I would probably pick Nick Anderson's 4 missed free throws followed by Kenny's 3 as the biggest shots combined! Essentially that choke by Anderson set up the sweep and gave us a 2nd championship!!
How so? We won the WCF and lost in the finals. All those shots I listed directly contributed to WINNING the championship. Sure, it was a crazy nice finish, but in context of the situation at the time we already were up 3-1 and winner of 3 in a row at that point when Sampson hit the shot. I think more people are in love with the act of the shot than the overall impact in Rockets history. Which is perfectly fine.
Me and my homie Azamat Bagatov can't quite give you the answers you're looking for. @Os Trigonum is the resident media conspiracy guide.
The best shot taken in the history of Houston Rockets basketball was taken by Raymond Albert Patterson Jr when he took a shot on Hakeem Olajuwon over Michael Jordan.
Well it more the overall 13 points in 33 seconds that made it even more bittersweet but obviously this is just a regular season game so not as much on The line but still impressive against the Spurs.
The greatest shot I've seen was the 2018 WCF game 7 harden finding Carmelo Anthony in the corner to send the Rockets to the NBA Finals. P.S I am from the Future Guys
A great regular season moment but compared to shots that helped win championships and defeat legendary teams in the playoffs Its not in same class
Holy crap! Don't know why it's the first time I saw that. What's the context in terms of game? regular season game?
Regular season during the 94 season Thought it was the most difficult game winning shot in rockets history
Sampson over Elie. The reason being is that the way I see judging which is the best shot is based on in-game context and degree of difficulty, but not so much the context of the entire season. Sure, we ended up winning the title after the kiss of death, but that shot didn't directly win the title for us, it was just helped lead up to that point. Had that shot been in the finals series, that's a different story. Sampson's shot was more difficult, and directly beat the defending champion Lakers. While we might not have won the chip that year, I don't think this shot should be penalized for it as us losing to Boston in 86 really is not connected to the Sampson Shot. Now us being able to even play the Celtics was connected to the shot, but not losing.
In defense of mockster, the Phoenix Suns were not legendary. We stole every little part of them that could've been legendary in that moment. I mean, 1-9 they were pretty stout, but great teamwork trumps individual talent 8 times out of 10. The Showtime Lakers were definitely legends, but Barkley's Suns? Nah, we stole that opportunity from them.
If any of you are curious as to why Sampson took that shot instead of Hakeem, it's because he was thrown out for someone else starting a fight with him. Otherwise, the game would have ended 118-110 with Hakeem in there. No miracle shot would have been needed, but we gotta thank Sampson for kickin' in his efforts. We didn't need a 6 game series with those showtime punks. We were far better than the showtime Lakers. Let that set in. Hakeem IS the GREATEST of all time.
Regular season win vs the Spurs not as good as post season win. The Suns series was still pretty amazing. Better than losing to a Utah jazz team with Deron Williams
Yeah, regular season games are not as big as a last second shot in the playoffs. I would add that Mario Elie's shot was not a game winner. There were 7 seconds left after he made that shot and the game lasted somewhere between 5 and 15 minutes after that shot. That's why I voted for Sampson. Both were obviously huge, but Sampson's shot is amongst the greatest ever. People should remember what actually happened during that Phoenix game(this video starts with about 3:20 left in the game): Drexler FTs were HUGE and came after Elie's three.
Sampsons shot was the GOAT. You had to watch that play in real time to understand the shear miracle and feeling of total joy and exhiliration. What a shocker. I will never forget it.
I just heard this stat watching old games. The Magic were 46-4 at home when we faced them in the Finals and we beat them twice on the road. We were such a good team. People don't prop us up enough in the mainstream media. I mean, Hakeem went 39/17/5blks in the deciding game against the Spurs. The MVP that year David Robinson went 19/10/1blk in that same game. The MVP. The 'BEST' player in the league got dismantled. I'm not going to sit here and say it was the best team ever, but I will say Hakeem was the best ever. He carried two teams to the promised land and had just 1 hall of famer help him out for 22/45 of the games it took to get there. Hakeem is the GOAT. Just to give you an idea of how good Hakeem was, Kevin Durant scored 39 points one time during his championship run, but he only had 6 rebounds and zero blocks. Hakeem scored over 39 points 5 times just during the 95' campaign.
