THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Olajuwon Sticks Around to Deny Knicks

Who said:

“You must work to establish a professional code of conduct. When you get into calling names and trying to embarrass your opponent after a game, that is wrong. It shows your own insecurity. I understand promoting the flashy plays. Sports is entertainment. But violence and talk are not entertainment.”

A) Gandhi?

B) The Maharishi?

C) Hakeem Olajuwon?

Who said:

“I know what sport is for. If you are sitting at a dinner table with people from different nationalities, it’s very difficult to discuss politics, to discuss religion. You get into fights. Sports should be something everybody can discuss and have fun. Everybody has his favorite team, favorite players. Sports should promote peace among peoples.”

A) Buddha?

B) Mother Teresa?

C) Hakeem Olajuwon?

The answer to both, of course, is C) Olajuwon, that island of serenity in the midst of the NBA finals who looks like the last professional basketball player capable of enjoying the NBA’s greatest moment of all, now scheduled for Wednesday, courtesy of his 30-point, 10-rebound Game 6, an 86-84 Houston Rocket victory that ended with Olajuwon tipping away the final shot by the New York Knicks.

Olajuwon, a born-again Muslim, smiles, he jokes, he has perspective coming out of his ears, so much so that he risks losing his audience.

Violence isn’t entertainment? Just where in America did he learn that?

Oh, he’s not from here? Well, it shows.

Now that we’re officially in the post-heroes age, it should be noted that he has had his share of problems and inconsistencies and petulant moments and still commits the occasional dumb foul.

He had two of the latter Sunday night, proving he still isn’t fully evolved yet, at least on a basketball floor: leaving his feet and colliding with Patrick Ewing, who was taking a 20-footer in the first half; reaching in on Ewing after missing a shot in the fourth quarter for his fifth foul.

That was with 6:07 to play.

Olajuwon told Coach Rudy Tomjanovich to cool out. Tomjanovich contemplated the devil (the Rockets, already sagging, starting down the stretch without Olajuwon) and the deep blue sea (Olajuwon fouling out), looked in Olajuwon’s eyes and decided what the heck.

Somehow, the Knicks never got around to challenging Olajuwon. Ewing shot the ball twice more, missed both, went scoreless in the fourth quarter and was outscored by his opposite number, 30-17.

Knick Coach Pat Riley suggested it would have barely been worth the effort to try to foul Olajuwon out, that a great player knows how to stay out of trouble.

The real story might be, the Knicks knew Olajuwon had Ewing’s number. Ewing was six for 18 when Olajuwon got his fifth foul. Ewing’s teammates were already looking elsewhere.

Besides, Ewing’s best move--an 18-foot jumper--was unlikely to draw another foul. Ewing is beginning to resemble James Edwards, once described by TNT’s Doug Collins as “a seven-footer who takes a 10-footer and turns it into a 15-footer.”

Olajuwon has now outscored Ewing in the series, 163-115. This does not make Ewing a stiff, but no one wonders who the best center in the land is any more.

The Knicks ran that last play and saw Olajuwon get to John Starks’ three-pointer, turning it into an airball.

“I just got a piece of it,” Olajuwon said later. “That’s all you need.”

Riley called the night “very disheartening,” a clue to how devastated the Knicks were.

Riley gives away little. If he says it was “very disheartening,” that means the tears were flowing ankle deep in the Knick dressing room.

To the Knicks, sports is not just life and death, it’s more important than that. To expect all of them to discuss an important game they’ve just lost is too much.

Indeed, Starks, the Knick star of the night, took no questions. In the middle of the hubbub, he sat in a chair, with his feet up on another chair, his eyes closed and one finger to his temple, meditating or trying to levitate himself out of there.

Olajuwon was asked what it would feel like to play in the biggest game of his life.

“The game itself is big,” he said, grinning, “but it’s still basketball.”