NBA: 30 greatest international players in league history

Greatest international NBA players of all time: 1. Hakeem Olajuwon

Plenty of prospects throughout NBA history have faced enormous levels of expectations coming into the league, whether out of high school or college. The Houston Rockets may have passed on the chance to select Michael Jordan first overall in 1984, but they didn’t exactly strike out by taking Hakeem Olajuwon.

One has to remember that back in the 1980s, centers were all the rage. In order to compete for a championship, teams needed a big man they could throw the ball down to in the post who could protect the rim at the other end. After a dominant collegiate career at the University of Houston, Hakeem was predicted to fall in line with the great seven-footers who came before him.

Having the title of prodigy brings plenty of pressure right out of the gate, but Olajuwon didn’t seem phased as a rookie. He averaged 20.6 points, 11.9 rebounds and 2.7 blocks a game, numbers that a majority of NBA players would take as their ceiling. For Olajuwon, it was but a taste of the damage to come.

He was as dominant a two-way player as there was at the time, who would go on to claim 12 All-NBA selections and nine All-Defensive Teams. Hakeem’s toolbox in the post is still the stuff of legends, where not a single defender was immune to any number of tricks he could pull out at any given moment.

MJ dominated the 1990s but left a small two-year window for anyone else to claim the title. Guys like Patrick Ewing and Charles Barley had fallen victim to Chicago before and were desperate to take advantage. Unfortunately, it was Olajuwon who rose above them all with one of the greatest two-year stretches in league history.

Hakeem would lead his Rockets to consecutive championships, winning Finals MVP both times, yet the path there left nothing guaranteed. Some of the greatest of all-time stood in his way during those playoff runs, including Ewing, Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, David Robinson and Karl Malone. It was a gauntlet of legends that were treated like ragdolls by a man hell-bent on claiming what he felt was rightfully his after falling short in the 1986 Finals.

The 1993-94 season also had him win the regular season MVP along with the Defensive Player of the Year award — which he would also win the following season. Olajuwon became the first player to ever win MVP, Finals MVP and DPOY in the same season, as well as the first international player to ever take home the Maurice Podoloff trophy.

His numbers have him top-10 all-time in four different statistical categories — including the league’s all-time leading shot blocker — with career averages of 21.8 points, 11.1 rebounds and 3.1 blocks a game. For players to live up to their hype is considered a win, but Olajuwon took it a step further by completely blowing his out of the water.