Before Winning Back-to-Back Finals MVPs Hakeem Was Already a One-Man Wrecking Crew
Most NBA Fans know Hakeem Olajuwon as a top 5 center in NBA history who carried the 6th seeded Houston Rockets to a championship in the 1994-1995 season. He also won Finals MVP twice as he led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA titles, separating the two Chicago Bulls’ three-peats. What many people do not remember is how much Olajuwon carried the Rockets on his back even before those championships.
After Ralph Sampson was traded in the 1987-1988 season, the Rockets failed to get out of the first round of the playoffs for five straight seasons (including missing the playoffs entirely in the 1991-1992 season). The one bright spot for the franchise remained constant however; Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon. From 1987-1993 Olajuwon was All-NBA 1st team three times, All-NBA 2nd team once, and All-NBA 3rd team once. He also accounted for some of the most incredible box scores in NBA history during this span.
38 Points, 17 Rebounds, 12 Blocks, 7 Steals, 6 Assists
The historic box-score that we will focus on today is when “The Dream” became an absolute nightmare for the Seattle Supersonics on March 10th, 1987. Olajuwon played a whopping 53 minutes and recorded the most STOCKS (steals + blocks) in a single game in NBA history. With 12 blocks and 7 steals, he had just as many steals as the entire SuperSonics team and had 4x as many blocks as Seattle, who only recorded three in the game.
On top of that, he had a remarkable offensive game as well recording 38 points on 14/29 shooting, along with 6 assists and 10 offensive rebounds. Unfortunately for Olajuwon, Tom Chambers and Dale Ellis for the SuperSonics were both scorching hot as well (14/20 from the field for Ellis and 14/27 for Chambers). The Seattle duo combined for 77 points, and Seattle beat Houston in double-OT 136-127.
Despite the loss, Hakeem “The Dream” is still just one of two players (Andrei Kirilenko) to have recorded a 5×6 (6+ points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks). He also stands by himself in the record books as the only player to have a game with 7+ blocks and 7+ steals. Not only that, but while no other player has completed that feat, Olajuwon also added five additional blocks on top of that record. There is a reason that his last name, “Olajuwon”, translates to “always being on top”.