Hakeem Olajuwon is a name that belongs to NBA royalty. Olajuwon is a 2x NBA Champion, 2x Finals MVP, 2x Defensive Player of the Year, and the 1993–94 NBA MVP.
“The Dream” as Olajuwon was known, had a unique style to his game. First, Olajuwon had his signature move known as the “Dream Shake” where he’d take you on the block, perform a few shoulder fakes, spin away from the defender, and hit a fadeaway jump shot.
On top of the “Dream Shake,” there was a short time when Olajuwon was known for wearing goggles. He didn’t wear them long, as he didn’t like them, but he did for a few stretches of the 1990-91 season.
In fact, Olajuwon initially wore the goggles and quickly decided against wearing them. Shortly after discarding them, Olajuwon would realize maybe he should have kept them on.
The Reason Hakeem Olajuwon Wore Goggles During The 1990-91 Season
Hakeem Olajuwon never played a game while wearing goggles in his NBA career. Then, on December 26, 1990, in a game against the Orlando Magic, Olajuwon decided to wear goggles because of how physical the game was played in the post.
Other NBA star centers like Moses Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wore goggles, so Olajuwon figured this might help him, and he wore them against Orlando in 1990… for one quarter. Yes, Olajuwon kept the goggles on for just one quarter as he said, “They didn’t feel right.”
What happened to Olajuwon just about a week later, on January 3, 1991, against the Chicago Bulls, might have made him regret his decision of not wearing the goggles. In the game against Chicago, Bulls’ center Bill Cartwright caught Olajuwon with an elbow, fracturing his right eye socket and causing a swollen right eye.
Olajuwon would have surgery on his eye and would miss 25 games. Once he returned, Olajuwon wore the goggles for the remainder of the season. For the season, Olajuwon played 29 games without the goggles and averaged 24.2 PPG.
Olajuwon wore the goggles in 27 games and averaged 18.0 PPG. So, if you go by the numbers, Olajuwon was a better player without the goggles. This could be why, other than a few games during the 1991-92 season, Olajuwon never wore the goggles again.
As mentioned earlier, Olajuwon won two NBA championships, and in both title runs, the goggles were clearly missing from his attire. Still, if he had the goggles on for that January 3, 1991 matchup against the Bulls, maybe Olajuwon would not have needed surgery and missed 25 games during the 1990-91 season.
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