Evidence that Hakeem and Akeem whipped Jordan's Bulls

How come they didn't play the bulls in the finals? The claim on this board is the rockets could beat the bulls. The only way to play the bulls in the finals is to get there. You don't win championships in the regular season.

 

Neither did the Bulls in '95 and Jordan was there and fresh, and the Rockets won the championship.

 

Jordan was certainly at his best. He had a better shooting % those playoffs than for his career, he also dropped 55 on Knicks team known for defense. Stop making excuses for Jordan. He was in fine shape. His first game of the playoffs he scored 48, and then 32 his second game of the playoffs that year. He averaged 32 points per game the first series of the playoffs.

Against Magic he scored 38 in game 2, 40 in game 3, and 39 in game 5 in those playoffs.

Don't act like he wasn't back to his old self. He was fresher than ever after not having the 82 game grind of the regular season.

 

I can't find a source, but I remember an old interview where Jordan was asked who he would pick first in an all-time fantasy draft with all players on the board. He said he would pick Hakeem Olajuwon. The interviewer (maybe Dan Patrick?) asked him why he wouldn't pick himself, and Jordan said that it was basketball, and a great center was just more important than a great guard.

 

I understand the Seattle match up was bad for Houston.

You are regular season games in your analysis of this as well.

The main problem I'm having is that we are talking about the Bulls and the Rockets. People have posted videos of match ups, quotes by Jordan, statistics, records of head to head meetings, and the only thing for evidence that you bring up is Seattle who isn't really part of the discussion.

 

Saying Jordan wasn't there for half a season was like saying Olajuwon wasn't available in the 90-91 season for 25 games because of Cartwright's elbow.

Too friggin bad. These things happened and Jordan has no one to blame but himself for the 95 season.

What Jerry has eluded is that although 6-0 is great, those 2 years are still pretty glaring. Jerry kept mentioning Hakeem's advantage.... Yes, Hakeem has an advantage on just about EVERY team's center. The idea of matchups are TEAM matchups. The Rockets have issues with Seattle, mainly due to the plays of Payton, Schrempf, Hawkins, etc. If the Rockets faced Seattle in 1994, maybe something different would have happened. If the Bulls see the Rockets more, maybe they wouldn't be 6-0. Who knows? It's in the past and it's a shame that they didn't get to play each other. HOWEVER, you can mention all you want about the Rockets during those 6 years. The Bulls did do their share for those 2 years as well. I think Jerry seem to forget what the topic was really about. It's about those 2 years that people are discounting. Those years do not have "championship Bulls" written anywhere on it. If it's really about what people do in the playoffs, well, the Rockets showed that they can overcome any obstacle during their brief championship runs.

Yes, Jordan was known to step up his game some, but matchup issues were matchup issues. It took the Bulls 4 years to figure out the Pistons. Why won't we go that far back? It's right before the years in question and the Bulls team did not change much in terms of their nucleus. Heck, it's the same starting lineup as the 3 championship years. If the Lakers did not make the 91 finals, would it be a valid argument that Jordan's Bulls would never beat the Lakers of the late 80s? It's the same exact deal. Did the Bulls just get lucky and that their dynasty has come to fruition because some other team happened to make it to the finals? It's not the Rockets fault that the Bulls did not make it in 95 and that Jordan decided that baseball was his true passion.

 

Jerry36 - just stop making that ridiculous argument about the '95 playoffs. Jordan was there and better than ever... it was just that his team just got roasted by the Magic, and that team was a light version of the nightmare matchup that the Rockets posed for the Bulls.

You simply cannot make the argument that a more in-shape Jordan (if such a thing existed) could have somehow prevented Shaq from averaging about 24 and 13... or Horace from averaging 18 and 11. The Bulls were just destroyed on the interior. Penny was running all over the court and averaged 18 and 6 throughout the series. Nick Anderson was scoring 15 a game while guarding Jordan (but Jordan was still scoring at will). The bottom line is that the Bulls got beat handily by a much better team while Jordan was playing at his best. He is not the entire Bulls team, but that team just got roasted anyway.

The Rockets completely obliterated the Magic that year... We would have done the same to the Bulls had they not already been wiped out.

 

This is Brand Nubian-esque. Punks jump up to get beat down.

 

The Rockets got 2 Championships and you can't take that away. The argument is if Jordan didn't retire that would have eight in row. Winning 3 champoinships in row is very difficult to do and not to many teams have done that. Rockets could have done it but that fellow name Jordan show back up on the scene. And the second 3 peat was in full effect. To do it a second time shows the bulls were dominant and it's a good bet they would have won eight in row if Jordan didn't take off.

 

That's not a good bet and is revisionist history.

We've seen the stats from Jordan when he returned and he didn't win a championship.

 

Scoring was never a problem for Jordan, that's why he's no. 2 all time. I'm talking about his overall game and being dominant Jordan. It takes time to get back to your dominant self after laying on the couch in retirement.

 

Now I see why the rockets didn't meet the Bulls in the finals. Because the Rockets thought the finals was played in January.

 

The argument is if he didn't retire. I can see if the championships were alternated each year. But he came back and won three in a row.

 

Classic Tinman thread, much applause! Coulda, woulda, shoulda doesn't get it. If Jordan wanted a shot at the title he should have kept playing. If he had played that does not promise anything. It all happened on the court and he wasn't there. So, all the Jordan and Bull's fans should get over it.

 

Edited for complete story.