You mean aside from the <a href="http://www.clutchfans.net/games_box_listings.cfm?BoxSeason=1995">9-0 start</a>? I agree with your point though. Yeah, but it was because of Max that they made the trade... I mean they didn't view Drexler as a short-term band-aid, but Maximillian had just melted down and was going to be out 10 games. It was a gutsy move, but they could also see things slipping away. The Rockets' hot start was a distant memory (ala Astros 2006) and they had just lost to the worst team in the league (Clippers) bar none, and by a good margin. My feeling was 1995 was the most special. Still very hard to believe. Even though they were struggling before making the Drexler trade, they were worse afterwards. They were 17-18 after the deal, with Hakeem out 8 games... but they were still 3-5 in those contests. They were playing .500 ball, they brought in a new star who would require the ball a lot, they lost their starting power forward and their lockdown defender at the two bailed after Game 1 of the first round. In so many ways they were a completely different team, yet had to beat, basically, four 60-win teams in Utah (60 wins), Phoenix (59), San Antonio (62) and Orlando (57). By today's standards that's like the Grizzlies knocking off the Mavericks, Suns (with Amare), Spurs and Pistons. But everyone just filled the cracks so well around Hakeem. Clyde may have an ego, but he didn't play with one and played as if he had been playing with these guys for years. Horry changed the power forward position, even if he himself didn't live up to it in later years. Kenny, Sam ... and Mario Elie -- I mean think about how that postseason shot him up several notches. He wasn't even getting time in the 94 Finals and by 1996-97, he was being called team MVP by his teammates on a squad that had Barkley, Dream and Clyde. In essence though, it was Hakeem, who proved then what is still true today: If you have a dominant big man, anything can happen.
1994 was by far the best. 1995 was a heck of a run but there is no better feeling then the first one, especially given the track record of Houston sports teams in similar situations. Talk about a monkey being lifted off of your back! The 1994 run had just as much drama as 1995 with the Phoenix serie3s and choke city and blowing the home court advantage. Then the finals versus the Knicks what a showdown that was. Grind it out basektball with two teams battling on both ends of the court. NO WAY the refs would let two teams beat on each other that way in todays game, back then the players didn't whine to the officials but rather shrugged it off and got a payback on the other end of the court. I will never forget that game six in the finals when Hakeem got a hangnail on Starks shot. When he blocked the shot I remember screaming in my apartment and leaping off the sofa just overrun with emotion and joy. You just knew that shot was going in as Starks had hit everything else that night and was on fire. As that play was developing and Starks snuck into the corner and got the open look, I just thought to myself OH NO!, but then just like magic in swoops the Dream out of nowwhere and leaped at him at an awkard angle and you thought no way is he going to be able to get there, but alas that is why they call him the The Dream. Ironically we owe our first championship to Starks as in game seven he could not buy a basket...LOL HOW SWEET IT IS! GO ROCKETS!
95's regular season was almost as crazy as the playoffs. Mad Max going postal, the Valentine's Day trade, Dream going down with anemia. It was like every other week Rudy brought out some CBA castaway who played one or two games before burning out. Chucky Brown? Sam Mack?
i love them both but i gotta go with 95. game 1 is the greatest game ive ever seen thanks to nick the brick....that finals run was amazing. all i gotta say is who the hell is chucky brown
95 of course ! I became a Rockets fan the moment Drexler got traded to Houston. As a matter of fact I hated Dream and Houston prior to that because he was so damned good and I actually wanted the Knicks to win in 94. Okay FLAME ME!!! Burn baby burn!
Just goes to show that SamIAm is a scoring machine. On a related note, the Madonna business is a grotesque and horrifying thought. Poor Sam.
