Apparently the off-season brings in Non believers and this old question. You know my take. This is #1's take.
I think we're all secure enough about Hakeem to not constantly need these comparison threads. Leave that to the nubs over at Yahoo sports or the Dylan Gwinn show or whatever.
This has been discussed many times over the years so I won't get into the details again but if their regular season matchups during that time period were any indication of what would have happened in the playoffs (and they don't always do) it would be Hakeem and the Rockets.
We is not all of clutchfans anymore. Fewer relate to what this "Hakeem" guy meant to the city. Fewer didn't understand the journey. Fewer know 86. Fewer know what happened when the Rockets vs Bulls matched up back then. Fewer know why Clutch is named Clutch.
Why don't you check out the NBA Dish sometime. People act like they know the Dream and the 90s Rockets when they obviously don't. Clutch knows the 90s Rockets. I can GUARANTEE YOU THAT.
You should have your thread starting abilities taken away. Clutch also said he thinks the team should rebuild instead of trying to compete for the playoffs.
As much as I love my city and the Dream...MJ ripped the hearts out of AllStars...Halloffamers never got titles because of him...I really dont know what Jordan would have done against Hakeem and the Rockets
They were both drafted the same year. The bulls and rockets play each other every year. Many fans in both cities watched these games.
I do read the dish (but rarely post) and I know where you are coming from. I am as old school as you. Like Hakeem I peaked as a fan during that time period (pre-wife/family days) so I remember it well. I also vividly remember watching the Rockets play the Bulls during those years because they were the team to beat. Unfortunately as more and more time goes by there will be fewer people that will remember it that well or were never around it to begin with. I had a great time during the Luv Ya Blue days! Ask how many people on this board that were around for that. We're definitely in the minority.
You know... ...I've always avoided any type of comparison to Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon, particularly in the context of potentiality in terms of their respective championships. Not for any good reason. Just never thought much about it. 'Til now. Jordan and Olajuwon are arguable two of the the ten greatest players in NBA history. THAT alone says enough about the both of them individually. Any confrontation among them (or rather, their respective teams) would have been nothing short of epic. Michael Jordan NEVER played a game seven in any title round he participated in. Whenever he had you at his mercy, he did not accept your surrender. He took your head off and paraded it up and down the street in his left hand, while clutching the Larry O'Brien trophy with his right. Olajuwon did not have the opportunity to play for as many titles as Jordan did over the course of his career, but it could be argued that Olajuwon was just as determined to win. Fate, wry and naughty little minx that she is, did somehow manage to avoid having the both of them compete for the most treasured prize in the game...only she (and Jordan's bookees) may ever know the truth as to why that happened... ...but I honestly could not say that the Rockets would have fared any better against the bulls of that era than did any other team that faced them. It would certainly be a much more competitive contest than it may seem (and the only reason why it would not be seen as such by anybody outside of Houston is because of the largely nondescript "supporting cast" of Hakeem, especially in 1994)... ...but Michael Jordan had a sense of history and legacy intertwined with that ruthless competitiveness of his. Had Jordan faced Olajuwon in 1994 for the championship, people seem to forget, he would have been attempting something that had not been done in the league since before the ABA/NBA merger: win 4 consecutive NBA championships. Jordan or the Bulls would certainly not have looked past Olajuwon and the Rockets...but to say that, given the opportunity to chase something as rare in NBA history as watching air (bad pun, sorry) turn to gold...the Bulls woul have certainly been playing for something a bit bigger than just beating Houston. The 1994 Rockets were, strangely, much more like the Bulls of the previous year than they were like their opponents that year in the championship round, the New York Knicks. It took New York and Pat Riley all of one half of basketball in game one of the Finals that year to realize that if they decided to get into a track meet with the Rockets, they'd get run right out of the title round. It's to their credit that they slowed everything down to a crawl and forced the Rockets into a slugfest. Both teams (Chicago and Houston) were very good in transition, though the advantage would go to Chicago because of Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Both teams did very well in the half court (I tend to lean toward the Rockets as being slightly better there, since so much of what they did was strangely misdirection-Hakeem forced teams to collapse their defenses in futile attempts to stop him, giving his teammates 3-point shots that they were very good at knocking down...)... ...it would have been mouth-watering to see that unfold. Ultimately, I think anything that Jordan and Olajuwon did would be a wash, statistically. It would be decided (as these things are and tend to be) by whose TEAM was better. I do know one thing for sure, though... ...Jordan would have needed 7 games to settle it in 1994.
We are the minority now. It doesn't matter that people don't see what happened in the 80s and early 90s. Their perception and minds are made up. The true tragedy was the 86 team. History would have changed forever is that team wasn't broken up. Yeah who made it to the dance first? We know
I know that you didn't know how those games played out. Any Rocket fan who was watching the Rockets during the 80s and 90s had absolutely zero fear of the Bulls. ZERO.
Olajuwon was in the Finals in 86. Michael Jordan played that year too. And in 95. You're right , it's about team. That's why when the Rockets of the early 90s played the Bulls, the Bulls had to double or quadruple Dream every time and the Rockets just stuck one player on him.
Just because one is a Rockets fan...doesnt mean he has to look thru biased views...The Rockets were damn good...But there is a reason Jordan got 6...and never played game 7's....ever...during those 6... Regardless of what folks will say...I for one am glad that the Rockets actually took advantage of the chance they got to get their titles... If not Houston would remain titleless among the 3 largest professional sports teams...and have the Comets and Dynamo be the only teams to ever win big...in our City...
Hakeem went back-to-back, one season with Otis and one season with Clyde. Those were championship teams, even with Vernon monkeying around. Vernon was the Jordan foil. He played Jordan better than anyone. If Jordan would have been around, Vernon would have stuck around for the 95 post season instead of bailing with the alleged hamstring injury. Not to mention 1996. Utah got the cheapest bucket you could possibly get to squeek by us and get annihilated by the Bulls. Karl's bearhug of Clyde that freed Stockton up for the game winner is one of the many reasons I say NBA officials are the most inconsistent officials in professional sports. That would have been the third straight year going to the Finals and after whipping them with Vernon in 1995 (if they had made it), he would have undoubtedly been back for 1996. The key is the 94 team. What would Jordan have been in 93-94 if he hadn't retired? No telling there. That series would have been a war, no doubt about it.
There's no way they would be a wash defensively. Dream would have completely shut down the driving lanes and the drive was pretty much why Jordan shot such a high percentage in his career.
