You should pick up Mirin Fader’s newest book Dream: The Life and Legacy of Happen Olajuwon. It’s so good!

Earlier this year when I read Charlie Hustle: The Rise And Fall of Pete Rose, And The Last Glory Days Of Baseball, I was thinking “This is good, but it would be even better if Pete Rose wasn’t a giant garbage bag of a person.” I’m so thankful for this book.

Fader does an incredible job in telling the story of Hakeem from when he was a young man growing up in Nigeria to his years in Houston. Maybe the most remarkable part of all of this is that Fader didn’t have access to Olajuwon himself. He does not give interviews for books or stories about himself due in part to his religious beliefs on pride and ego. All of this information came from more than 250 interviews with friends and colleagues throughout his life.

Plus, “Dream” is one of the coolest nicknames in the history of sports.

Thank you Netgalley and Hachette for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I love stories about amazing athletes who didn’t start playing their sport until their late teens.

One of the most remarkable things about Hakeem’s story is that he didn’t even start playing basketball in Nigeria until he was a teenager. He was a handball player as a kid and had to be talked into playing basketball.

Stories about athletes like Hakeem are even more impressive because he wasn’t playing the sport from the age of three. Imagine how good he would’ve been had he played as a child.

Hakeem’s transformation from out-of-control, young man to calm, mature adult is inspiring.

As a young player in the NBA, Hakeem was out of control. He was regularly fighting opponents during games and fighting his teammates in practice. Then, he rededicated his life to Islam, and his attitude and perspective changed completely.

Hakeem began to play under more control, rarely getting in trouble on or off the court. His purchases of clothing and cars were far less ostentatious. He was a new man.

As he guided the Houston Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships, Hakeem dominated players like Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, and Shaquille O’Neal.

I wish I could’ve seen him in his prime.

I was too young in the late ’80s and early ’90s to have seen Hakeem Olajuwon at his prime. Plus, my parents were not NBA parents. Growing up in North Carolina, we watched college basketball when I was young almost exclusively. So, I missed his peak when he was the most dominant.

Since reading this book, I have gone back to watch highlights of Hakeem, and for how dominant he was at that time, part of me thinks that he also was way ahead of his time. If he’s playing in the late ’90s to early 2000s, his game would have fit in even better at that time.

He was just such an incredible athlete and basketball player.

A tremendous and incisive portrayal of one of NBA basketball's most acclaimed and remarkable but perhaps least understood legends. Fader again shows off her excellence in longform sportswriting.

I remember watching the great Hakeem Olajuwon throughout his career. I always wondered how he immigrated from Nigeria to the University of Houston. Who taught him the Dream Shake? When and why did he become Muslim as an adult? Thousands of young men try to make the NBA yearly, and the odds are stacked against them. How did this African youth become one of the greatest NBA players ever? I found some answers in Mirin Fader’s new biography, Dream: The Life & Legacy of Hakeem Olajuwon.

Mirin Fader interviewed over 260 people to bring Hakeem Olajuwon’s life to us. We meet a young Hakeem in Nigeria and follow his journey to the United States, his development, and his return to his Muslim faith. I was surprised to learn of Hakeem’s temperament early in his career and his realization he needed to change. The Hakeem that emerges is the Hakeem we remember. Learning how Islam changed Hakeem’s approach to everything in his life was a powerful revelation. I loved that the author focused on Hakeem as a person and how he evolved, not just his on-court accomplishments.

I attended Mirin Fader’s book reading event in NYC and asked her who her favorite people were to interview for the book. Great players such as Michael Cooper (Lakers) shared that they hated guarding Hakeem, while his friend and advisor, Henri de Ybarrondo, provided a personal perspective about Olajuwon.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about Hakeem Olajuwon outside of his hall-of-fame career and about the influence of his Muslim faith on fellow Africans and others of the faith.

Mirin Fader is also the author of the recent Giannis biography, which I also loved. She has become one of my favorite sports writers.

Dream is a marvelous biography that gives readers the factors that impacted the man we know as Hakeem Olajuwon. Readers will learn about Hakeem as a man and how he grew into the person he is today. I give this book 4.5 stars out of 5 because I learned much more about Hakeem, the man, and how his faith shaped who he became on and off the court.

I can't rate this book fairly since I can't read it without the kindle file so giving it five . My fault for not reading the fine print more but usually kindle is offered for non graphic novels on here. Will likely request from my library to read when book is released since it looks incredibly interesting and is about an nba player worthy of a book. Thanks!

A phenomenal read which focuses on what shaped Hakeem the man more than Hakeem the basketball player.

I watched Hakeem play when I was growing up, but he was not a heavily marketed player by either the NBA nor advertisers. In addition, other when Houston was in the playoffs, he was not frequently on TV. As a result, it's rather disappointing that thinking back on my childhood, I sort of took his fabulous basketball career for granted.

Mirin Fader interviewed 266 people from Hakeem's life - from his youth in Nigeria to business partners. This book is even more impressive because for faith reasons, Hakeem declined to be interviewed, and Mirin is just in her early 30's. I can't speak for her, but I presume if she even watched him play, it was at the very tail end of his career as a shell of himself with the Raptors. I presume she had to watch a lot of YouTube and converted VHS videos.

While Hakeem's career is covered, thankfully not game-by-game, the overall arc is his dedication to improving his game, his Muslim faith, and pride in being Nigerian. Hakeem's faith is not a hackneyed "I'd like to thank God" postgame news conference. It guides him in every aspect of his life from basketball to charitable giving. While this may be off-putting to some potential readers who might not want to read about religion, Hakeem's life story really could not be covered without his devout beliefs. I love Fader's approach rather than a book focused on his on-court exploits.

With her longform journalism for the Ringer and other outlers, her Giannis biography, and now Olajuwon biography, Fader has cemented herself as one of the best, if not maybe the best, young sports journalists in America.

I would recommend this book to anyone who watched Hakeem play. For librarians or others who either have influence in library purchases who might come across my review - this would be a perfect purchase if your area has even a small population of residents of African or Muslim descent.

5 stars.

Hakeem Olajuwon makes for an interesting biographical subject. He has a clear basketball arc - from talented youngster to fiery competitor to quiet basketball statesman. He also reached some astonishing statistical feats in the NBA. It is a shame that the Rockets and Bulls never met in the finals during Olajuwon's career. Like her book about Giannis, Fader takes the reader on a season-by-season look. Because she didn't have direct access to Olajuwon, the book isn't able to penetrate the subject fully, but it examines the details of his life and why he isn't in the NBA limelight like some of his fellow superstars.

Dream is a fantastic biography of one of the most influential basketball players in history Hakeem Olajuwon and his impact on the world of sports and beyond.

Exceptionally well-researched. Interviewed unconventional subjects (like fans and fellow mosque-goers) to get a well-rounded perspective of Hakeem’s impact. It was also just a lot of fun to read — which doesn’t always happen in nonfiction. Lazenby-level biography here.

I was a massive NBA fan in the mid-nineties After seeing the Houston Rockets beat the Knicks in the 1994 NBA Finals they became my favorite team, and Hakeem Olajuwon was my favorite player. So, for me, this was a fun "throwback" read to those days. There were parts of Hakeem's story I remembered, but also there were some pieces I didn't know, especially as a kid. I also liked learning about his life after basketball. The incredible depth of research and interviews done to build this tale are quite evident, and it was a great comprehensive and fascinating portrait of a basketball legend. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early look at this October 2024 release.

Great book for anyone who is a fan of the NBA and Hakeem Olajuwon. It tells the story of his life growing up in Nigeria, and his time in the NBA. It was a very interesting and informative read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of the book.

In the 1984 NBA draft, Hakeem Olajuwaon was the first player selected, making him the first African native to be the first overall draft selection. How he became a legendary basketball player when his first sports love in his native Nigeria was team handball is a fascinating story, and author Mirin Fader tells about Hakeem’s life and basketball career in the excellent book.

As was the case with her book on another NBA superstar, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Fader writes with equal amounts of information of intrigue on both Olajuwon's basketball career and his personal life. The latter includes not only his upbringing in Nigeria but also how his Islam faith is very important to him as well as treating others with respect and his demeanor off the court, which is very different than on it.

Fader’s work on Olajuwon’s basketball career is also excellent in its completeness and detail. She describes his inner test in basketball gaining traction and from encouragement from coaches, he starts playing in leagues in Nigeria. It is in these games where he started learning the basics and his exceptional athleticism gained in handball helped excel in this sport as well. He eventually lands a scholarship from the University of Houston where he was part of the exciting “Phi Slamma Jamma” teams. Then he stays in Houston with the Rockets and cements his place in the all-time greats by leading the Rockets to consecutive NBA championships in 1994 and 1995.

It should be noted that the research and interviews by Fader are key to the outstanding writing she does because of the insight the subjects gave. This goes all the way from his Nigerian coaches to current NBA players to who Hakeem has provided workouts and tips, something he has done since ending his career with Toronto Raptors in 2002. Another nice touch by Fader is her writing about stories that may or may not be true, such as how he eventually decided to attend the University of Houston and how the spelling of his first name was eventually corrected in the press from “Akeem” to “Hakeem”.

Whether the topic is basketball, African culture or Islam, the reader will learn much in this book on how important they were in the life of one of the greatest centers in the history of the game.

I wish to thank the publisher for providing a review copy of the book via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

Dream is a fascinating read into the life of Hakeem Olajuwon. This book provided some awesome stories and details surrounding the legacy of Hakeem, starting with his childhood growing up in Lagos, Nigeria to his trek to the United States to play college basketball at the University of Houston, all the way the his dominate NBA career with the Houston Rockets and briefly with the Toronto Raptors at the tail end of his professional days.
 
Mirin Fader did an excellent job of using interviews and firsthand accounts to some of the most interesting stories surrounding Hakeem’s life.  I also enjoyed how she made sure to touch on the how his faith has shaped his choices around his career and life path.   This book was a nice easy read that I found getting myself getting pulled back into after trying to put it down.  It moved very quickly, in a good way. 
 
Special thanks to Hachette Books and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest and fair opinion.  I would highly recommend this book to any basketball and sports fans

I enjoyed the parts of his basketball days (in Lagos, Nigeria and Houston; both for college and the NBA), but I skipped some parts about his religious beliefs as I just wasn’t interested in that aspect.

Overall, I am glad I read it as now I have a better understanding of his basketball IQ and where his influences came from. It’s also awesome to see him now helping some of the younger NBA stars as well as players from overseas. Dude, he helped Kobe and LeBron.

I knew of Hakeem really from his NBA playing days at Houston, but I never realized how dominate he was until he took on the San Antonio Spurs in the 1995 Western Conference Finals and completely shut down the Spurs center, the one and only, David Robinson. I was a Spurs fan and was mesmerized at how easily Hakeem made him look so bad! Hakeem’s brother, Taju, played for the University of Texas at San Antonio.