Hakeem Olajuwon praises Mitchell Robinson, who has never heard of him

Mitchell Robinson may have to seriously brush up on his basketball history.

Retired NBA legend Hakeem Olajuwon sat courtside for Friday’s Houston Rockets-New York Knicks game and was impressed by Robinson, the Knicks rookie center, who finished with 12 points, nine rebounds, and three blocks.

“I love his game,” Olajuwon said to Marc Berman of the New York Post. “He has a presence in the middle. He can close down the middle with his energy, skill level, how he moves. Not too many players have that impact as a shotblocker. On the court you know he is there. Fantastic player.”

When the praise was relayed to Robinson however, he admitted that he had never heard of Olajuwon.

The 21-year-old Robinson, who is averaging 7.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per game in his first season, was born in 1998. Olajuwon, meanwhile, entered the league back in 1984 and was retired by 2002.

Still, it seems rather strange that Robinson has never heard of The Dream, a two-time NBA champion, a 12-time All-Star, a former MVP, and a consensus top-five player of all-time at Robinson’s position. That probably makes him almost as clueless as this fellow NBA big man.