Sports Illustrated Takes Away "*" from Championships

ESPN, the "sports bible"? Hardly. They can put asterisks wherever they want and it won't make a damn bit of difference.

 

I just knew the 99ers would come to this thread

 

From the 84 draft when Olajuwon and Jordan were both drafted though the 1994 season that is in question (because, again, Jordan played in the 1995 playoffs, he played well, and they lost to Shaq and the Magic)- the Rockets were 15-7 against the Bulls.

Yes. That was all during the regular season. And yes, people all the time say that "Playoff Jordan is different than regular season Jordan". But playoff Hakeem was different than regular season Hakeem.

Like I said, Maxwell was a good perimeter defender to try to at least matchup against Jordan. He would be a much better deterrent against Jordan than any of the Centers the Bulls would try to play against Hakeem that year.

It's speculation. It's a guess. But we matched up against them well during that span and played them well and had over twice as many wins against them. We will never know if Jordan was playing in 1994 what would have actually happened. Would Chicago have even gotten to the Finals? Would they have beaten New York? Would they have beaten Indiana? What would have happened against us if they had got there?

We don't know and we never will. But it is incredibly, incredibly frustrating to all of the people who say that the Rockets' championship needs to have an asterisk or that we automatically would not have won if Jordan had been playing.

 

Great post .

Again, if the Knicks won, This "Jordan *" would have magically disappeared because the media in the 90s was extremely east coast biased.
We had Peter Vecsey as an analyst with his thick New York accent , Marv Albert, Bob Costas etc


We can look to the regular season to see the strategies and trends of this early 90s matchup between the Bulls and Rockets.
Look at this Rockets victory in Chicago, look how balanced the Rockets were with
Hakeem taking 19 shots, Then Horry with 17 and Vernon with 14.
Then look at Chicago on how unbalanced they were
Jordan with 23 and Pippen with 22, then Grant with 9.

Look at the Big Man matchup, Dream and Otis vs Grant and Cartwright.
Dream shot 63% and OT shot 69%

This means their interior was completely destroyed by our bigs.

Jordan was held below his average, and the thing with the Rockets is that Rudy DIDN'T LIKE TO DOUBLE MJ.
They just stuck Maxwell on him. When MJ passes Max, Hakeem is in the middle, the BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE 90s.

This is what we saw.

This was PRE SAM CASSELL AND MARIO ELIE TOO

Like 20 years from now, kids would wonder how the Rockets played against a triple double machine like Westbrook.



Houston Rockets
110
10-6
Prev Game Next Game


Chicago Bulls
96
12-6
Prev Game Next Game
December 11, 1992

Code:

                                                
                                                                                             Basi
Starters             MP FG FGA   FG% 3P 3PA   3P% FT FTA   FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS
Hakeem Olajuwon   41:00 12  19  .632  0         0  4   5  .800   4   9  13   7   4   5   1  3  28
Vernon Maxwell    40:00  8  14  .571  1   5  .200  2   4  .500   0   3   3   3   2   0   2  2  19
Robert Horry      36:00  9  17  .529  0   1  .000  0         0   3   1   4   0   1   0   0  3  18
Kenny Smith       36:00  5  10  .500  3   3 1.000  4   4 1.000   1   3   4   7   2   0   1  1  17
Otis Thorpe       29:00  9  13  .692  0         0  1   5  .200   2   6   8   6   1   0   3  2  19
Carl Herrera      21:00  1   3  .333  0         0  2   2 1.000   0   1   1   0   0   0   0  2   4
Matt Bullard      15:00  1   4  .250  1   4  .250  0         0   0   0   0   0   0   0   1  0   3
Scott Brooks      12:00  1   1 1.000  0         0  0         0   0   0   0   2   0   0   0  0   2
Sleepy Floyd       6:00  0   2  .000  0         0  0         0   0   0   0   2   0   0   0  0   0
Mark Acres         2:00  0   1  .000  0         0  0         0   0   0   0   0   0   0   1  1   0
Winston Garland    2:00  0   1  .000  0         0  0         0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0  0   0
Team Totals         240 46  85  .541  5  13  .385 13  20  .650  10  23  33  27  10   5   9 14 110
                                                                                 
                                                                                            Basi
Starters             MP FG FGA  FG% 3P 3PA   3P% FT FTA   FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS
Michael Jordan    40:00 11  23 .478  1   3  .333  3   3 1.000   4   7  11   4   0   1   4  4  26
Scottie Pippen    37:00  8  22 .364  0   1  .000  6   8  .750   6   3   9   8   2   2   3  0  22
Horace Grant      34:00  5   9 .556  0         0  2   2 1.000   5   4   9   3   0   1   0  2  12
B.J. Armstrong    24:00  4   7 .571  1   3  .333  0         0   1   0   1   3   0   0   0  1   9
Bill Cartwright   18:00  2   5 .400  0         0  0         0   0   0   0   0   1   0   2  2   4
Scott Williams    20:00  0   1 .000  0         0  2   2 1.000   1   2   3   0   0   1   2  5   2
Rodney McCray     18:00  2   4 .500  0         0  3   3 1.000   4   4   8   2   1   0   1  3   7
John Paxson       17:00  3   8 .375  1   1 1.000  0         0   0   0   0   2   0   0   0  0   7
Stacey King       12:00  2   5 .400  0         0  1   1 1.000   1   2   3   1   0   0   1  0   5
Trent Tucker       9:00  0   1 .000  0         0  0         0   0   1   1   3   0   0   1  1   0
Will Perdue        8:00  0   1 .000  0         0  0   1  .000   0   0   0   1   0   0   1  1   0
Jo Jo English      3:00  1   2 .500  0   1  .000  0         0   0   2   2   0   0   0   2  0   2
Team Totals         240 38  88 .432  3   9  .333 17  20  .850  22  25  47  27   4   5  17 19  96

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/19/2017.

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/19/2017.

 

Anyone actually read the article by SI? Seems like the linked site only references that SI will remove the asterisk