Hakeem Olajuwon Comments on Kobe Bryant Utilizing His Post-Move Advice

Hakeem Olajuwon has made the transition from a dream-shaking Hall of Fame center with the Houston Rockets to a teacher who has worked with a number of NBA players who wish to improve on their post play. 

But of all the players he's guided—from Dwight Howard to Brook Lopez to LeBron James—Olajuwon's best student was none other than Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. 

Olajuwon spoke with the Sporting News' Adi Joseph on Monday: "I’ve worked with a lot of players, but the one who really capitalized on it the most is Kobe Bryant. When I watch him play, he'll go down in the post comfortably, naturally, and he'll execute it perfectly."  

The two hooked up in 2009 after Bryant won his fourth NBA title when the Lakers defeated the Orlando Magic:

With mutual respect for one another, both Olajuwon and Bryant reveled in the opportunity to work together. 

"From the first minutes we were on the court, I was excited because Kobe was excited," Olajuwon told Fran Blinebury of NBA.com. "You could see it in his eyes."

Bryant echoed those sentiments, per Blinebury: "I was ecstatic. I was like a kid learning something new. It's like opening up that Christmas gift. You know what's in it, and it's the excitement of opening it. That's the feeling I had. ... It was an honor, an absolute honor. I just tried to make him proud."

With his range, Bryant not only applied Olajuwon's moves under the basket, but from mid-range as well:

It speaks a lot of Bryant's desire that he worked with Olajuwon after he already reached the pinnacle of the sport and was regarded as one of the best. Just a few games remain in Bryant's historic career in which he's recorded 33,498 points, third all-time in league history behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.

With such a short time left, Olajuwon and basketball fans will only have a few more opportunities to catch what Bryant picked up from the Rockets legend and what made him a superstar for 20 years.