, had gone to a
convenience store and allegedly the convenience store man of the
worker there had said something to them that they didn't like,
and a team assaulted him, and yeah, it was really bad.
And looking at the Chronicle and the Post archives at
the time, I mean, lots of the writers were basically saying,
(08:19):
what the heck has happened to Hakeem? He's so far
from the innocent, lovable, you know player that we saw
in college. What has happened to him? Mirin?
Speaker 1 (08:29):
We appreciate we got to cut it right there. We
appreciate the time so much. The book is called Dream
The Life and Legacy of a chem Elijuan. It is
out now.
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