Could the 98 Rockets beaten Chicago in the championship if..........

No! Because, Otis Thorpe was the best mixed with Dream and Clyde! I'm just not to much of Barkley fan!!

 

Amen to that. Either you do it or you don't. In the end, it's about the bottom line. I of all people want to say that Dream was better than Jordan, that the Rockets were better than the Bulls, but it's in the numbers and the jewelry.

 

Like the time he lost to orlando?

 

With the exception of Magic's Lakers (not counting 1996), they beat every team the Bulls had to go through (Drexler's Blazers, Barkley's Suns (twice) the Knicks, the Magic, and the Sonics). So they were certainly in the same league.

Why didn't they beat the Bulls? Because the playoffs are all about matchups. The Rockets happened to run into a Seattle team that they had trouble with, and (then wound up getting screwed against the Jazz, and being battered with injuries the following years), just like Chicago ran into Orlando.

 

We should set up a separate forum for "What If: Pre-2000 Rockets"

 

Isn't this like a mid-summer topic?

 

But the Rockets lost to the same Sonics team the Bulls beat in 96. That was the same team the Rockets could never beat until the Barkley trade.

 

The Blazers sucked when the Rockets beat them in the playoffs...That team wasn't anywhere close to the team Jordan beat in the Finals...

 

And? We made adjustments and beat them the following year like Chicago did with Orlando.

It's all about matchups. I really doubt that the Bulls would have six titles if they were in the Western Conference and had to go through Portland, Seattle, Utah, Houston, and Phoenix every year in consecutive rounds. And to be fair, I'm not completely sure that the Rockets would have been able to get theirs had Seattle not floundered in the first round those two years.

Also, odd how the "we beat the team you couldn't, so we're better" logic works when making an argument for the Bulls, but whenever someone brings up the Rockets sweep of Orlando, they get an asterisk.

 

You're right, and also to add to that Shaq is the only great center the Bulls ever faced. But I watched those playoffs and Jordan wasn't the same player after the time off. Its debatable.