NBA renames annual Defensive Player of Year award after Hakeem Olajuwon

The NBA announced on Monday that its annual Defensive Player of the Year award has been renamed The Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy in honor of the Hall of Famer and former Houston Rockets center.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to celebrate the league’s best defensive player each year,” Olajuwon said. “Great basketball teams are defined by their ability to defend, with every great team connected by an elite defensive anchor.”

Olajuwon was a back-to-back winner of the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award in 1992-93 and 1993-94 and was named to the All-Defensive first team five times and second team four times. He is the NBA’s all-time leader in blocks (3,830) while ranking No. 9 in steals (2,162) and No. 14 in rebounding (13,748).

Steals and blocks became official NBA statistics in 1973-74, and Olajuwon is the only player who is in the top 10 of both categories. He has 774 more steals than any other center and 541 more blocks than the second-ranked player, Dikembe Mutombo. He would still be the all-time leader in blocks if he never played his final five seasons.

Only five players in NBA history have recorded more than 3,000 career blocks, and no current player has reached 1,800.

Over his first 12 NBA seasons, Olajuwon averaged 12.2 rebounds, 3.5 blocks and 1.9 steals. He averaged at least 10 rebounds and 2 blocks in each of those 12 seasons, tying Shaquille O’Neal for the most seasons recording those numbers in NBA history.

Olajuwon is also the NBA’s all-time playoff leader in blocks per game (3.26) and is the only player in postseason history with at least 300 blocks and 200 steals.

The University of Houston product was named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history in 1996 and to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.  He was enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and had his No. 34 retired in Houston on Nov. 9, 2002.