Houston Rockets: Hakeem Olajuwon Quotes From Aspen Workouts

via Rockets.com

A week ago, Houston Rockets team player development specialist Hakeem Olajuwon worked with Dwight Howard and Jeremy Lin in Aspen, Colorado. He recently sat down for an interview with Houston’s FOX 26 to talk about his perspectives from the workouts, and spoke highly of Lin. Here are his quotes from the interview:

“In Aspen I worked with Jeremy Lin a little bit in the post and I was very impressed, he has a nice post move. I said ‘how come you are not using that in a game.’ He said ‘I played like that in college’ and Olajuwon pointed out to Lin ‘If you catch those little guys in the game that guard you, your advantage should be in the post.’ 

“I was told Jeremy’s very, very strong. If he’s stronger than a guy, take him in the post. The post is not just for big men.  The post is for anybody that can take advantage of their size. Take him down in the post.”

“It was fun(working with Lin). The first thing I told him when I saw him shooting, you hear from different people, a lot of them say he cannot shoot. So I went to him and I said ‘I thought you can’t shoot,’ because the way he was shooting, I was very impressed. He was working on his shot. He was shooting tough shots and was making them. So I went to him (and said) I thought you can’t shoot and he was laughing. He really has been working on his shot and I love his work ethic.”

Olajuwon on how Lin will fit in with Howard:

“Just the little offense I saw, that combination is very deadly and you can see that both of them are very excited seeing that ‘wow, we bring the right ingredients together’. When you see players that are dedicated to succeed it gives you that window to see what kind of season that we’re looking for.”

“Dwight can clearly dominate this league comfortably. He has everything that he needs and he has desire and work ethic to do it.”

On how his quotes about Howard being ‘raw’ over the summer was taken out of context:

“That was insulting: the guy’s been in the league for 10 years. Every time I work with him, I see him train, I’m more impressed to see how much talent and how far he can take it. So how can you say that kind of player is raw. I was very upset because that was insulting to me and to Dwight.”

On how coach Kevin McHale will help Howard:

“Getting the chance to work with him(McHale) now, I’m even more impressed because of his communication with the players and also tremendous respect that he’s been there. He’s a good teacher. He’s a good communicator. He’s a demanding guy who knows he can win and he’s a winner and that attitude carries over.”

Olajuwon also closed out the interview by saying that the Rockets are ‘legitimate contenders’.