Video: Hakeem Olajuwon teaches Dwight Howard
This is a pretty fantastic clip, and if it doesn't make you want to strap on a pair of shoes and sleeveless shirts and get down to the Y, then there's something wrong with you.
Here is a video of Hakeem Olajuwon teaching Dwight Howard(notes) on the fundamentals of pivot play.
If there's anything to take away from this video, it's the little things. Jump hooks in the paint with your strong hand? That's grade-school stuff. But it's the quickness, the absence of wasted effort and time, this is what makes these moves dominant. I won't bore you with the details (like, say, not always releasing your shot at the apex of your jump so as to not play into a shot-blocker's strengths), but they're there. So many details.
It's why certain race cars are so much faster than the street-car platforms they were built upon, despite less powerful engines and just a few hundred pounds difference in weight. It's precision, and attention to detail that sets them apart. And Hakeem is trying to turn Dwight into that sort of precision-based monster.
Beyond that, it's funny. Dwight comparing Hakeem to a character from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," and all that. Such a great watch.
(HT: Magic Basketball.)
