Hakeem Olajuwon has heard a lot about Donald Trump lately. How could he not? The NBA’s most famous Muslim player has been besieged with Trump’s message and the constant suggestion from the Republican presidential frontrunner that the US should ban Muslims from entering the country.
Naturally, Trump’s words frustrate him, and yet he will not worry about a possible Trump presidency. Not because of anything Trump might do, but because of the faith he has in the country of which he became a citizen 23 years ago on Saturday.
“One of the beautiful things about America is that everybody’s right is protected,” he told the Guardian in a phone interview Friday. “And in this situation, to be a leader or president, you are expected to be more respectful in what you say. The more you say can affect other communities and people.”
The Hall of Fame center chuckled when asked if he thought Trump as president would be devastating to American Muslims. “I don’t think so,” he said before adding that he doesn’t believe the kind of exclusion Trump discusses “is an American value.”
“That’s why we have a democratic government where you just can’t do what you want – so you have to go through the process,” he said.
Olajuwon was talking from Houston, because the Final Four is there this weekend – in the city where he first starred as a center at the University of Houston, helping the Cougars to three straight Final Fours, and then for the Houston Rockets, winning two NBA titles.
He is working this week with Allstate, as part of the Allstate NABC Good Works Team, helping to coach a group of basketball players from the Special Olympics. It’s a role he seems to enjoy and one he compared to his current standing as a confident to other Muslim athletes.
“Any opportunity to encourage in the community is good,” he said.
Olajuwon has talked a lot over the years about being a Muslim athlete, and has occasionally addressed Trump’s comments about Muslims in recent months. In January he told the Houston Chronicle he was amazed “to see how many people came out to disregard that kind of stand, even internationally.” On Friday he said “there is a lot more work to be done” by Muslim athletes in combating “misunderstandings” and “misconceptions” about their faith.
He added that it was important for Muslim athletes to “be strong” in describing their religion, and to not apologize for things that are out of their control or did not do. Without being specific, it seemed he was talking about recent terror attacks that have fueled Trump’s campaign rhetoric.
“That’s a challenge every community goes through to establish itself,” he said.
Six months ago, Olajuwon moved his family from Houston to the West Midlands in the UK, where they will remain for the next three years while his daughter attends college in Birmingham. He continues to have a home in Houston, and works on occasion with the Rockets forwards and centers, but mostly his life is in England now where he is still finding his way around.
“I just learned to drive on the right-hand side,” he said, laughing.
He has taken part in a handful of NBA ventures in London and has also visited community basketball programs near his home, talking to the coaches and players. He has found significant interest in the NBA in his neighborhood, and this seems to have surprised him a bit – but he added that sports like soccer and cricket still dominate so much that basketball has a long way to go to become a significant sport in the UK.
He said he hopes to work with young players in the area, preferably at summer camps.
“I see they have good, well-organized organizations. Basketball in the UK is a very strong in the grassroots,” he said. “It’s growing very fast.”
For the next few days, though, he is in Houston, where he is still revered, and where memories of his University of Houston teams – nicknamed Phi Slama Jama – linger. He sat for interviews for a 30 for 30 on those Houston teams, soon to debut on ESPN, and he laughs how every year about this time the story of his 1982-83 team that lost the championship to North Carolina State, in one of college basketball’s greatest upsets, gets told again.
He said the pain of that loss might have lingered a lot longer had he not eventually won the two NBA titles with the Rockets. Those, he added, were “bigger trophies.”
“The thing is, if we had won that championship [in 1983] the game wouldn’t be as remembered as it is now,” he said. “So it’s great to get that extra exposure.”
