Hakeem Olajuwom, Nigerian Who Makes Highest Fortune In Sports: Earns $99m In 18-year Career, $100m In Real Estate On Retirement

By Seyi Gesinde
Hakeem Olajuwon

Hakeem Olajuwon and Rashidi Yekini are two Nigerian players who have made Nigeria proud. While Hakeem all through his stay as a player at the United States’ National Basketball Association (NBA) made a mark as the best among the Yankees, Rashidi also as a football star both within and outside the country scored great feats and still stands out as Nigeria’s greatest goal scorer. SEYI GESINDE reports on what makes these great Nigerian stars different.

The former United States’ National Basketball Association (NBA) star, Hakeem Olajuwon, stands out as a Nigerian who made the highest fortune in sports.

In his 18-year NBA career, Olajuwon made over a whooping $99,000,000 in salary alone. He became more renown when he played center for the Houston Rockets, whom he led to back-to-back championships in 1994.

But earlier in 1993, he had become a naturalised American citizen and this enabled him to be a part of the Dream Team Three, the famous United States (US) men's basketball team in 1996 Atlanta Olympics and they won the gold medal in basketball at the Summer Olympics.

Hakeem, one of the living NBA's greatest of all-time, has a record of elevating his play in crucial games and this saw him to being named twice named NBA Finals Most Valuable Professional (MVP), excelling in playoff matchups against the best centers of his era.

In 1994/95 season during the back-to-back championship playoff run, Olajuwon led the Rockets to victory against teams which featured Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, and Shaquille O'Neal.

In 2001, he was sold to the Toronto Raptors for draft picks where he played his final NBA season, averaging career lows of 7.1 points and 6.0 rebounds per game before finally retired from the game as an all–time league leader in total blocked shots with 3,830.

Before his retirement, Hakeem played for 20 consecutive seasons in the Houston area, first collegiately for the Houston Cougars and then the Rockets. While Hakeem still keeps a home in Houston, he is considered an icon and one of Houston's most beloved athletes. Hakeem’s record of success in the Houston real estate market is tremendous and has an estimated profit of $100 million, even just as he makes cash on delivery purchases. This he prefers because as a Muslim, he observes the Islamic law which is against paying of interest.

Now, Hakeem spends most of his time in Jordan with his family to concentrate on Islamic studies, but still goes to US and western nations to keep in touch with friends and former teammates like Sam Cassell, Clyde Drexle and Robert Horry.

It is now on record that Hakeem is the only player in NBA history to win two NBA’s prestigious awards of Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season, thereby becoming the first foreign-born, most especially Nigerian player to win the NBA’s MVP award, and that year, he was the only Rockets All–Star player.

Another stunt he left in the NBA to really prove to colleagues that he was a great offensive and defensive player was his strange style of perfecting a set of fakes and spin moves that became known as his trademark, giving him the name, Dream Shake.

He did that as a player with such unhindered speed and power, that another top NBA sensation, Shaquille O'Neal, once said of him that “Hakeem has five moves then four countermoves, that gives him 20 moves.”

This stunt paved so many ways for Hakeem to make a lot of baskets as he was such an unguardable offensive player, even for most of those considered “big men,” NBA stars, they were either too slow or too fast and guards too weak to stop him.

Hakeem himself commenting on this feat traced it back to his soccer playing days before taking interest in basketball. He said “The Dream Shake was actually one of my soccer moves which I translated to basketball. It would accomplish one of three things: one, to misdirect the opponent and make him go the opposite way; two, to freeze the opponent and leave him devastated in his tracks; three, to shake off the opponent and give him no chance to contest the shot.”

Born into the Muslim family of Salim and Abike Olajuwon, both Yoruba settler in Lagos State, Hakeem is the third of his parents’ six children. He had since credited his parents for instilling virtues of hard work and discipline into him and his siblings. He said, “They taught us to be honest, work hard, respect our elders, believe in ourselves.”

Earlier in his youthful days, Hakeem was a soccer goalkeeper and handball player, and these he said helped him in the footwork and agility to balance his size and strength in basketball which he did not play until age 15.

"Basketball is something that is so unique. That immediately I pick up the game and, you know, realise that this is the sport for me. All the other sports just become secondary,” Hakeem said.

Rashidi Yekini, Nigeria’s Topmost Scorer Of All-time: First Nigerian To Be African Foofballer Of The Year

By Seyi Gesinde

Rashidi Yekini Behind:
Jubilating after scoring
the historical World Cup
first goal at USA ‘94The man, Rashidi Yekini, Nigeria’s top goal scorer, will forever maintain the status of an unforgettable hero as long as issues relating to Nigerian football history is being discussed.

Apart from his excellent football career, what still stands him out is that he is the man who scored Nigeria’s first goal at the country’s first appearance at the World Cup tournament - the USA ‘94, to record a 3-0 win against Bulgaria.

Rashidi, born October 23, 1963 in Kaduna State, is the most popular Nigeria’s striker up till date. Beside this, his outstanding performance on the pitch earned him the title of African Footballer of the Year in the year 1993, also becoming the first Nigerian player to be so honoured.

Another first to his credit is that, in 1994, he helped Nigeria’s team - the Super Eagles, to win the 1994 African Nations Cup, and at the end of the tournament, he topped the goal charts, winning the Highest Goal Scorer award. He was also in the country’s team in Seoul Olympic in 1988.

Now retired, but during his heydays on the pitch, Yekini, who had a successful career playing in Nigerian local league, later left the country for a more professional career in Cote d’Ivoire to play for Africa Sports National.

It was from there he left for Portugal and Vitoria de Setubal, where in the 1993/94 football season, he rose to become the Portuguese First Division’s top scorer. It was this his outstanding performance in Portugal that fetched him the title of the African Footballer of the Year in 1993.

This feat made him to be more marketable, coupled with his enviable record at the 1994 World Cup, he was bought by Olympiacos FC, but he later left the team for Setubal.

He later had a stint with FC Zurich, Club Athletique Bizertin and Al-Shabab in Saudi Arabia, before returning home in 2003 at 39 to join Nigeria’s local league and played for Julius Berger FC in Lagos State and later Gateway FC of Ogun State in 2005 at 41.

In all, he scored 37 goals for Nigeria’s national side, in 70 appearances, he retired as the national record goalscorer.