Olajuwon on NBA accolade bearing his name: 'Great basketball teams are defined by their ability to defend'

The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) accolade for the regular season’s best defensive player has been named after arguably the greatest Houston Rockets player ever, Houston-based media outlets reported. 

The NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award is now known as the Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy. 

Olajuwon, whom the Rockets drafted No. 1 overall in 1984, won the award himself twice.

The 7-foot former center called it an honor to celebrate the NBA’s best defensive player annually, a Rockets-issued press release obtained by Houston NBC affiliate KPRC said. 

“Great basketball teams are defined by their ability to defend, with every great team connected by an elite defensive anchor,” Olajuwon said in the release. 

Much of Olajuwon’s uncanny defense was witnessed when he donned the familiar red and gold from 1984 to 2001 as he swatted a record 3,830 shots and logged 2,162 steals, per the Rockets’ Twitter account.

One of those blocks came in the waning seconds of Game 6 of the 1994 NBA Finals when Olajuwon – with just his finger – deflected what could’ve been a championship-clinching three-pointer for the New York Knicks’ John Starks, paving the way for Houston’s eventual triumph in Game 7. 

Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported that No. 34 was a five-time selection to the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team.

KHOU reported that Olajuwon and another ex-Rockets big man, Dikembe Mutombo, occupy the top two spots on the all-time blocks list. 

Aside from leading the Rockets to the top of the NBA in the mid-1990s, Olajuwon was the 1994 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), a 12-time All-Star and a gold medal winner with Team USA Basketball at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. 

The University of Houston (UH) product entered the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008, the release said.