Chapter 962: Chapter 15 A New World_3
After returning to America, I went to California to stay with my daughter.
Every morning, my grandmother would make me breakfast, and I would get up to pray, then go exercise.
That summer, I worked very hard, hiring a coach named Charles to help me train.
Every morning Charles would pick me up, and we would run together on the beach.
I don’t like running on the beach; it’s tough for me, but it’s worth it to build endurance.
I would have a light lunch, and in the afternoon, I would do strength training.
In the evening, Charles and I would go to a local high school to play basketball, honing my technical skills.
Charles also took me to Gold’s Gym, telling me it’s the Mecca of strength trainers.
When I walked into Gold’s Gym, I completely understood what he meant; the people here are like beasts, huge beasts, even the women.
Everyone is muscular, and at 7 feet tall, I even looked thin, some women seemed more robust than I was.
"This is the place for fanatics; if you’re not serious enough, you shouldn’t even step in here."
In 1981, when I arrived at the University of Houston, they took me to the weight room on my first day, and I couldn’t even lift a standard barbell.
Strength was never my strong suit. I thought of the years of contest with Ah Gan, always at a disadvantage in strength; that guy’s a monster.
When chatting with the gym beasts about Ah Gan, they all remarked that the guy is a king of strength, conquering many gyms.
So, it was not until this summer that I truly began to take strength training seriously, diving into the tedious barbell exercises.
After three days, I really started to like it; I realized these workouts brought immediate benefits.
I found my body becoming more flexible, and after persisting for a while, my body was recovering faster, performing many technical moves more smoothly, my knees, joints, under the protection of strong muscles, became healthier and more powerful.
Besides strength training, Charles arranged some high school students to be my sparring partners, and I began to refine my footwork under the basket.
In the past, I never seriously refined my footwork; at the University of Houston, each summer, I focused on games, doing whatever came to mind during them.
I never stood aside to seriously observe everything I did, what was effective, what was not, what was more efficient, what was merely window dressing.
This is very different.
Charles would play music at the sideline, filling the training court with rhythm.
I began to study moves with videos, honing every detail, especially watching tapes of my games against Ah Gan.
I started pretending to go right, pretending to go left, spinning to the baseline, then moving out, and going back, repeatedly deceiving defenders.
My body began to have a rhythm, like dancing to music, I felt I was dancing on the court.
Slowly, I felt myself reaching peak condition.
In the past, I relied on my hook shot, I liked to quickly move, spin, and finish with a swift hook shot upon receiving the ball.
It worked well but was somewhat singular; I began to temper my shooting, practicing various shots under defensive pressure.
I started to think like a guard, realizing this while watching Ah Gan’s game tapes; he never saw himself as a center.
Position can limit and shackle your thoughts; actually, when you step onto the court, no one dictates how a center should play, how a guard should.
You can do everything you can do.
I carefully honed my footwork, some details went unnoticed yet were extremely important.
For example, I worked to make my inside foot, the one closer to the basket, land the instant I receive the ball, so when jumping for a shot, I’d already have my posture set, shoulders facing the hoop.
The sequence of footwork was very important here, first the inside foot, then the outside foot, jumping after adjusting.
If you choose both feet to land, and your shoulders don’t rotate and follow, you’d lose balance, and your jump height would be affected.
You must adjust well, jump higher, more upright, having more time to aim for the hoop.
After a summer of honing, my jump shot height increased, my shooting release became softer, I could even pause mid-air.
This pause moment gave me room for error; if I realized this shot choice wasn’t good, I could make another choice.
I could pass the ball back out, I could see the shooters on the perimeter and redistribute it to them, completing the offense anew.
Such a change excited me; I knew I found a new way to control the game, and I also understood why the gap between Ah Gan and me was widening.
Every summer, he was perfecting his details like I did this summer, and I awoke too late.
I needed a new start, new skills, a new team, a new city.
At that time, my agent was Leonard Amato from Los Angeles, and one day he brought a new client to this high school gym to train with me.
The guy had just graduated from Louisiana State University, his name was Shaquille O’Neal.
When Shaq met me on the court, I knew what he was thinking; he wanted to beat me.
At that time, I was enjoying strength training and improving my moves’ details, I wanted to test the results.
So, I invited Shaq to train with me.
Regarding Shaq, the first thing I noticed was, he was much bigger than me.
I’m 6 feet 11 inches tall, weighing about 250 pounds, while he’s 7 feet 1, weighing about 300 pounds, and still growing!
He’s a perfect giant, once he gets into the paint, nobody can stop him.
We practiced inside moves together, engaging in offensive and defensive training.
I received the ball with my back to the hoop, faked right, really quick, he fell for it.
I immediately spun left, took a jump shot, hit it.
At that moment, he was helpless, the fake move was too fast for him.
But the next time we faced off, he didn’t fall for it when I used the same move again.
He learned very fast, guarding well, ready to block me.
But I still used my footwork to dodge him, in a narrow space, scoring with a hook shot.
All in all, it was a wonderful morning, we trained together for two hours, which was very helpful for me.
Shaq worked hard, and I worked hard too.
I liked playing ball with him, he’s a cool guy.
I told him I really liked his nickname: Shark.
It’s a very perfect nickname, matching his name, characteristics perfectly.
He looked a bit shy, saying he liked my nickname "The Dream" too.
We talked a lot; I knew he was about to enter the league, he’d surely cause a stir.
He asked me many questions about the NBA, especially about centers, how to handle each opponent, who was the toughest.
I analyzed the most difficult centers in the League for him, finally telling him: be careful of Ah Gan, he’s more dangerous than the Shark.
Shaq had probably heard similar things before, so he wasn’t very concerned, curiously asking: "Is Ah Gan really that good?"
I told him seriously, "He’s tougher than any center you’ve faced, and he’s a devil; be prepared to contend with him long-term."
At that time, I was embarrassed to tell him, because of being in the Western Conference for a long time, I was shaken, I wanted to leave.
In Los Angeles, I was very comfortable, sunlight, beaches, places to play ball everywhere, gyms, basketball courts, everywhere.
Perhaps I should go to the Clippers, but meanwhile, many other teams extended olive branches—including the Miami Heat.
There, too, were sun and beaches, and my former teammate, my good brother, Clyde Drexler.
Since knowing about my conflict with Houston, he had been calling, hoping I’d go to the South Coast, and I was hesitating.
Until a call came, Steve Patterson told me: "You’ll be sent to Miami, Riley offered a good deal, sorry Hakeem, we have to say goodbye."
At that moment, I was silent for a long time, somewhat regretful, was I really leaving Houston? I’d been here for 10 years, was I really leaving?
But soon I knew, I was about to welcome a new world.]
– Excerpt from the 1996 autobiography "Living The Dream" by Hakeem Olajuwon.
