Evidence that Hakeem and Akeem whipped Jordan's Bulls

The better team is found out in the playoffs, not regular season. You can't when a championship in the regular season. What you need to do is step out of the box and then you can see more clearly.

 

It don't matter who they sign, they won three in a row

 

Ok, that also applies to why the Rockets didn't play the Bulls in the finals.

 

Whew! Did I hit a nerve cell. Didn't mean to stir up hate in you. I'm die heart fan, but the bulls were just the better team.

 

I've read the same thing before, wes. I don't know what the problem is with this Jerry guy, but he's clearly no Seinfeld. Like Mr. dave, he's cherry picking what "suits" his "argument," and ignoring the facts. Heck, ignoring Jordan himself.

As for Jordan's performance the season he returned from his baseball adventure, in his 5th game back, he scored 55 points. Clearly, he'd lost something. He had 4 other games where he scored over 30. Jordan also had 5 games where he scored 25 or more. That's 10 out of 17 games. Let's look at the playoffs. Against the Hornets in the first round, he averaged 32.25 points per game, 6.5 boards, and 5.75 assists. God, that's just awful! Against Orlando, Jordan clearly sucked, averaging 31 points per game, 6.5 rebounds, and over 3 assists a game. What a struggle! Jordan's PER for the playoffs that year was 24.8. Mr. Jordan clearly just didn't have it. I don't suppose the failure of the Bulls to advance had anything to do with the play of the rest of the team. How could it? Michael Jordan at his peak could carry a team to a championship by himself. Right? Right?

No, that would be Hakeem Olajuwon, circa 1994, chump.

 

His rebounding numbers were up, and his assists were also right on par with his other playoff averages.

He dominated fine until he came against a team with a match up that didn't favor the bulls. That match up was against a team with a dominant center who could clog up the middle and stop penetration. That team had a solid front line that the Bulls had no answer for.

The Rockets had those same qualities but with an even better center who was even better at defense and shutting down the other team scoring in the lane. He was also able to score at will against teams with a front line like the Bulls.

 

In a lot of cases teams that win the 'ship get fortunate breaks. For example, in 2007 the Spurs were lucky (very) to face Denver, Phoenix, Utah, and Cleveland. What a posh route. Alternatively, they could have faced Dallas/Houston in the WCF, and Detroit in the finals. I don't mean to suggest that Jordan ever got 'lucky', but rather that he got what he got and there were probably teams out there that would've beaten the Bulls in a different shuffle of the deck. The NBA playoffs are a series of dominoes and some teams end up in the finals due to fate. Does Jordan deserve all of his championships? Yes, he got there, and we can't re-write history.

That's not the point. What we (Rockets fans) suggest is that our team could match up with Jordan's Bulls, give them a run for their money (at the very least) - the same way Houston/Dallas/Detroit would've done better against San Antonio than The Utards and the LeBrons. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that. It is unreasonable to re-write history, but not to suggest that Jordan could've lost if some other chips had fallen differently.

And let's remember the root of this whole discussion, which is the world in general trying to re-write history and say Houston didn't deserve its championships because Jordan would've beaten them. You already agreed with that... so here we are.

 

Did anyone even consider the issues at hand with the Bulls? It seems to me that everyone's argument was that the Bulls didn't have Jordan. Losing Grant in 95 made a big difference as well. Until Rodman came into the picture and Kukoc started to become a part of the offense, they were simply beat by the Magic. I don't think it's even about Jordan being himself or not. That team had no answers to the inside game of Shaq and Horace in the inside.

The truth of the matter is that the teams that Jordan lead to each 3-peat were completely different teams. Players have rotated and roles changed. The 94 and 95 teams were transitions at best for the Bulls. Pippen was not who he was in the second 3-peat and that's most likely due to the fact that Jordan was out and Pippen took charge. Horace grant was a force for the earlier 3-peat. He's their fastest down the court sprinter (yes, Horace Grant) and his defensive presence in the interior gave them everything they needed for an interior presence. There is a reason why Kukoc could not start over Horace or Rodman, and that the Bulls struggled in 1995. Jordan was not out of shape. He's been playing baseball during that entire time and his basketball rust didn't seem like it extended for more than a couple of weeks. Teams just gave them problems because Longley and Wennington could not hold down the fort and there was no long presence from the 4.

 

Hey, we were waiting for them in '95, but the Bulls never showed up. Despite the fact that they had the GOAT leading the way, they fell to the Magic, led by a couple of youngsters. That would be like this year's Lakers choking against the Thunder -- which they obviously didn't. If the Jordan-led Bulls were great enough to potentially win 8 straight titles, and great enough to beat the defending champs in the '95 finals, they would have GOTTEN to the '95 finals. Period.

 

Whenever People go back to this argument. I go back to the fact that Jordan play in our second championship year. He came back as number 45 and had begun to score in the high 50s on some teams by the end of the year and averaging 29 points a game again for the last games he played before the playoffs came around. They met the dominant center team again like they always had trouble with with us. When they met Shaq and Orlando and they lost. They played with Jordan that year and lost to Shaq and Orlando. So thos whole retiring mess? Was not true. For one playoff year he came back and he couldnt get past Shaq to even play the Rockets. Thats not our fault. Thats the Bulls proving they couldnt beat a team with a great center in that era before they got Denis Rodman in the next coming years. They only played Ewing and Ewing was just a pretty good center who always pushed them to 6 or 7 games with the Knicks. So again. Jordan played our second Championship and he lost in the conference finals. Something posters always omit in this conversation.

 

Jerry36, are you really a Rockets fan?

Jordan was great and those were some great Bulls teams no doubt about it. My head tells me that yes its possible that if the Bulls had met the Rockets in 1994 and 1995 they might've won but that is a a big IF.

What makes me question your fandom though isn't that you think that the Bulls might have won but that you so completely dismiss the facts, including statements from his Airness himself, that show that the Rockets very likely had the Bulls number. You on the other hand act like that it would be a given that the Bulls win. To me that's not an objective view of the facts but showing either a Bulls or anti-Rocket bias.

 

I love the rockets and all, but you have to be foolish to think that regular season equals postseason success