The one that I want to see is Olajuwon vs the chiseled Michael Cage in Seattle...I have not seen it since it happened...
Yeah,but we were the only team besides the Lakers to get out of the West in the eighties....only to face another top 5 team of all time twice. I've always believed these accomplishments were our finest moments.Winning the titles was an epiphany,but the competition was tougher back then.In retrospect I've enjoyed it all. History has a way of sorting things out though. Look at the Oilers.If we don't go up against maybe the greatest team in the history of the NFL,there would be at least 1 Super bowl win.
Wow is it just me or is the arena over-filled? The sidelines looked almost too overcrowded, even before the fight. I'm too young to know what basketball was like during the 70s and 80s, the glory decades of the NBA.
Sampson was no shrinking violet either as that years playoff's if I recall he got into three scuffles himself, in the WC Semis with Bill Hanzlik on the Nuggets, he mixed it up some in the Olajuwan vs Kupchak fight, and finally in game 5 of the Championships where he laid out Gerry Sichting along with a couple of other Celtics. It does seem like a different time where the NBA, along with the NFL and MLB, attitude towards fighting was a lot more like Hockey. Players were more likely to mix it up with each other and many teams even seemed to have their designated thug. Mitch Kupchak and Kurt Rambis both made careers as being enforcers. Like Hockey too there seemed to be an unwritten code regarding fighting and the Detroit Pistons team was one where they made it an art form of pushing the code regarding fights. Also for anyone who thinks that players today are tough if you look at the video you see Craig Ehlo, then the Rox 11th man, getting out there to mix it up. Can anyone imagine Steve Novak charging off the bench to wade into fight?
