Hakeem Olajuwon Marvels at Kelvin Sampson’s Ability To Prepare Players For NBA Coaching, Michael Young Sees a Multiple Championship Houston Window

SAN ANTONIO — To Hakeem Olajuwon,  it’s simple. Kelvin Sampson, the coach of Olajuwon’s beloved University of Houston, gets his players ready to play for any coach in professional basketball. Whether that’s in the NBA or overseas in another league. One of the 10 greatest NBA players of all-time — a Dream who’s coached some of the NBA’s best modern big men (not to mention Kobe Bryant) on the side himself over the years — feels that his university’s current coach is a rare unicorn leader too.

“If you can play for him, you can play for anybody,”Olajuwon tells PaperCity of Sampson. “I’m very proud of Coach and the culture that he has built and I’m proud of his players. They are good guys. When they signed with UH, they bought into the culture, knowing that Coach Sampson is going to push them and they’re going to work hard. His concept is to get tough guys and make them tougher.”

With Houston back in the Final Four for the second time in five seasons, Olajuwon knows that many will want to talk about the Phi Slama Jama teams he starred on that changed college basketball in the 1980s. Just like so many did back in 2021 when Quentin Grimes and DeJon Jarreau spearheaded another UH Final Four team. But Olajuwon would rather talk about what Kelvin Sampson is doing now.

“It’s amazing what Coach Sampson and those boys have accomplished every year, but this year it’s special.,” Olajuwon tells PaperCity. “They’re playing with a load of confidence. They play great defense as a team and that’s Coach Sampson’s philosophy. That’s his culture that he built within his program.”

Olajuwon knows that setting players up for NBA careers that last — and life in general — is a better measure of a coach than NCAA championships in many ways. While many will talk about this Final Four weekend as being the ultimate, Kelvin Sampson and his coaching staff know that’s not the case. For college basketball players at least.

“Certainly we want guys that have NBA aspirations and dreams,” UH assistant coach Kellen Sampson tells PaperCity. “I think maybe that’s a shift — and certainly high, high level programs better understand that the guys you’re coaching, their dream isn’t to play in college basketball. We as a coaching staff are living our dreams everyday. This is what we want to do. But they’re not living their dream yet.

“So there is an onus on you like, ‘Look, we’re going to fight like crazy together to accomplish some awesome individual team goals. Then when it’s time to chase your individual goals, go do it.’ And we’re going to prepare you to go reach those individual goals soon as our team goals are finalized.”

College basketball coaches dream of winning the Final Four, hoisting that national championship trophy. But every college basketball player dreams of playing in the NBA. That’s their ultimate dream. Kelvin Sampson and his elite staff are very aware of that. They know that making sure their guys are ready for their steps beyond the University of Houston is a huge part of their jobs.

“I think that it’s not a coincidence that a lot of our guys that have gotten to the NBA have found some staying power,” Kellen Sampson says. “Because they’re ready. They can walk into a locker room of men. They can be coached by an NBA coach where it’s maybe not necessarily dandelions and strawberry shortcake all the time. And they know how to get to the business of basketball and do it at a high level.”

“If you can play for him, you can play for anybody. I’m very proud of Coach and the culture that he has built and I’m proud of his players. They are good guys. When they signed with UH, they bought into the culture, knowing that Coach Sampson is going to push them and they’re going to work hard. His concept is to get tough guys and make them tougher.” — Hakeem Olajuwon on Kelvin Sampson

Kelvin Sampson used his forced time away from college basketball to learn more from some of the best coaches in the NBA, including his good friend Gregg Popovich in the San Antonio Spurs’ winning juggernaut. The members of Phi Slama Jama see that even more than they see the tie to the high-flying UH teams that made three straight Final Fours they played on.

“I think he’s done a heck of a job,” Phi Slama Jama forward Michael Young tells PaperCity of Sampson. “He’s a great coach. Just to watch the Purdue game, the last-second play that he drew up. He knew it would work. I think we couldn’t have a better coach.”

“They’re ready. They can walk into a locker room of men. They can be coached by an NBA coach where it’s maybe not necessarily dandelions and strawberry shortcake all the time. And they know how to get to the business of basketball and do it at a high level.” — UH assistant Kellen Sampson on UH players transitioning to the NBA

The members of Phi Slama Jama are not caught up in the past. Though they do enjoy imagining how much their own Hall of Fame coach Guy V. Lewis would love to see where Kelvin Sampson has taken this University of Houston program.

“Absolutely, absolutely smiling looking down on something that he’s proud of,” Young says of Lewis, who passed away in 2015. “That would mean so much to me to see the University of Houston get what we definitely deserve, finally get a championship. And I think once we get that —and I think it can happen this year — I think there will be more to follow.”

Young can see Kelvin Sampson creating a new college basketball dynasty before the 69-year-old basketball lifer retires and his son Kellen Sampson takes over the program.  And he’s not the only one. Ken Ciolli, who played for Guy Lewis from 1975 through 1979 averaging 4.7 assists per game, also marvels at the Kelvin Sampson transformation of this once flatlined and left for dead UH program

“He’d be doing backflips if he saw what Kelvin has built since he’s been here in 11 years,” Ciolli says of Lewis. “All of the former players are proud of what Sampson’s done and he’s done it the right way. This is something sustainable forever if you get people to come in and do it the way he’s doing it.”

Ciolli is a doctor in San Antonio these days. He’ll be among a number of former Guy V. Lewis players at UH’s Final Four game with Duke on Saturday night (7:49 pm, CBS). Ciolli jokes that he’s “the guard that made Otis Birdsong famous.” Of course, Birdsong is another former Houston player who enjoyed a long NBA career (12 seasons and four All-Star Game selections in his case). The Sampsons never forget that the future is what it’s ultimately all about for their players too.

“We all understand we’re all just coaching Guy V. Lewis’ program,” Kellen Sampson says. “This is still his program. We just happen to be the coaches that are coaching it now.”

That includes bringing the NBA pipeline Guy Lewis had going back to life with Sampson era Cougar pros such as Quentin Grimes, Jarace Walker, Marcus Sasser and Jamal Shead. The Phi Slama Jama guys will tell you it’s about what Kelvin Sampson is doing now, with many of them feeling more connected to the program because of Sampson.

“I talk to a couple of those (Phi Slama Jama) guys,” current UH guard Mylik Wilson says. “They support our team, telling us to go win it all. I was telling them like before the season, ‘We’ve got a chance.’ And we do have a chance. Two games away from winning it all.”

By Sampson. With an eye on the future.