Secret Base’s recent video showcased some of the teams that tried to acquire Hakeem Olajuwon in 1992. Should the Portland Trail Blazers have tried harder to get him?
On Secret Base’s most recent edition of Beef History, Clara Morris chronicled some of the little-known tensions between Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets. By virtue of back-to-back championships, much of that beef was swept under the rug. But the video highlighted how often the Rockets undervalued Olajuwon in contract negotiations, accused him of faking injuries, and pushed his buttons to the point that he requested a trade. Among those to throw out an offer? You guessed it: the Portland Trail Blazers.
If you weren’t careful, you might have missed it. But according to the Jul. 1, 1992 edition of Spokesman Review, the Trail Blazers threw out this offer: Kevin Duckworth, Jerome Kersey, and Alaa Abdelnaby for Olajuwon.
In 1992, flip phones were in style, right? This comes with all due respect to the Blazers — if I were Houston’s general manager at the time, the Portland Trail Blazers would have been recipients of the most aggressive flip phone flipping of 1992.
It wouldn’t be a leap of faith to say the Blazers had much to offer, and at the peak of their trade values following a trip to the NBA Finals. Olajuwon was due for a contract extension, and finally received a four-year, $30 million deal that put him on that Ewing-Robinson pedestal in March of 1993.
Some eight months later, the Portland Trail Blazers would be interlocked in a contract dispute with their own star, Clyde Drexler, which led to his threatening to demand a trade. So, perhaps that explains it.
Hindsight, by nature, always works with impeccable accuracy. The Blazers were likely under the impression that their title window remained open, after coming a few possessions shy of taking Michael Jordan’s Bulls to a Game 7.
But, if they knew what we would later know — Drexler’s abrupt decline, and much of the Blazers’ core hitting their ceiling — would they have added more to their trade package for a 30-year-old center with arguably the greatest season ever had by a center (‘94 Hakeem) just a few summers away?
The Hakeem Olajuwon situation, offensively at least, works out similarly to Charles Barkley’s trade request to Portland in 1992. Slower-paced teams neutralized Portland’s breakneck fast break attack, and forced them to play within the half-court more often. Having a player of Olajuwon’s caliber likely changes the course of everything. And that goes without mentioning what Olajuwon contributed defensively.
And as said, it’s much easier to be prescient about these sorts of “What If?” situations when we can analyze past, present, and future. But, it’s just pure offseason talk. Knowing what you know about 1992, would you have offered more for Hakeem Olajuwon?