{"id":156608,"date":"2025-08-26T17:13:58","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T21:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=156608"},"modified":"2025-08-26T17:13:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T21:13:58","slug":"4-star-son-of-nba-legend-transfers-to-powerhouse-img","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/08\/26\/4-star-son-of-nba-legend-transfers-to-powerhouse-img\/","title":{"rendered":"4-Star Son of NBA Legend Transfers to Powerhouse IMG"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The four-star son of an NBA legend is transferring to the powerhouse IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. Aziz Olajuwon, a 2026 four-star wing, will spend his senior year in the 2025-26 campaign with the Ascenders, reports recruiting analyst Sam Kayser<\/a>. Olajuwon is the son of NBA Hall of Famer <\/span><\/span>Hakeem Olajuwon<\/a>, an elite center who won two titles with the Houston Rockets. “The Dream” also went to three consecutive Final Fours in college with the Houston Cougars, including back-to-back national championship game appearances in 1983 and 1984.<\/p>\n

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4-Star Son of NBA Legend Transfers to Powerhouse IMG<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Aziz Olajuwon is a 6-foot-7, 207-pound guard\/small forward in the rising high school senior class. Last season, he suited up for Clements High School in Sugar Land, Texas. Olajuwon, as a junior, averaged 20.6 points and 10.0 rebounds for Clements, according to Kayser.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Here is the latest on Olajuwon’s recruitment. His offer sheet<\/a> includes schools such as Houston<\/a>, TCU, Cincinnati, Vanderbilt, Stanford, Arizona State, DePaul, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Xavier and East Carolina. Olajuwon has officially visited Stanford and has upcoming trips scheduled to Vanderbilt, TCU, Houston and Cincinnati.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The industry-generated Rivals Industry Ranking<\/a>, within the 2026 class, places him at No. 68 overall, No. 21 at small forward and No. 9 in Florida. Several other recruiting services have Olajuwon in the top 100 nationally of his cycle.<\/div>\n

Aziz Olajuwon Joins Revamped IMG Roster<\/h3>\n
Like many other top-flight high school programs, IMG will have an overhauled roster during the upcoming 2025-26 campaign. The Ascenders, last season, went 21-8 overall and were ranked in the top 15<\/a> nationally by various media outlets. IMG earned a berth in this past spring’s Chipotle Nationals in Fishers, Ind., and will be a contender to reach this season-ending national championship tournament next spring. High school hoops experts also envision the Ascenders residing in the top 10-15 of preseason rankings ahead of 2025-26 getting underway.<\/div>\n
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Gone from the Ascenders’ 2024-25 roster are veterans such as 2025 five-star point guard Darius Acuff Jr.<\/a>, who is a freshman at Arkansas, and 2025 four-star forward Sadiq White Jr.<\/a>, who is a freshman at Syracuse<\/a>. Also, 2026 four-star combo guard Felipe Quinones and 2026 four-star power forward Cody Peck transferred<\/a> to new schools this off-season.<\/div>\n
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On the flip side, IMG has brought in transfers including Olajuwon, 2026 four-star small forward and top-25 national prospect Cole Cloer<\/a>, and 2026 four-star power forward\/center Hakeem Weems<\/a>, a top-150 overall player in his class.<\/div>\n
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IMG is a member of arguably the nation’s top high school hoops conference, the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League Scholastic (“EYBL Scholastic”). This past season, the EYBL Scholastic featured<\/a> 14 teams, although it is expanding for 2025-26. As a senior, Olajuwon will have an opportunity to compete against some of the best prospects across the country.<\/div>\n

4-Star Son of NBA Icon is Stock-Riser<\/h3>\n
In June, Olajuwon helped boost his stock within the 2026 class when he was named by experts as one of the top performers at the prestigious National Basketball Players Association (“NBPA”) Top 100 camp in Rock Hill, S.C. At this annual event, per MaxPreps<\/a>, Olajuwon averaged 20.6 points and 5.4 rebounds per game while shooting 56.2 percent from the field.<\/div>\n
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\"July
July 15, 2025; North Augusta, South Carolina, USA; NY Rens Gabriel Hornberger (13) and JL3 Abdul Aziz Olajuwon (15) battle for the ball during the NY Rens and JL3 game at Nike EYBL Peach Jam at Riverview Park Activities Center. The NY Rens won 83-53. Mandatory Credit: Katie Goodale – Augusta Chronicle\/USA TODAY NETWORK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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This spring and summer on the AAU circuit, Olajuwon earned high marks from analysts and scouts for his play in Nike’s EYBL league as a member of the Houston-based JL3 in the main 17U division. In the EYBL’s regular season, he averaged 13.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. Last month, at the circuit’s season-ending Peach Jam in North Augusta, S.C., Olajuwon averaged<\/a> 16.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.4 blocks per contest. The Circuit<\/a> named Olajuwon to its All-EYBL third team during the latest campaign.<\/div>\n
\u00a9 Erik Williams-Imagn Images<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The four-star son of an NBA legend is transferring to the powerhouse IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. Aziz Olajuwon, a 2026 four-star wing, will spend his senior year in the 2025-26 campaign with the Ascenders, reports recruiting analyst Sam Kayser. Olajuwon is the son of NBA Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon, an elite center who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5596,"featured_media":156653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,3],"tags":[779,1496,3772,2144,1046,333,3668,1075,2901,789],"class_list":["post-156608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-news","tag-arkansas-razorbacks","tag-cincinnati-bearcats","tag-college-basketball-recruiting","tag-hakeem-olajuwon","tag-houston-cougars","tag-houston-rockets","tag-stanford-cardinal","tag-syracuse-orange","tag-tcu-horned-frogs","tag-vanderbilt-commodores"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156608"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156655,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156608\/revisions\/156655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}