Hakeem Olajuwon was a soccer and handball player during much of his youth growing up in Lagos, Nigeria.
It wasn’t until age 15 that he would begin playing basketball, soon finding himself headed stateside to play for the University of Houston.
After three straight Final Four appearances at the helm of Phi Slama Jama, the seven-footer declared for the 1984 NBA Draft, where the Houston Rockets would select him with the No. 1 overall pick.
It wasn’t only the Rockets that saw “The Dream” as the best player in the draft either, with Chicago Bulls general manager Rod Thorn later saying in “The Last Dance” docuseries: “Olajuwon would have been first by anybody who picked, including me.”
Two picks later, the Bulls would draft Michael Jordan.
The jersey Olajuwon held up on draft day in 1984 after his name was announced is now at auction at Heritage, photo-matched to an image of him holding up the No. 34 jersey and signed by Olajuwon.
With more than two weeks remaining at auction, the current bid is $8,845, including buyer’s premium. Heritage has placed a pre-sale estimate of $20,000 and up on the lot.
The jersey sold at a Basketball Hall of Fame Auction in 2008 — the same year Olajuwon was inducted — for $4,800. It sold again at Heritage in 2021 for $20,400.
Few significant photo-matched Olajuwon jerseys have sold at public auction over the years, with one of, if not the, most expensive being a 1987-88 gamer which fetched $31,200 at Heritage in 2023.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.