[Chron] Rockets became a lost dynasty after promising run 20 years ago

Don't feel bad Rubytuesday. I was in Highschool during the '86 series.

Great article and brought back some great memories. I remember staying up late to watch Game 5 of WCF and Ralph's shot. My Dad was out town at the time and I remember him calling me right after the game ended because he was thrilled too. That summer though I spent up in Cape Cod and I got ragged a lot but still wore my Rockets shirt with pride. Some friends of mine got me a Celtics championship shirt and I wore it once and then cut off the sleeves and the leprechaun.

Great post to Wrath of Khan.

Reading about Bill Fitch though kind of makes me wonder if Fitch had coached the 2000-2004 Rox how they might've done. Fitch was a great teacher who excelled at building young teams. Given the raw material of Francis, Mobley, Yao, Cato and Taylor I have the feeling he could've made playoff contenders of them.

 

Sampson was a 7'4 Kevin Garnett in the 80s. He was way ahead of his time. How can you overrate a guy like that? He was dub "the player of the century." I think that title probably made him "overrated." I think Dream was a better player even before Sampson was injured. But man, (for those who are too young to see bball in the 80s) can you imagine a front line of Dream and a 7'4 KG in their prime? And Lucas was like Nash in their days.

 

see, i don't think so. don't get me wrong..i don't think they would be lottery bound! but they had no where near the depth that teams like the 86 Rockets, Celtics or Lakers had.

take the 86 celts, for example...i think they'd outmatch the 72-10 Bulls at EVERY position other than SG.

and to show i'm not just a bulls hater...i'd say the same thing about the Rockets in 94 & 95...no way can i look at those teams and compare them to the great teams of the mid to late 80's.

 

you can't look at individuals by position when looking at the bulls but that's hard to argue with. but if you look at total talent, the bulls were no slouches. Jordan matches up with bird, pippen matches up with mchale. Parish was very good but he was older. go look back at those players on the celtics' 86 team, they weren't all still putting up hof numbers at that time. I think they are arguably the greatest team of all time. but some of their reputation is reaching mythical proportions.

but whether it be horace grant and b.j. armstrong, or dennis rodman and ron harper, the bulls had very good role player. grant use to average 9 to 10 boards every year and he gave them 13-14 points. then dennis rodman leading the league.

 

*sigh* i read it here earlier today and read it again in the chronicle....what could have been....

just imagine if we hadn't drafted McCray and got Byron Scott or even Drexler....that would have been a nice group of players....but yeah, that team fell apart....but i have to admit, they were exciting to watch back then....even though i was only like 7-8 yrs old....i still have some of the finals games against Boston on VHS somewhere.... lol

 

This article is amazing. Just gets me nostalgic. Ive never seen anyone play the way Ralph Sampson used to play. How can a man of his size move the way he did. Basketball was a true sport back then. Does anyone know of places on the internet where videos of this team might be available.

 

Hey JB, where did you get those game tapes, I would love to get a copy if possible. The only game I have from the 86 playoffs, is the Sampson winner at the buzzer-game five Western Conference Finals.

That article gave me goosebumps. Man, that team was tough.

 

I still remember vividly Ralph Sampson kicking the crap out of that little guy and Johnny Most saying "Ralph Sampson is a gutless big guy who picks on little people". And then Olajuwon, in his pre-religious days, swinging and hitting Dennis Johnson. Classic. I cant remember, was Sampson suspended for the next couple of games and is that the reason we lost.

 

I don't think he was suspended because the next game was at the Garden and the Smelltic fans all taunted him with signs that said "Sampson is a sissy". The fight happened in Game 5 at the Summit and we lost Game 6 at the Garden.

Smelltics won games 1,2,4,6
Rockets won games 3 and 5
This was one of the first years the NBA went to the 2-3-2 format.

 

And at 7-4, he was a helluva ball handler too. he could drible reaaly well bringing the ball down the court. the man was fundamentally really sound. He was more polished than dream was at that stage.

 

See this is funny because back in the day this is what people complained about. I specifically remember older guys back then saying sampson's "problem" was he thought he was a point guard. and in a sense after watching garnett for over 10 seasons I know what they are talking about. garnett's skills are off the charts, but sometimes you need your big man just to pressure on the middle.

ten years from today they'll be a new generation of fans wondering why kevin garnett never won big, and I'l be telling them because he didn't hold down the middle. its the difference between him and duncan. big men like duncan, hakeem, shaq, they just tire you out. they wear down other teams mentally. Sampson didn't do that and I'm sorry but at 7'4" you have to. look at what yao is now doing to teams.

and I'll be the first to admit, I wanted jvg to use Yao in the high post and make better use of his passing but I was wrong and jvg was right. a big man should play big.

 

Three time college player of the year at Virginia, three time All Star and All Star MVP, a #1 pick in the draft. I guess Ralph was a little polished.

 

Great take. Lately I've been watching the Wolves and wondering why they stink despite having KG, a top 3 player by most people's standards, I used to think the same way, but while watching them my respect for KG was going away. A week ago I put him on my overrated list, and didn't even think he should be an All Star, I came up with a reason why when asked about that, but your take is better, so I'll take that for future reference if you don't mind.

Yeah I agree, JVG's decision to ignore everyone's pleas to make Yao into a Sabonis clone was genius, who cares if he's not making fancy passes when he's anchoring the middle on offense and defense.

 

I typically hate Fran Blinebury's writing more than life itself, but that was a great piece. nice job.