The Rockets went to the Finals in '86, just 2 years after drafting Hakeem (Akeem). That was the Twin Towers era, and everyone was completely fine with the decision. By the time Jordan was really coming into his own, the Rockets were imploding along with Ralph Sampsons knees and a log of drug problems. I don't think anyone was thinking, "gee if only we had Jordan we'd be winning titles" It was more like "crap if Ralph Sampson hadn't fallen apart and John Lucas, Lewis Lloyd, and Mitchell Wiggins hadn't all been doing drugs and getting kicked off the team we'd be winning titles" See this Grantland article about how awesome the 80's Rockets team was: http://grantland.com/features/an-oral-history-hakeem-olajuwon-ralph-sampson-1980s-houston-rockets/
I wasn't alive in the '80s but I always wondered if the trade rumor of Sampson for the #2 pick was true? Would have never happened with the ideal of building around centers being the norm, but that would have been a potential best trade/draft ever.
According to this, a SAT Sept 30th could only have occurred in 1995: http://www.stevemorse.org/jcal/whendid.html (I guess if I had noticed there was a page 1, I would've seen the 1995 date! I just saw the video say Sat Sept 30th.)
Yeah, everyone was fine with drafting Akeem #1 overall. The problem was the year before when we drafted Rodney McCray instead of Clyde Drexler. That one STILL hurts to this day. (no disrespect to Rodney)
Hakeem talked about it in his book. It may have been discussed, but realistically to me, it smacks of one of those revisionist history things... like.. "hey wouldn't this have been cool?"
I was 3 months old when that draft happened, but we drafted the greatest center of all time (if you listen to every great player who opines on this) who gave us two championships and endless pride. The Bulls got the greatest player of all time. Who could possibly be sour in either case? I'm not. The only sour thing is that the Bulls never got to play the Rockets in the Finals during the Jordan dominance era. From what I'm reading in recent articles, we matched up against them just about better than anybody back then. We've always sort of lived under that shadow of winning the two years Jordan wasn't there, but it actually looks we could have won against the Bulls straight away, Jordan and all. Maybe. Michael vs. Hakeem would have been legendary. The Dream, Mike, Sir Charles, and Stockton. Greatest draft year ever?
Personally I really loved those Double Decker tacos. Probably my favorite Taco Bell item and it's weird because I remember them not always being on the actual menu but most locations would still sell them. I haven't been to a Taco Bell in 5 or so years, I missed the whole Dorito taco thing, are they really tasty or nothing special??
I remember seeing the ads on TV, and thought they cool. On another point, Did Shaq challenge Hakeem to a one on one skills contest by saying he was the best center in the NBA, after Houston swept the Magic in the 1995 Finals?
Probably helped that there was no internet, no online forums and not the same 24/7 media there is today. Looks at todays team with Harden and Howard - there are some out there that have put on line that we should look to trade or questioning their abilities etc. Not saying I think otherwise with Hakeem, but I'm sure there would've been some that would've questioned it had they had the same technologies of today. But agreed that the overall majority would've have had a problem given his legacy.
It was all part of the same publicity stunt. "Shaq" (but really Taco Bell or his agent or some combination of the above) pulled out full page ads in a lot of national newspapers calling out Hakeem one-on-one. See the details in the link in the original post.
No, Shaq respected Hakeem's game and still does. He always praises him when his name comes up. But they both played really well (Hakeem scored 32 per game and Shaq 28) in that series and Taco Bell was behind it but as others mentioned, Hakeem got hurt and it didn't happen.
Well let me tell ya my friend. There was no "fan community" back then. In fact, believe it or not - there was no internet! No, the only place for fans to gather was this place called the Summit. But there was a boy, a young boy good with computers with a dream of a Houston Rockets championship. In the early 90's there was a place on network called Usenet, but it was trolled by a really annoying Supersonics fan who lived to put Houston fans down even after two rings in 1997. BUt that boy had become a young man, and that young man created a blog dedicated to the team he loved, a site called ClutchCity 97. That boy was David Hardisty. Anyway, no one ever mentioned drafting Hakeem over Jordan as a mistake. No one. And that to me is the testament to Hakeem greatness.
