Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=smith_sam&id=1895719 Applicable portion: " Pippen tried that one season in 1993-94, when Jordan left the NBA for the first time, and he was close at times, but not quite up to it. He was the All-Star Game MVP and led the Bulls to 55 wins, only two fewer than in Jordan's first final season. Who knows how far the Bulls would have gone against perhaps the weakness champion ever, the role player-loaded 1994 Houston Rockets. " It only serves them right that they typed weakness instead of weakest. The rest of the article also shows some examples where Pippen quit on the Bull's team, which I found to be pretty interesting.
The best part about this kind of statement is how the same sports writers are oohing and ahhing over the "team-oriented" and "no-superstar" Pistons. F***ing hypocrites.
People have been dissing the Rockets Championships for as long as there have been sportswriters saying they only won the first title due to Jordan's League-forced retirement for gambling problems that got his father killed. The Rockets only won their second because Stern did not lift the suspension in time to let Jordan get into enough of a groove to carry the Bulls and prevent another ratings fiasco that was the Knick/Rocket final of 94. With Jordan not quite in basketball shape and having all of his hoop dexterity, he couldn't pull them past the young Orlando team that was trounced by our ROX. Let them say what they want, but, with rule changes in place to try to prevent the Knicks/Rockets rematch that promoted running styles, the Rockets changed in midseason and made the greatest playoff run in NBA history much to the chagrin of NBC and David Stern. Don't hate; Congratulate!!
Pippen would not have been jack ****e if it were not for Jordan. And what does he think the Bulls teams were? They were a bunch of role players surrounding MJ for goodness sake. I never did like him much when he played with the Bulls and after his tenure with the Rockets I don't like him at all..........QUITTER!!!
That weakest champion ever set a few records that year. They had the best start or tied the record for the best start ever at 15-0 which soon after they reached 22-1 which set another record. And there had to be some defensive records set by that team when they held an opponnent under 90pts for so many consecutive games. The Rockets were so weak that they were able to march through the league that year and leave its trail of footprints in the leagues record books. That doesn't sound like a weak team to me. and in case this sportwriter has forgotten this weakest champion ever set another record by coming back from 3-1 deficit to beat the same phoneix suns team with the same cast of players that took the micheal jordan led bulls to the limit the previous year in the finals. If the Rockets did not knock of the Suns that year the Suns would have made it to the finals. So his reasoning would have to be that the Jordan-less Bulls lead by Pippen would have beaten the same Suns team they had barely beaten the year prior with Jordan. Thats highly unlikely.
Hm..although the weird thing is that unless i'm hallucinating, the '94 rockets were the one with drexler... Can a team with 2 top players really be considered role player loaded? I mean 'cmon, if you want to talk role player loaded, that would've been the Rockets the year before.
All though I wasnt around the time, I have heard on more than one occasion that the 1979 Sonics champioship team was the weakest.
15-0 tied the record but i believe 23-1 was the record for one loss. and we didn't come back from 3-1 against the suns that year (just 2-0), we saved that comeback for the following year. but the rest i like. and while i do think we had one of the weaker title teams, spurs in '03 definitely compete and the pistons from last year are really up there (along with '79 sonics). hell, had the pistons faced a healthy new jersey, a healthy indiana, a healthy LA, or had cassell not gotten hurt and the real best team from the west advanced, detroit doesn't get the title possibly. they were maybe the 3rd best team in the league last year.
The Rockets were remarkable that season... Olajuwon showed why he is THE BEST CENTER ever... However...IMO I feel that the Bulls, With Jordan and Pippen, would have beat us that year if we would've met in the finals... Again...IMO I will say this... Who would've loved to see the Rockets play the Sonics that year? ... Real Rocket fans know that Seattle was our enemy around that time... But I feel the Rockets WOULD have BEAT the Sonics
Rockets record vs. Jordan/Pippen Bulls: 1991: 2-0 1992: 1-1 1993: 2-0 1996: 0-2 1997: 1-1 1998: 0-2 We played them even in the regular season. If you leave out the major trades prior to 95 (Drexler and Barkley) and focus on the "weakness championship" team, we practically dominated. It would have been a great series.
I've learned that regular season records don't matter in this league... Postseason play is COMPLETELY different...
I agree. The 95 Rockets are a golden example. Regular season is an indicator though and IIRC nobody played the Bulls better than we did back then. The Bulls didn't just dominate in the playoffs -- they dominated year round. Except when they played us. You can say post season's different, but that's not an argument that favors the Bulls any more than it favors the Rockets. Sadly, we'll never know how that series would have gone but I'd say it's a pretty good bet it would have been a great one.
