December 21, 2024

Do you know him? Can you recall any of Houston Rocket or Toronto Raptors? Yes, that deft and dexterous basket-baller. He’s our very own. He’s one of many talented Nigerians we have lost to teams abroad.

He’s ‘Hakeem Olajuwon’, he’s Hakeem ‘The Dream’ as fondly called by his admirers.

I first heard of his name from King Adisa in 2000/01. Bro Ope was just back from the U.S where he’s based. He’s a fine basketballer (amateur) himself and he asked if I knew Hakeem The dream. I was a very young lad. Who’s he? He brought out a magazine and showed me Hakeem’s pictures. Afterward, he regaled me with numerous enthralling stories about ‘The dream’ and I got enamoured!

Amazingly, Olajuwon did not play basketball until the age of 17, when he entered a local tournament. History has it that he was nicknamed “The Dream” during his basketball career after he dunked so effortlessly that his college coach said it “looked like a dream.” Notably, this was Hakeem who could initially not dunk the basketball while in Nigeria.

Above all, failure is an orphan. Success has numerous relatives. People are always readily available to be known with a successful person. However, no one is related to a failure. Strive to excel, dive beneath the sea for PEARL and and people will call you their EARL (originally “earl” was cognate to the Germanic title of Jarl, meaning a warrior-king).

I’m Folorunso Fatai Adisa
#ThatUnilorinBoy


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *