On May 4th in sports history, one significant event took place in 1975 when the Houston Rockets won the coin flip for the first pick in the NBA Draft, which allowed them to select future Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon from the University of Houston.
The 1984 NBA Draft was highly anticipated, with a talented pool of college players ready to make their mark in the professional league. The Houston Rockets and the Portland Trail Blazers were the two teams vying for the first overall pick, as both had finished with identical 29-53 records in the previous season.
In those days, the NBA used a coin flip to determine which team would get the first pick in the draft when two or more teams finished with the same record. The coin flip between the Rockets and the Trail Blazers was held on May 4th, 1984, and the Rockets won, giving them the right to draft first.
The Rockets selected Hakeem Olajuwon, a 7-foot center from the University of Houston. Olajuwon, born in Nigeria, had been a dominant force in college basketball, known for his incredible footwork, athleticism, and shot-blocking ability. The Trail Blazers, with the second pick, chose Sam Bowie, a center from the University of Kentucky.
Olajuwon went on to have a spectacular NBA career, playing 17 seasons with the Rockets and Toronto Raptors. He led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995, earning the Finals MVP award in both series. Olajuwon was a 12-time NBA All-Star, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, and the 1994 NBA MVP. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.
The coin flip and the Rockets' subsequent selection of Hakeem Olajuwon on May 4th, 1984, proved to be a pivotal moment in the franchise's history and the NBA as a whole, as it gave the Rockets one of the greatest players of all time and forever changed the course of the team's future.
