I know I was 2 at the time, but I know my Rockets history. The '86 team was the best team in Rockets history. Period. Lucas, Lloyd, Ralph, Akeem... They were incredible. And people also forget that Rudy T was a 5-time All Star. Before the Kermit Washington punch, the guy was unstoppable. Tim Duncan aside, there hasn't been another player in NBA history that could hit bank shots like he could. The 81 team was incredible too.
As someone who graduated High School in '82, I concur with you my man. You also could make a case for the '76 team which lost on a bogus call in the EC playoffs. DD
Pfft. The Rockets have never lost playoff games due to bogus calls. If anyone seriously wants to see a great team, watch old Rockets videos.
They beat the showtime Lakers. In 5 games, with Akeem not in the 4th quarter because he was ejected from the game.
Yao's problems have usually been with smaller, quicker guys, double teams, fronting. He actually does pretty well against good, legitimate centers. He outperforms Dwight Howard every time they play.
The OP does say you take away Yao AND Tmac. If you do that, then this year's team is nothing special at all. If you just take away one of them? Then I agree that this team is better on paper. A great team is better than the sum of its parts though and that definitely is NOT true right now. I'd give them the chance to get healthy and see what they can do in the playoffs. I do think claims that the 94-95 teams would have dominated without Hakeem are overblown though. Claiming that sort diminishes Hakeem's importance - and he was hands own the MVP of those squads.
And to bring the stars in the argument: Name one player currently on the Rockets who could make the Ralph Sampson shot. Go ahead. Name one.
What's even worse than what tinman brought up, the defense of dream. You think yao has problems with guys now, what about the old rockets put thorpe on yao and have dream backside? You think ak-47 was killing his shot when he rolled to the middle, dream would volleyball spike yao's shot, kenny would get in the middle, horry on 1 wing, max on the other and thorpe or dream trailing because they just beat yao down the court.
Fact is, as great as the game was in the 80s, the 90s were really one of the true golden ages of the NBA. The 1984 draft was easily the best draft in NBA history, and the drafts surrounding it weren't bad either. And, without doubt, there has never been an age where so many truly legendary bigs played. Olajuwon, Ewing, Robinson, O'Neal... and that's just the beginning. While every era has its greats, the late 80s to mid 90s era was probably the highest level of competition the NBA had ever seen.
Ok, imagine Yao playing against Howard except he can dribble from 17 ft and had a deadly jumper. How would Yao perform then? That's basically what dream was. Give howard dreams footwork, give him some handles and a jumper from 15 ft. Keep the shotblocking,rebounding, and freakish atheleticism. No zone defense, rudy would give dream the ball 14 ft out and clear the entire side of the court and let dream work the **** out of yao. Then on the other end, he would put thorpe on yao as a positional defender and allow dream to clean everything up at the rim.
And don't forget that Olajuwon ranks #8 in all-time steals. He recorded 213 in 88-89 and consistently got over 120 per season. Let's compare Yao's CAREER highs to Olajuwon in 1994: Rebounds: Yao - 675 in 02-03 Olajuwon - 955 Blocks: Yao - 160 in 04-05 Olajuwon - 297 Steals: Yao - 34 in 04-05 Olajuwon - 128 Points: Yao - 1465 in 04-05 Olajuwon - 2184 So Olajuwon was a legit center who, in one year, was better than the best Yao has ever been. And those numbers for steals rival the best thieves in the NBA. And even Chris Paul hasn't out-stolen Olajuwon's best.
Why do you guys even entertain such ridiculous polls. We should all just laugh at the OP who's probably a preteen and hope the thread gets locked soon. We could pretty much go position for position and see that each player is better than his counterpart of today.
This isn't a discussion about a hypothetical head-to-head matchup. Not every center from the mid-nineties was as good as Hakeem.
I'm well aware of Hakeem's steals. I never compared Yao to Dream so please don't put words in my mouth. That is not even close. Yao is a better free-throw shooter but that's about it. I merely said Yao would do better in the 90's when there were illegal defenses. Some other guy said he would do worse since the 90s were full of more physical centers. I merely replied that it wasn't the "real" centers that he has trouble with. He has trouble with double teaming and faster, quicker guys. I do think Yao would be the second best player on the 95 Rockets. EDIT: maybe not 95 since they had Clyde. but that would be close.
No no no. Don't misunderstand me -- I wasn't saying that you weren't. I compared them to draw two conclusions: 1.) Yao and Olajuwon are/were both legit centers. Yao does will against legit centers. 2.) Yao has trouble against speedy guards with quick hands. Olajuwon had the footwork of a speedy guard and some of the quickest hands in the NBA.
I'm not saying you're comparing yao to dream, but the idea yao would fare better in the 90's because there was no zones, go watch the finals between houston and ny. Yao would wither under that physical play. You think he gets mugged now? Go pull a 90's game and watch the post play. Fully extended arm in the lower back trying to guide players. Not to mention playing against legit big guys every night was tough. I mean the 3rd best center right now is a 36 yr old Shaq. If you rewind to 94, Dream,shaq,robinson,ewing,zo,deke were dominant players. I mean Rony seikly was still a good player then.
LOL -- man, i think people are blinded by the fact that Yao is arguable the best center in the league today. Yao appears to be better than he really is because the center position is so watered down now. I just don't see how you can say he would be better when there are so many centers who would rip him up as apposed to now when the second best guy really has no post moves.
And it set a standard for a generation of fans that is almost impossible for it to live up to today...part of that was because the game was soooo heavily marketed around those individuals.
