I lived in Houston then and was really into the Rockets after the Cougars final 4 appearances. They were young, talented and perhaps a bit inexperienced - looking back it was amazing they even made it to the finals after tough Denver series and miraculous Lakers series. THey were just plain over matched by the Lakers. Dang I all but 'willed' them to win. And to add insult to injury the CBS coverage of the era was so hideously Celtics biased. (the current ABC coverage doesn't seem quite so bad). In fact I used to turn on the radio for audio - I haven't been in Houston in years but there was a real loud and fun announcer that did the local TV and radio stuff back then. Gawd he he was fun - biased as all get out but at least for my team! SO what all became of the '86 Rockets, bench and all? I even remember a guy we called "Granny" who didn't do half bad. Oh how I wished I had taped that series!
Mr Waiters thanks you for remembering. Ralph's career short circuited but the other tall lad did well for himself, finally leaving the USA for a Canadian sunset. Luke, the 1, has been the 1 everywhere, it seems, as a 'head' coach, but is now on the outside looking in. Robert Reid is coaching in the minors. The loud homer is still calling games, but recent lack of success and heart issues have toned Mr Peterson down. The head coach is retired in the Woodlands, or some such north of Houston suburb. They are eclipsed by fans in wake of great 94 and 95 Finals.
HAKEEM OLAJUWON: Raptors then retired... RALPH SAMPSON: ? LEWIS LLOYD: ? JOHN LUCAS: ? ROBERT REID: coaching minors RODNEY MCCRAY: ? ALLEN LEAVELL: ? MITCHELL WIGGINS: ? JIM PETERSEN: ? STEVE HARRIS: ? HANK MCDOWELL: ? CRAIG EHLO: ? GRANVILLE WAITERS: ? BILL FITCH: Retired GENE PEDERSON: Still at it eh!? Yep, eclipsed by team and later championships certainly. But they put Houston on the map so to speak and the thought of a return was planted. It was awfully fun watching them in post season - some squeekers w/ Denver, kicking LA right outta there and there was some pretty tough stuff against both the Lakers and Celtics. I think Dream and Ralph both got ejected in fact. Is it possible to find any video from this season the playoffs or finals. Maybe just highlights or something if not the whole thing?
LOL! Why did you bother typing all of this if the only insight you had to offer was the whereabouts of Robert Reid!?!
Good post. I have a lot of these same memories. I watched Hakeen when he was at UH and then followed him right on to the Rockets. That Denver series was a bear and the exhaustion caused by it was the main reason we dropped that first game to L.A. - and were written off by a lot of the national media. Boy, they must have been surpised by the the next four games capped by Ralph's Shot Heard Round the World. Also, I used to listen to Gene Peterson call the games on the radio when watching national broadcasts. I remember that the radio broadcast was a fraction of a second ahead so that Gene would be calling a basket good when the ball was just reaching the rim. Boy, that was strange. I can't remember who called the games on TV, but wasn't it Bill Worrell and some other guy that I can picture but can't name that had blondish brown hair and big 80's style rimmed glasses? I believe the home games were on HSE - Home Sports Entertainment. Correct me if I am wrong. And after all this time, Steve Harris in the first round is still a bad pick.
If I remember correctly, there used to be a poster called Granville Waiters. What ever happened to him???
Darkhorse, it wasn't typed, it was pasted, the info was provided as a summary of the roster to give context to xiki's information provided earlier. Do you have anything to add where a '?' might be removed? --- CoinToss - thanks for the memories - that Denver series was nailbiter! I was on the edge of the couch watching it on TV. It was CBS covering it and I believe Tommy Heinson(?) was one and perhaps Brent Mussburger(?) - not sure. They had an ex Celtics or two on and throughout all the NBA finals they never gave Houston squat. In fact you can just see them seething with contempt at the thought it wouldn't be a West coast team - namely the Lakers going. They were notably disappointed that Houston was going and it showed through and through. I remember they gave P. Riley TONS of air time between games to rant about bad officiating or whatever - 'Akeem' as he was known then - they ignored much of the time. I want to say back when I lived in Houston, Pedersen did his wild antics for a local station covering their away games via TV. And local games or nat'l broadcast games via local radio only. YES! I too remember how he would yell out "ITS IN!!!!" to the point of speaker distortion when the ball was still just peaking it's arc. I didn't mind - I was tired of 'C'eltics 'B'roadcasting 'S'ystem. And his excitement was contagious - hilarious stuff. I think ABC's finals coverage hasn't been too biased though they do have several ex Spurs on staff. Even w/ the ex spurs they talk a LOT about Kidd Kidd Kidd... - no complaints though like back in '86. Anybody know if there are any tapes or even highlight tapes available out there...?
It was Dick Stockton and former Celtics great Tommy Heinsohn calling the games on CBS. That sucked. Isn't Sampson a coach/assistant coach in the college ranks? more on Ralph: Here's something I dug up on Craig Ehlo: Mitch Wiggins played in Greece then France after leaving the NBA in 1991, last playing in France in 1999.
Sampson was an assistant at some Virginia school at some point, I think it was James Madison or something.
Wow, I remember that series. In fact I have three video tapes of Lakers Game 5, Celtics game 3 and game 5. All with Gene Peterson calling the games for the audio-track. I bring them out of the bone pile every now and then and watch them.
