Patience Pays Off for Rockets’ Olajuwon : Pro basketball: Two years after furor involving team owner, he becomes the first center since 1983 to be voted the league’s most valuable player.

Two years ago, when the Houston Rockets accused Hakeem Olajuwon of faking an injury and he called the owner of the team “a coward,” and the owner almost traded him, this day seemed a long way away.

Tuesday, the NBA chose Olajuwon as its most valuable player, making him the latest in the line of Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Olajuwon has a friendly new boss, owner Leslie Alexander, and contract extension that will put his annual salary in the $6-million range. He has a team in the Western Conference finals. He can barely remember two years back.

“Nobody can predict the future,” he said. “Wherever you are, you just try to do your best.

“Two years ago, when I was planning to play for another team--that summer I was working on my game, knowing that wherever I am, I really wanted to do my best.”

Finding himself, instead, still in Houston, Olajuwon made peace with owner Charlie Thomas and embarked upon a monster 1992-93 season, showing a serenity, not to mention a willingness to pass the ball, that had been missing. He became a devout Muslim.

Barkley beat him for the ’93 MVP award, 59 first-place votes to 22, but Olajuwon passed Jordan, who had 13.

If Barkley had been 1993’s sentimental favorite, Olajuwon became this season’s heir apparent, based on a largely ignored career in which he had averaged 23 points and 13 rebounds.

David Robinson’s surge made him a candidate--Sports Illustrated put Robinson on its cover with the headline: “Mr. MVP”--but Olajuwon’s season and the Rockets’ first-place finish won out.

Olajuwon averaged 27 points, third in the league; 12 rebounds, fourth; 3.7 blocks, second, and had a career-high 3.6 assists per game. He was voted the league’s best defensive player for the second consecutive season.

In the MVP balloting, Olajuwon had 66 first-place votes to Robinson’s 24. Scottie Pippen had seven, Shaquille O’Neal three and Patrick Ewing one.

Olajuwon becomes the first center to win the award since Moses Malone when he was with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1983.

“It didn’t really surprise me,” Utah forward Karl Malone said. “I think he definitely deserved it. MVP to me is when someone puts the whole team on their shoulders and carries them to another level, and that’s what he’s done.”

Said Olajuwon: “I’m just grateful and happy, just to be mentioned. . . . I was just happy having fun, to play the game the way I know how, doing my best, in the off-season working on my game, enjoying playing basketball. To me, I would not consider it hard work because I enjoy it.”

If he wins a championship, the long-bypassed Olajuwon has a chance to join Jordan, Barkley and O’Neal in merchandising heaven. Olajuwon has little more than a sneaker deal now, but is willing to surrender some of his privacy.

“Nothing is guaranteed,” he said. “But if you show it to me on paper, I will sign it.”