UPON FURTHER REVIEW: OLAJUWON MORE THAN JUST A FAMILIAR NAME.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE 

Olajuwon, Abi.

That's how her name is usually written in the scorebook, just like any other basketball player.

The problem is, that's mostly the order of importance her first and last names are treated with in conversation.

As in, ``Are you Hakeem's daughter?''

``It used to bother me a little bit,'' said the Sherman Oaks resident, who won back-to-back Southern Section Div. IV-AA championships at Marlborough High in Los Angeles. ``Because, it was like, (Olajuwon) was good enough. They didn't even want to know my first name.''

When she was younger, this would bug her.

She's close with her dad, even though he lives in Houston. She's traveled the world with him on vacations, visited him every chance she gets and grew up with a backstage pass to any of his NBA games.

Which left her with a bit of a quandary.

How can you be proud of your dad and at the same time, focus on becoming your own person?

She's not the first daughter of a famous athlete or celebrity to tackle the question. Some change their names or distance themselves from their parents. Others never leave their shadow.

But Abi didn't want to do either. So she came up with a better answer.

``People are curious,'' she said. ``It they're curious about it, I tell them about it.''

And all the rest of the time, she goes back to becoming Abi.

So let's expand a bit on that scorecard entry now.

Olajuwon, Abi.

McDonald's All-American, Signed with the University of Oklahoma, Fluent in Arabic, Honors Student, Emcee of Marlborough High talent show. Parents are Hakeem Olajuwon, former Houston Rockets' star, and Lita Richardson, a lawyer and talent manager.

Impressive, huh?

She's even more so in person.

At 6-foot-4, she towers over her high school opponents. She's toned, strong and agile. In conversation, she's intellectual and mature.

She's a practicing Muslim, who fasts during the holy month of Ramadan just as her father did. She prays five times a day.

During the recruiting process, one of her chief concerns was finding a coach who was real with her.

``That's one of the reasons I chose Oklahoma,'' she said. ``I asked coach (Sherri) Coale where she saw me fitting in with the team. Whether she saw me as a starter, as a practice player, as fitting a role. ...I could tell, for her, it was more about how I was going to fit in with the team chemistry than about just, getting me. She really cared.''

And so she chose Oklahoma over UCLA, LSU and Rutgers, despite the fact that the Sooners' already have a pretty good center in likely First-Team All-American freshman Courtney Paris.

The competition will be good. She wants to test herself against the best.

When you've got a last name like Olajuwon, you're held to a higher standard.

``Abi probably had to work harder because the expectations were so high,'' her mother said. ``If you're not really good, people will tear you down. She always just put her head down and did the work.''

She ran, she lifted weights, she constantly worked on her game.

Marlborough was the perfect place for her to grow. It's a small, exclusive all-girls' school near Hancock Park. There, she's only a minor celebrity at a school where Steven Spielberg's daughter is a classmate.

``Everyone's parent is someone here,'' she explained. ``So you just get the real person. We're all dealing with the same thing.''

The difference is, Abi doesn't mind dealing with it anymore.

If someone wants to know about her dad, she tells them how he's like a big kid. How he goes to The Sharper Image and buys everything in the store, then brings it home and plays with his new gadgets for hours.

``They have something for everything there. Stuff that you don't even need, like, who needs a fan that hangs from around your neck?'' she laughed. ``But he loves that stuff.''

She tells them how she always used to stay at the Rockets' team hotel when they'd play the Lakers or the Clippers.

And a funny thing happens when she does.

Instead of seeing Hakeem Olajuwon's daughter, they see her: Abi Olajuwon. First name first this time.

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