[ESPN] Daily Dime - Rocket Launch: Smith On the 1994 NBA Champions

Good times. Man, those were some good times.

 

Once we get BattMan back, we need to rest TMac to get healthy.

 

what does this have to do with the 1994 Rockets again?

 

This team never gets enough love. Never.

 

Smith, Olajuwon, Otis Thorpe, Vernon Maxwell, Robert Horry, Sam Cassell, Mario Elie......


How would that team go in todays NBA I wonder.

 

If you take away zone defense and all that hand checking sht guards get away with now, the 93-94 team would DOMINATE. Vernon maxwell could easily shutdown Kobe, vlad man on Horry? Please. and I bet Elie would guard odom off the bench, not to mention Pau Gasshole/Bynum against Dream and OT?

Oh, and who'd forget an epic matchup between Fisher, Vujacic and Farmar against Cassell, Scottie Brooks and Kenny the ORIGINAL jet Smith.

Sorry but that lakers team would get destroyed. If they can penetrate through our man defense, they surely wouldn't get passed Dream and OT down low.

 

That was sarcasm. I'd still take us, though, by a decent margin.

 

Looking at that team, I have to say I miss the really tough side that were around at that time.

I know I am probably in the minority, but I loved seeing tough front courts dominating the game and battling it out.

 

Dude, you're not a minority. Everyone's been wanting Yao to dominate the paint, defensively and offensively. Not to mention, the days of Juwan howard, we've wanted that banger 4 who just blocks shots and rebounds all day long. We THOUGHT we had that with Stromile Swift, but yeah, we'll take our rotation of Scolandry+Hayes

 

comparing those two rosters is a stretch at the very best. the only thing the two have in common is a hall-of-famer, something pretty common amongst elite teams.

 

Rockets Starting Front Court shooting %:

Otis Thorpe's in 93-94 56%
Robert Horry 93-94 46%
Hakeem 93-94 53%

 

I remember my grandfather telling me at the first championship game we went too that Kenny Smith was the most underrated basketball player on the court. I was so young, I didn't care. I just wanted to see Hakeem play.

Now that I am older, I realize how much I missed by not understanding the game and not appreciating all the players on the team. I wish I had I payed more attention to Kenny, I bet he was fun to watch hyping his team up. My eyes were glued on Hakeem every single game every single step I went too in both of those Championship series. This year, I will be at every single Championship game if we make it, and appreciate everything... not just the star player.

 

That is just plain nasty.

 

Otis Thorpe never missed his dunk attempts

 

They would win the title for the same reasons they won it then. There is no one in the world that can stop Hakeem, and the team had lot's of shooters. Combine that with great defense.....

 

I'm not sure what is more mind-numbing, watching Thorpe attempt anything other than a dunk, or watching Hayes, well, do anything, on offense.

 

thanks for sharing. brings back memories. lots of people forget that back then everyone was putting their money on barkley, malone, or ewing. not to mention drob with rodman. tough times but they prevailed.

 

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