I really resent the national implication that the Rockets only won their two championships because Jordan retired. The Rockets had a winning record against the Bulls in the 90's. It took everything Jordan and the Bulls had to beat the Knicks and Patrick during these years and Dream was a notch above Patrick as a force in the middle. I think the Rockets had a much better chance of beating the Bulls in 93 than Charles's Suns. We owned the Suns unfortunately the Sonics owned us and thats the only team I feared durung this period. 93-94 would have been real dogfights with the Bulls with the Rockets having a good chance of winning. In 95 with Clyde and the way Dream was playing I think we take them hands down. It was the addition of Rodman to the Bulls in 96 that kicked the Bulls back up a notch, but the Bulls of 94-95 were ripe to be had which is another reason I think MJ got out. There is no way you can just pencil in Bulls Championships over the Rockets in 94-95. Hear that ESPN. ------------------ Moses begat Sampson, Sampson begat Hakeem, And Hakeem led us to the promised land
94' bulls vs. rockets finals rockets 4 bulls 3 olajuwon dominates any a center the bulls put in. 95' bulls vs. rockets finals rockets 4 bulls 0 we would have swept them much easier than the magic, if you remember jordan was back then and the bulls made the playoffs but were beaten, and i hate when people say he was rusty. well then why did he post 55 points against the knicks a number that he would never pass again if was rusty.
Brahma Rocket, Who's going to be the champion this year, who will they play, and what will the championship series' won-loss record look like? Man, if you're this good, you can make me millions! ------------------ Rocket fuel pumps through these veins...
i sense sarcasm , but if you really want to know what i think, if we dont finish over 500. before the break , than i think it will be : lakers vs. pacers lakers 4 pacers 2 shaq will get the finals mvp
Not only that but the Rockets were cheated vs. the Jazz in 97 and should have won that title too. The Rockets were also the best tean in 97 but were robbed.
i swear i was going to punch out my friend one time because he kept on saying that Jordan would've had two more championships if he didn't retire. and when i mentioned the Rockets beat the Bulls six straight times during their first championship years, all he could say was that it wasn't the playoffs. i hate it when the media always makes excuses for Jordan too... like when he scores 55 against the Knicks or when he made the last shot against the Hawks, everyone was saying he was back. but when they lose to the Magic in the playoffs, they once again start to make reasons for him... saying he was rusty or not fully back in shape and all that bull.
I don't by into that rustiness factor either. didn't Jordan play like 10 games or so PRIOR to the playoffs. I am sure Jordan was practicing as well. THe Magic were just a better team that year. They had Shaq, Penny, and Nick "the Brick", and Ho Grant?( not too sure about that one). But yeah the Rockets would have beaten the bulls hands down those years. I was really disappointed that jordan wasn't around to get his butt kicked by Hakeem and Co. That is my only regret from winning those 2 great championships. Atleast we won though in tough situations. Do you remember SI making all those issues of the Knicks on the front before they had to trash them and put Dream on the front. No Respect! I hope we win one before Hakeem leaves the game though.
ESPN, TNT, TBS, and especially NBC should be ashamed of themselves for kissing so much a$$. I mean listening to idiot Ahmad Rashad talk about MJ made me want to freakin puke. Not it's the damn Lakers. I mean what the hell. These NBC people should be living inside Shaq, Kobe, Phil Jackson, and Jerry West's butt. That way they can kiss it 24-7. While I'm talking about Rashad, let me say that there is not a sorrier show in the world then the Inside Stuff. All they ever do is interwiev players from Europe, or Africa. But never ever Hakeem. They must have interviewd Vlade atleast a hundred times (old Laker connection I bet). And if they are not interviewing international players its the WNBA. I have nothing agains womens sports but WNBA is not a real league. Who can honestly tell me that WNBA would be fun if our Comets weren't the champs.
Guys, I definetely despised Jordan when he played, simply because I was, and am, a Charles Barkley fan, but no one gets over on Jordan when he was playing. I know the Rockets won ther 2 titles and that is fine, but it will always be tarnished because of no MJ. I think I saw a stat that the Bulls won the title every year that Jordan started on opening day since 1991. That is amazing! Noone knows if the Rockets could have beaten the Bulls, but it will always put an * next to the titles. Fact is the Rockets were the best team in the league w/o Jordan, but Jordan came back ant took the Bulls back to the top.
There will be and * by the bulls Titles becuase it There was no Wilt in that time. Was Kareem in the League? Weren't bird and Majic on the The downslide. Wasn't they lucky that Isiah Retired? hell . . .WHERE WAS BIG O? and remember. . . it was all before Ruben Patterson . . .otherwise. . . . . Rocket River f*ck a *
i've gotten any many arguments over this issue. first of all the bulls had no good pf for those years horace was gone and rodman wasn't there. SECOND OF ALL THE ROCKETS ARE THE ONLY TEAM WHO HAD A WINNING RECORD AGAINST CHICAGO. PIPPEN EVEN SAID HIMSELF THE ROCKETS WOULD HAVE BEEN SO TOUGH AND THEY WERE THE ONLY TEAM THAT WAS REALLY ALWAYS ABLE TO BEAT THE BULLS IN THE 90S
one thought. Bulls were back in the finals in 96, 97, and 98 and would have happily played the Rockets to settle the feud, but the Rockets were nowhere to be found. Woulda coulda shouldas are nice, but the fact is....Jordanless Bulls took New York to 7 games. New York took Rockets to 7 games. This tells me that with Jordan at the helm, the Bulls would have had a fair to middlin' chance of getting to the finals for a 4th year and winning at least one of the titles that Houston won. Of course, Jordan might have been so sick of basketball at that point that he would have retired for good with only 4 rings. Like you said. We'll never know. The fact is, Houston DID win which was great (especially when the Shaq-led magic folded in a 4 game sweep). The only asterisk for modern championships belongs to S.A. because it was after such a short season. But it's better than a big ZERO next to that year like baseball has in the 90's.
I've had my fair share of arguments with many Knick fans about this issue. I still contend that even if Jordan didn't retire, that the Rockets could've beaten them. As someone had stated, the Rockets had beaten the Bulls during those years. Maxwell was a Jordan stopper!! He held Jordan to under 20 points I believe in '92. Also, people don't remember what kind of disarray the Bulls were in after championship #3. The team was moaning and groaning and bickering in the lockerroom. Horace Grant was unhappy and eveentually got traded. Pippen was complaining. Paxson retired and so on and so on. Jordan left for many reasons, and I think at the time, he saw the Bulls organization as unstable. He wisely, left the game and returned when the organization was somewhat stable-with the addition of Kukoc and Rodman. Let's not forget people, and I tell this to everyone who said we never won when Jordan was around, that the ROCKETS DID WIN the championship when Jordan WAS around. We can't help it if he wasn't able to beat the Magic that year. Now the argument can be made that he wasn't basketball worthy yet because he was playing baseball. I say that's a bunch of hogwash because what did he score in his first game back against the Knicks? 55 Points!!! That tells me, he was in Basketball shape. The man never really quit basketball!! So the Rockets DID win during Jordan's time. You have a lot of Rocket Harters out there, but NO ONE CAN TAKE THAT AWAY FROM US!! WE ARE CHAMPIONS!! No asterisk by our championships or anyone's. Even the Spurs can not be denied in history. All this talk of post-jordan championships is all a bunch a SH@!
You bring up some okay points. I will tell you that he had no way of knowing for sure if the Bulls would get a PF like Rodman who could do all the dirty work and leave the scoring to him. I will also say that it was clear he had tons of talent but that something was missing in his conditioning that did not allow him to be in his rhythm consistently when they played the Magic and it was only on a questionable no call when Jordan slapped a Hersey Hawkins ball that got them past Charlotte that year. I will say that anyone who wants to put any asterisk by the Houston champs is arguing for arguing sake. I will also say Jordan was not looking for excuses and his poor showing in the playoffs contrasted with the furious play and record-setting year the following season showed he had lost something that he was able to get back. I will argue the Spurs have to get an asterisk because there is no saying what team could have knocked them off (including both the Blazers and the Knicks) if they had been a more tired team from the long season.
I was watching the bulls feed today and their commentators said bulls would have won 8 in a row if jordan wouldnt have left for the curveball. They said kenny smith,vernon maxwell and clyde kept sayin nobody wasnt going to stop dream that year and that was totally bs. I was like okay and they kept going on by saying all those talks about the rockets dominating the bulls even with jordan playing the season before he retired were overated. Bulls wasnt interested in regular season, in fact they were bored. They were in it for the playoffs and would have made adjustments and would have won 8 in a row. I was like okay
Was also watching the bulls feed as well. If they want to use the Jordan wasn't playing excuse in 94 then fine. But he came back and played in 95. They got beat handily by the Magic. So no, you would not have won 8 championships in a row.
Jordan didn’t have the will to play those 2 full season...err ok. There are hundreds of NBA players that didn’t have the will to practice/ workout hours and hours more than they could have that would’ve made them better than they were. Should we simply disregard every other championship bc of these “what if” scenarios? Nah...history happened and Jordan as well as those hundreds of would be champions lost out bc they didn’t have the will and/or discipline. It’s not a given that you stay on top of your game just bc you won it a time or 2...anyone that’s watched sports will attest to that...especially someone that admits that they have nothing left to “prove” in his sport ...whether it’s Russian mafia crap or not...you didn’t have what it took to when 8 straight MJ...That’s on you...not on the Rockets.
but we must correct people who said Jordan wasn't there in 1995 he was, they lost to the Orlando Magic but this lie has been spread so much people have taken it as truth
Had to "like" the OP's post because OP is a '99er who had zero likes. I feel I did my ClutchFans duty today.
