Sixers big man Joel Embiid is a name that most hoops fans are becoming increasingly familiar with. In just a short time, the Yaoundé, Cameroon native has established himself as one of the more dominant bigs in the league. However, there was a time when he “sucked,” to use his own words. How did he improve his game, you ask? Hours and hours of Rockets legend Hakeem Olajuwon footage — three years worth, to be exact.
“I had this DVD that my coach in Cameroon had mailed to me when I first came to America,” Joel Embiid wrote in his recent piece for The Players' Tribune. “It was an hour-long tape of Hakeem Olajuwon and some other legendary big men. I probably watched that DVD every single day for three years. I would study the way Hakeem moved, and I would go out and try to imitate him.
“I did it in high school, and I did it at Kansas,” Embiid added.
“I was basically just imagining that I was a good basketball player,” Embiid wrote. “The power of the mind is kind of amazing. I mean, I sucked. But somehow, I convinced myself that I was Hakeem. And I started getting better and better. And then I sort of started killing it.”
Joel Embiid is indeed “killing it” as a pro. All of those long hours of studying Hakeem — one of the greatest big men the NBA has ever known — seems to have paid off in a big way.
In his 63 appearances with the Sixers during their 2017-18 regular season campaign, Embiid racked up averages of 22.9 points on 48.3 percent shooting from the field (30.8 percent from beyond the arc), 11.0 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 1.8 blocks in 30.3 minutes per outing.
Embiid's idea of studying film of one of the best bigs ever has appeared to work, and the Sixers have themselves a good one.
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