Kevin Durant and Hakeem Olajuwon trace the Hall of Famer’s unlikely journey from Nigeria to the NBA, and how defense became his foundation.
The first thing Hakeem Olajuwon makes clear is that basketball was never the plan.
On the latest Boardroom Talks episode, Olajuwon sits across from Kevin Durant and traces his journey back to Nigeria, where ambition had a much narrower definition. Education came first; sports, especially basketball, barely registered. Soccer ruled everything, and even then, it was treated less like a dream and more like a proving ground.
Basketball didn’t enter Olajuwon’s life until his senior year of high school. He was already 16, an age when most future pros have years of reps under their belts, and the sport had just been introduced at his school. By then, he stood 6-foot-9, and when a coach visited campus, Olajuwon says the moment he stood up, the decision was made for him. He was towering, impossible to ignore. In Nigeria, that height had made him a target. Standing up for himself became instinct, and that edge would later define his game.
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When Olajuwon arrived in Houston and began playing basketball in earnest, he wasn’t a scorer or a technician; he was a defender. Durant listens as Olajuwon explains how his soccer background — specifically playing goalkeeper — shaped everything. Protect the goal. Anticipate the angle. Time the leap. Basketball, to him, became an extension of the same responsibility. Shots were attacks, and the rim was sacred.
Shot-blocking, Olajuwon explains, was never about jumping higher than everyone else. It was about seeing the play one step ahead — reading the pass before it happened, anticipating the next body in motion. When Durant cuts in, pointing to an invisible passing lane between them, Olajuwon smiles and nods. Defense wasn’t chaos; it was choreography.
What emerges in the conversation isn’t a breakdown of accolades or championships, but a portrait of how instincts are formed. How growing up in a different sport, in a different country, with different pressures, can create something entirely new. Olajuwon didn’t fall in love with basketball as a kid. He arrived late, raw, and defensive-minded.
And in that delay, in that resistance, he built one of the most singular careers the game has ever seen. Be sure to catch the full conversation here.
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