For me, it's Ralph's shot. I was in a jam packed Dan Patrick's with my buddy, Darin when it happened.
Hakeem's chase down of Starks in the finals. Honorable mention....Hakeem putting the Admiral in the popcorn machine.
I was fortunate to be at game 7 vs Knicks. After Max hit the 3 with a little over a minute left, I started crying; mostly tears of joy, but also just the weight of frustration lifted off of all of our Houston sports teams' previous failures. I happened to be sitting next to the NBC booth which was in the stands, and watched Dr. J scanning the overjoyed fans, and Peter Vescey looking flustered and frustrated.
Drexler's game winner against the Nuggets in 94-95. This was about 20 games into Drexler's Rocket career, Olajuwon was out of this game and Drexler hits a crazy deep three to beat the Nuggets. I have always viewed that game as the thing that gave the Rockets the belief that they could do what they ultimately went on to do and knock off the top 4 teams record wise in the NBA that year in route to the title. Honorable Mentions: Random weekend NBC game between the Rockets and Bulls during the Big 3/PJ uni era for the Rockets where Olajuwon blocks a Jordan drive to the lane Rockets winning the Draft Lottery in 02 TMac lighting up the Spurs late in the 4th in what I believe was a Thursday TNT game.
Oh, yeah. 'cept there was the Hakeem guy in the B2Bs; his pass out to MaddMaxx when it was "official" that 'we' had beaten the Knixies...or was it the pinkie block of John Starks?...Honorable Mention would hafta include the bock on Strickland and the put back to win Game 1 v The Oh!llando Shaqic. Wait a minute, is the Admiral still floating in all the wrong directions? Dreamin' on. Hey, guys, there's time in April and May and JUNE to blow these away (just sayin'...).
I'm too young to have a personal connection to the championship years. I was in attendance at 13 in 35 so that has to be my pick. I also really get revved up by the "X years of tradition" Dream On video no matter the era they are showing.
Would have to be 2015 playoffs. Josh Smith destroying the Mavs was oh so satisfying and making that epic comeback in game 6 will always be remembered for years to come.
Absolute favorite moment has to be something from the 94 or 95 playoff run. The one singular moment that sticks out to me is the Mario Elie corner three in game 7. But there were so many great Rockets moments in those runs.
Game 1 of '95 finals. With the game tied, Drexler misses the layup, and Dream tips it in with 3/10s of a second left. Dream looks around almost in disbelief and then raised his arms in celebration. This shot totally demoralized the Magic, and y'all know the rest.
The Maxwell 3 pointer. The game was still in somewhat the air at that point, NY had been struggling all game but were still in it. Vernon put an end to that forever.
I was only 3,4 during the championship years so wasnt really around for the iconic moments but Steve Novaks game winner against Sacramento was one of my all time favorite moments. That whole time was just great. Also duh, game 6. The most emotinal night I had as a Rockets fan. Can't wait to fully celebrate a title, hopefully soon.
