Dream: The Life and Legacy of Hakeem Olajuwon

Fader (senior staff writer, The Ringer; Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA Champion) offers another engaging portrayal of an NBA player: Hakeem Olajuwon, a Hall of Famer and former Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors center. Beginning with Olajuwon’s upbringing in Lagos, Nigeria, the book spotlights his story of personal and professional growth. The book portrays him in his youth as short-tempered and likely to get into fights, but it also shows how he matured into a man dedicated to his faith and devoted to being a positive influence on people around him and future players. This title documents the events surrounding Olajuwon’s initial experiments with basketball, his time in Houston, and his life as a trainer after an injury made him decide to retire from playing basketball in 2002. The book addresses the international and universal aspects of basketball, specifically when the book shows there was a desire from the professional league to foster talent in other countries, which came under contention because of an anti-immigrant sentiment in the States.