Hakeem Olajuwon represents the United States of America in the 1996 Olympic Games from Atlanta. On a star-studded team featuring Shaquille O’Neal, Gary Payton and Reggie Miller, Hakeem leads his adopted homeland to the Gold Medal.
Entering the 1996-97 season, the Rockets swing for the fences by making one of the biggest trades in franchise history. They would send a package that included Robert Horry and Sam Cassell, two of the central players on Houston’s Championship teams, to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for an ageing Charles Barkley.
As the 1990’s comes to an end the team gradually lose the players that surrounded the Dream and helped the City achieve back to back Titles. Clyde Drexler retires and Charles Barkley recruits Scottie Pippen to come to Houston to try and capture a Championship in the final years of his career.
Following a spectacular 17 year run with the Rockets, Hakeem Olajuwon would leave the franchise to play his final season in Toronto with the Raptors. Following his retirement from basketball he resides in Houston and continues to work with the team and community to this day.
NOTE – I butchered the ending of this part a bit but have sorted in the longer version (it now just finished with Hakeem’s HOF speech and there’s no Africa game audio)
