The NBA’s Biggest Bust or Best Story: The Complicated Legacy of Michael Olowokandi

Michael Olowakandi at UOP: https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article...
Olowakandi Profile from SI: https://vault.si.com/vault/1998/09/14...
Olowakandi Free Agency: https://a.espncdn.com/nba/columns/how...
Olowakandi UOP Highlights:    • Michael Olowokandi Pacific Highlights  

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Michael Olowokandi should never have been the first pick in the NBA Draft. Not because he would go on to be a bust. But because he wasn’t really a basketball player at all. On his 20th birthday, he decided he was going to play basketball collegiate despite having next to no experience with the game.

By the time he turned 23, David Stern was announcing his name at the NBA Draft. It was a mercurial rise. Yet all you hear when it comes to Michael Olowokandi is what came after that. Never living up to the hype and the “b” word…bust.

Was Michael Olowokandi really a bust though? Or was he simply a product of unrealistic expectations and proof that a dysfunctional NBA team will derail the development of any prospect? A player doomed by factors out of his control.

The story of Michael Olowokandi is equal parts triumph and tragedy. Overcoming adversity and failing to live up to burdensome expectations. An athlete who should both be celebrated and serve as a cautionary tale.

He probably could have been an NBA All-Star or a mechanical engineer in London. We want athletes' legacies to fit in these tidy compartments: bust, hall of famer, GOAT, bum, role player, whatever the case may be.

When you do that to a player like Michael Olowokandi, you end up missing out on the true legacy. An inspirational tale that should also serve as a warning. A player who accomplished so much and yet is remembered for so little.

This is the complicated legacy of Michael Olowakandi…bust, boom, or something else altogether.

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