Hakeem Olajuwon refuses to be a bystander as the NBAs low post-scoring big men move toward extinction. Once the very best in the world at shimmying and scooping and driving from the post, the Rockets legend instead took up the task of teaching post moves to the next generation.You can lead a big man to the block, but you cant make him use it. So when Sporting News Adam Pankey Jersey asked Olajuwon who has used his advice best, the answer was not Dwight Howard or Tyson Chandler or the Lopez twins. Not even LeBron James. Nope, it was one of his shortestpupils.MORE: Ive worked with a lot of players, but the one who really capitalized on it the most is Kobe Bryant, the Basketball Hall of Famer said of the 6-6 retiring Lakers legend. When I watch him play, he'll go down in the post comfortably, naturally, and he'll execute it perfectly.Now employed by the Rockets, the team that he led to two championships in the 1990s, Olajuwon cannot work with the NBA pupils of his choosing only Houston's guys now but he still wants to see the game grow.MORE: Thats why he joined the Allstate NABC Good Works Team, where he helped host a basketball clinic in Texas during the Final Four weekend. Olajuwon called the initiative, which is led by fellow former NBA All-Star Grant Hill, rewarding and was glad to honor college athletes who achieve on and off the court.Olajuwon spoke with Sporting News on Sunday from Houston, host of the Final Four, the same stage where he made his name in runs to the 1983 and 1984 NCAA championship games at the University of Houston. What follows is an edited transcript of a conversation focused on the evolution in the NBA.SN: How much do you think this tournament, a lot of these bad games, have been a product of the one-and-done era, of the next Hakeem Olajuwon only spending one year in college instead of three or four? Olajuwon: Of course if you have guys leaving after one year, that means the quality goes down. Definitely. The development, when guys then take two years to develop in the NBA league, too. If you play sophomore and junior years, you become a more seasoned player. So that's definitely affected the quality of the tournament.It's affecting the quality generally of players. They are going into the league not truly matured. They haven't played enough basketball to experience and get the confidence and level to adjust when they get to the big leagues.SN: Moving to the NBA, particularly to your career a little bit. I'm looking back, and one of the great things about your career span was you got to measure yourself against so many great centers. Why do you think there are so few dominant big men Nick Chubb Jersey , not just in the way the game is played but in terms of there just aren't as many great players at that size anymore? Olajuwon: Every team's always looking for that diamond. The big man for any team is a diamond that everybody looks for. Even today, if you can find them anywhere on the globe, you bring them over. So it's always something that everybody looks for.But the game has been impacted by fundamentals. The dominating big man, that role, has not been a focus to develop big men to be dominant forces. Why is it easy for a big man to Chris Katrenick Jersey dominate? Because it's easy to dominate from that position. Look at the offensive end: Pound it inside and have a go-to move, and you're going to force a double-team because no players want to guard you in the post one-on-one. So you're forcing a team to double- and triple-team, and that opens up opportunity for other people. You create opportunities for teammates on the other end.At the same time, offensive rebounds, finishing you have so much impact on offense. Then, on the defensive end, it's intimidation, the rebounding, the blocking shots, clogging the lane. There's so much with the way that position can impact the game. And that's not going away. It's just important that the player knows that role and has the ability to play that role for his team. Right now, small-ball is dominating. But neverthele s, you're still looking for that big man who can really have that impact to help you win.MORE: SN: Your Rockets teams were the first teams ever to win the championship while leading the NBA in 3-pointers. There were a few teams before you, like Rick Pitino's Knicks, that shot a lot of 3s while being built around a Jim Harbaugh Jersey center, but I'm wondering if you sort of see the court-spacing that everyone talks about with the Warriors, did that start with big men, the idea with having four guys who could shoot around the guy in the post? Olajuwon: In our system, we knew that our strength was inside and that teams would try to guard me one-on-one. So it was our responsibility to force them to double-team. When they double-teamed, we had to spread the court with our shooters. So my job was to establish that inside game so that the outside guys could do their jobs: extend the court, make the 3-pointers.But the problem was that if I didn't do my job and don't force them to double-team me, then my teammates all were affected. So the point was to make them pay by establishing that. So you have to have a single player with that ability to make the other teams pay. And there are some teams and coaches who will say, "Let him go one-on-one." We would change our game plan then to go inside, just to force them to double-team.Golden State does it the other way. They don't have that inside, but they are a very balanced team. They have a lot of players, great shooters surrounding their big guys, who can get the second chances. They play together. They create shots, drive to the basket, kick it out to the open guy. So they're playing basketball more fun, all over the court and freelancing but organized.MORE: SN: Do you see any players in the NBA who remind you of yourself, given how differently the game is played? Olajuwon: Well, I think Anthony Davis might be like me, with his size and ability to put it on the floor. But he's not as active in the post as the way he should be. I gue s in time, he can use the post more. The way I see the game is, I wanted to be a complete player.So as I'm playing against someone like Shaq (O'Neal) or Patrick (Ewing) or David (Robinson), I wanted to go outside and bring them out and cro s them over. I didn't want them to play their own post game that's their strength. But when you're smaller than me, I'll go inside. If you're bigger, I'll go inside.To go outside, you have to be able to put it on the floor, you have to be able to shoot the jumper off the pick-and-roll. So what I see with Anthony Davis Greg Robinson Jersey playing the position of center, this is the type of basketball I liked to play: free-flowing, open court, you can play small or you can post up. Just play basketball.SN: Well, we all kn