Another what if scenario... by the Ringer. https://theringer.com/if-you-could-change-nba-history-would-you-111dc512017#.r3surw4sl I don't think Charles got lost on the play though... that was an illegal pick. Instead of Stockton missing the shot... I want an offensive foul called.
Agreed. Stockton was open not because Chuck got lost but because Karl Malone bear hugged Clyde. Ugh I hate Malone.
Ugh. Now someone's going to post the video for at least the third time this season The foul actually started before the inbounds pass. It's a technical foul, which continued on for like a full second count. Barkley hesitated and Stockton shot from three feet back.
I talk to people about this all the time and talk about how the Rockets did well against the Bulls because they never really had anyone to slow down Hakeem. Their typical response is "yeah but playoff MJ is different" Ok... so why did the Bulls lose in 95 with MJ back? "Well because MJ was rusty after coming back from baseball". Oh really? Even though he played over half of the regular season and the entire playoffs? And he didn't just play in those playoffs but he beasted in those playoffs. But they lost to Orlando and the up and coming Shaq because they had no one to slow him down, even down though Shaq at that point was nowhere near as good as Hakeem. ...I have had this conversation with people a lot
Guys, Rocket Man is going to like this, which we can gather from his gem of a post, here: The Rockets only won their first ring because Jordan wasn't playing. Not sure how you explain the second one. Also, the Harden Rockets can only win a championship if the best player in the league retires (unclear who that is).
Oh we are in agreement. Jordan is goat, no doubt. His prime was fantastic and very long, over almost a decade. But dreams prime, that absolute peak of 3 years was better than anybody's peak. No way does bulls stop or slop him down. Not the rockets fault Jordan couldn't make it to the finals in 94-95, that's on the bulls. Not the rockets fault we couldn't make it in 96-97, that's on the refs.
Keep in mind Bulls had no Horace Grant or Dennis Rodman in the interregnum period. I always stated that the gap between Jordan and Maxwell/Drexler is significantly smaller than the gap between Olajuwon and Cartwright/Perdue/Longley/Wennington...
They aren't wrong. He didn't play over "half of the regular season." He only came back for the final 17 games and played pretty poorly with flashes here and there. He shot 41% in those 17 games. Absolutely not Michael Jordan standard. Nearly 2 full seasons away from the game is a legit argument. Still, they wouldn't have made it to the Finals without Grant or Rodman. They lacked the size to get past the Magic or eventually the Pacers. Same goes for the Rockets in 97. Even if that Malone bear hug gets called. Rockets probably still lose in OT, but let's say they win. No way they win game 7 in Salt Lake. If the small chance that they win game 7 and go to the Finals, the Bulls probably beat them in 5. That 97 team wasn't good. No depth. Relied on our 3 aging stars to play 39 mpg + an aging career journeyman in Elie to play over 37mpg. The team was too old and no one could shoot. Hakeem being the only efficient player that playoff run. They would have been better off with Cassell and Horry instead of just Chuck clogging the paint and throwing up bricks from 3. The only realistic matchup would have been in 94 in which I have to take my homer glasses off and say we lose in 6. We almost lost to the Knicks who almost lost to the Bulls without MJ and took 7 games to beat them. Everyone loves this whole Rockets vs Bulls argument, but what about the Rockets vs Pacers? The Pacers were back to back Game 7 ECF losses away from being a very, very bad matchup for the Rockets. We could easily be looking at Reggie and Pacers being back to back champs and Hakeem's name along with Chuck, Malone, Stockton, Ewing etc that couldn't win a ring.
Oh the Pacers.... I would love to see the Yao era Rockets play the Reggie era Pavers. Yao v Smits oddly is one matchup I wish would have happened since their styles were so similar. Reggie v Tmac. Schrempf v Scola...
The 1997 Rockets were a replacement player level point guard from being good. Brent Price was hurt almost all year. That would have made a difference....
Barkley did "get lost" a little, IIRC. When the refs didn't blow the whistle with Drexler got held by Malone, Barkley should have switched immediately. But I wouldn't say that was a huge defensive mistake.
He only played in 17 games. Hmm. For some reason I thought he played for more of the regular season. I was wrong. Still, in their playoff series against Orlando, in 6 games Jordan averaged 31 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.8 blocks, which was right in line with his playoff averages from the rest of his career. So saying that they didn't make it to the Finals because he was rusty is disingenuous. They couldn't get past Orlando because they had no answer for Shaq who wasn't as good at that point as Hakeem.
That was from a thread where someone compared this seasons rockets team to the 2011 mavs. Not a ridiculous comparison. It's very possible. Then of course some one brought up that this could be more like the 1994 rockets. For that to be possible, Lebron would have to be playing for the Indians minor league team. I was 15 in 1994, but now as a adult I can realize that the GOAT coming off 3 straight championships suddenly retiring at age 29 probably affected who was going to win it all in 1994.
It wasn't the refs fault the rockets couldn't beat Utah in 1997. Utah was just better. If you want to use the transitive property of the bulls were lucky they didn't have to play the rockets in the finals because of playing them tough in the regular season then you are inadvertently throwing shade on the 1994 team since that team got lucky they didn't have to play the Sonics in the playoffs.
Well your clearly not familiar with the Utah Vs rockets series are you? The refs were directly responsible for the shot that beat us. As for the sonics maybe we were lucky but I don't think anyone was beating Hakeem in a series from 94-96. We lost to Utah because of clear referee negligence.
You are aware Hakeem was swept by the Sonics in 1996? As for 1997, how about not blowing a big fourth quarter lead at home. Even if Stockton missed, there's no guarantee they would have won in OT and then won at Uath in game 7. That's like people here that still complain about 2005 when there's no guarantee that the rockets would have made a three to tie if the Finley play was called correctly. Take care of your lead and the refs won't have any effect on things.
I agree with you. And I'm all about Bulls going down in '94. But they did have Horace Grant in '94 -- his one year as an All-Star. And for completeness, you should probably also note that the Bulls added Toni Kukoc in '93-94. He did win 6th MOY in '96. And fwiw: they also added Kerr in '94, but that kinda just offsets Paxson getting old.
We did have Bullard in 1994 instead of Pete Chilcutt... On an unrelated side note, my final paper in undergrad was about Phil Jackson, Zen Buddhism, and the Triangle Offense... he hated Rudy ball of pound the ball to the post. He thought offense should be more read-and-react and give what the defense gives you... he's prob just bitter about his losing record against the Rockets during the Dream era. I never thought I had to write the following for a paper at Rice:
I don't know what you guys are talking about. The Rockets won the championship that year with Stockton missing that 3. Olajuwon went nuts in the Finals scoring 38 ppg, 14 rpg and 4 blocks per game. Houston won in 6, just as Jordan went up to dunk with seconds remaining to win the game as it was tied at 98, Hakeem stuffed him in mid-air, grabbed the ball with both hands in one motion and heaved it down court for a last second 3 pointer to win the game. That's how I remember it.
