When Olajuwon and Pippen would play together

The Last Dance, the documentary produced by Michael Tollin and recounting Michael Jordan’s career with the Chicago Bulls, came to an end last Monday with the last two episodes of the first season, and that ultimate victory in Finals 1998 over Utah Jazz of Karl Malone for the second three peak of the Illinois franchise. A few months after that celebration, small forward Scottie Pippen was being traded to the Houston Rockets of American Nigerian center Hakeem Olajuwon, one of the brightest centers in the history of the NBA.

The combination of three major players – Scottie Pippen, Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley – was supposed to make sparks in Texas but it did not go well, mainly for relationships reasons between Pippen and Barkley, and the former Bull eventually left the Rockets in November 2000 for the Portland Trail Blazers. In total, Pippen will have spent less than two years in Texas.

This short period can be a source of frustration for NBA followers, especially the Rockets’ fans, since that Big Three was quite appealing on paper. In those times, Houston was the team whose players had managed to contest the Bulls’ supremacy with two championships won in 1994 and 1995 (Chicago was champion in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 1998). The team, led by Olajuwon and his defensive skills (but not only), could have been somewhat greater if the collaboration had been effective between their stars.

For the Lagos native, who would spend his entire career in Houston, except for the last season in Toronto in 2001, that episode would not prevent him from making history. Today considered as one of the best African athletes in history, Hakeem Olajuwon is still the best blocked shots player in the history of the NBA, with 3 830 blocks between 1984 and 2002 as he played for the Rockets and the Raptors.

By Guillaume Mahot

Africa Global News Publication