No center was as good as Olajuwon during his peak. Meaning, technically, he was the greatest center ever because no other center has ever been that good. Hakeem reached the position's pinnacle. But we all define greatness differently.
Have you searched for them on Amazon, etc.? Here you go: http://www.amazon.com/NBA-Houston-Rockets-1993-1994-Champions/dp/B000ION24Y I've got these and watch them from time to time. Nirvana!
Come on dude, that team was CLUTCH CITY. Dream was amazing that year and the year before. 1994 we started off 15-0. The entire OFFENSE was designed to get Dream the ball, but as far as teamwork, don't think it was not balanced. It was very balanced. Vernon Maxwell led the Rockets in assists that year, think about that. That means the PG's role was not to get everyone involved , it was to get the ball to Dream and then Dream makes the decision on who to pass it to. Similar to Lebron, except Dream doesn't ball handle, someone has to pass it to him. <PRE> G Date Opponent Tm Opp W L Streak Notes 1 Fri Nov 5 1993 Box Score New Jersey Nets W 110 88 1 0 W 1 2 Sun Nov 7 1993 Box Score Portland Trail Blazers W 106 92 2 0 W 2 3 Tue Nov 9 1993 Box Score Golden State Warriors W 102 93 3 0 W 3 4 Thu Nov 11 1993 Box Score Minnesota Timberwolves W 107 99 4 0 W 4 5 Sat Nov 13 1993 Box Score Phoenix Suns W 99 95 5 0 W 5 6 Mon Nov 15 1993 Box Score Philadelphia 76ers W 88 84 6 0 W 6 7 Tue Nov 16 1993 Box Score New Jersey Nets W 90 84 7 0 W 7 8 Thu Nov 18 1993 Box Score Indiana Pacers W 99 83 8 0 W 8 9 Sat Nov 20 1993 Box Score Los Angeles Clippers W 108 86 9 0 W 9 10 Tue Nov 23 1993 Box Score Chicago Bulls W 100 93 10 0 W 10 11 Wed Nov 24 1993 Box Score Utah Jazz W OT 95 93 11 0 W 11 12 Fri Nov 26 1993 Box Score Sacramento Kings W 92 89 12 0 W 12 13 Sat Nov 27 1993 Box Score Los Angeles Clippers W 82 80 13 0 W 13 14 Tue Nov 30 1993 Box Score Milwaukee Bucks W 102 91 14 0 W 14 15 Thu Dec 2 1993 Box Score New York Knicks W 94 85 15 0 W 15 </PRE>
"The kids in Houston should love the Houston Rockets" -Rudy T <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MN1_jnyRmi4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Odd that I'm going to say this since I think Hakeem is the greatest center but that team had a great cast of roll players, mainly great team D. O.T. (Otis Thorpe) is a super underrated Power Forward. Second best pick and roll with Kenny in the league (Karl Malone and he should not be named where first). Vernon Maxwell is one of the best Defensive shooting guards the league has ever seen. If Maxwell didn't have the brain of a squirrel he could have been a perennial all star. Horry was a defensive monster (he was a great athlete early in his career). Junk Yard Dog (Mario Elie) was also one of the best defenders in the league and allowed him to play 2 and 3 so at times he could play with Horry or Maxwell. If I remember correctly the media hated the Rockets because they were defensive monsters and boring as hell. By the way, Detroit was too...they had a little more offensive pop. The Rockets just dropped it down to Hakeem and that was their offense. If you were an Hakeem fan, it was fun to watch. Otherwise, it must have been root canal painful to watch the Rockets.
Your memory fails you. Riley couldnt leave Hakeem to be covered by Ewing. Hakeem was too quick for him. He used a rotation of big men to tire out Hakeem including Anthony Mason. They used two hands on the back (which was legal back then) to crowbar Hakeem out of his positions. Hakeem had an easier time beating Ewing with is quickness. Rockets did not need to double team Ewing. They went primarily with single coverage with him because they were happy with how Hakeem was covering him. If the guy is shooting at about 38% for the series, you let him have his shots. Why in the world would you double team him when Hakeem had him shut down??! Rudy would give Hakeem some help with double at times to protect him from fouls if he was in danger of foul troubles.
You memory fails you as well. Rockets werent boring to watch. They used to run a lot of fastbreaks. OT and Horry used to cut and dunk a lot. Lots of three pointers all over the place. And Hakeem was a joy to watch in the post. Its the Knicks that were just damn ugly to watch. The finals were boring because Riley made it that way. It was a prequel to Gundy ball. Gundy was on the Knicks bench with his training shorts on. In the three series against the Blazers, Suns, and the Jazz, the Rockets were a joy to watch. Lots of fast breaks and plenty of scoring. Yes they played defense but they scored as well. There was a reason that Horry, after two games against the Knicks in the finals, said that Rockets havent played Rockets ball yet. Little did he know that Riley was not going to let them play Rockets ball because that would mean a quick series win for the Rockets. Which is why we had 7 games of plain ugly ball and Horry had to wait for next season to play Rockets ball again.
where are those morons who said tim duncan was better than dream? smdh... Duncan could have never done that. Especially in the defensive era and that knick team with that brutal physical defense. they would have eaten up duncan.
how do we even know hakeem was 31, he could have been 35. Has anyone seen hakeem lately? he still has a young face. If he hadn't gotten pudgy on the waist, he'd still look like he could ball. hakeem should be the best center to ever play. no houston bias here. teleport him to the 50s, he'd destroy those short guys. Put him with magic and ac green, he'd have like seven titles in a row.
wasnt there a rumor going around that dream lied about his age and he was actually older when he came to houston?
The 94 team had great role players, but make no mistake.....without Hakeem, that team probably wins 42 games and doesn't make it out of the 2nd round. That's not slamming the other players as much as it's praising Hakeem. The reason why no one else averaged more than 13 ppg is because it was always Hakeem and a different player stepping up every night. There were as many as 6 different players who could go off for 30 on any given night (Kenny, Vernon, Sam, Horry, Mario, OT) but none of them did it consistently.
forget the stats etc, the mental toughness of that team is off the charts the confidence and fire that they played with is unrivaled in the history of history
While I agree that much of the media complained about the Finals being "ugly to watch" and "boring" and other completely stupid things to put in print, or say on the tube, I've never agreed and have never understood why they didn't see what I saw. The Rockets were a thing of beauty. Everything revolved around Dream at both ends of the court, who was not only the best big man in the game, but simply the best player in the league. In my humble opinion, and I'm not alone. The offence made perfect sense because of the personel. Rudy was brilliant in figuring out how we should play on that end of the court and getting Hakeem to buy into it. I've always thought he didn't get enough credit for that outside of Houston. And for those who appreciate defence, and I certainly do, that aspect of our game was beautiful as well, with Dream again being the eye of the storm. The games were exciting as hell to watch. In my opinion, the comments in the media were more about propping up an absent Jordan during the first championship run... propping up the Bulls, their coach, and their style of play, more than making comments driven by what they saw on the court. The series was declared "ugly" more because Jordan wasn't there and Jackson wasn't coaching on the sidelines. Instead of focusing on what the Rockets were doing, and how remarkable they were, and how incredible Dream was, the media spent far, far too much time lamenting the absent Jordan, Pippen, and Phil Jackson, and denigrating the accomplishments of both teams in the Finals, a complete travesty, in my humble opinion. We weren't "exciting" enough for them? They were blind. Willfully blind.
Don't forget that Hakeem was also the only Rockets shotblocker, plus he had to guard the physical (i.e., bigger and dirtier) Ewing and get beat up by Oakley and Mason on the other end of the floor while Ewing rested. AND, Harper and Anthony were allowed to handcheck (i.e. hold and wrestle down) Kenny Smith so that it was hard to even get the ball into Hakeem.
Good point, but since he mostly played the 3 that year, he was more of a fastbreak, perimeter shotblocker, averaging 0.9 blocks that year. But you didn't get shotblocking from OT at the 4 (don't get me wrong, I love OT, who was good in many other areas), so Hakeem mostly had to deal with everything at the basket down low against the Knicks' endless rotation of nasty and huge bigs, not to mention the guards when they penetrated.
