Was Clutch City 'luck'?

"Please God, don't ever make this doof have to guard Hakeem in the Finals. Amen." - Mike Jordan

 

Were Drexler and Hakeem lucky that they had a great supporting casts? Would we have won it all if it was Yao and Mcgrady?

 

Luck doesn't won you championships unless you're the Golden State Warriors

 

Well let's not get ahead of ourselves. He didn't "lock his ass up 2 times a year"

Statistically speaking, Jordan was still getting his. Maxwell did hold him to 22 points 34% once as a Rocket though so i would consider that a victory and the Rockets won.

Overall throughout their careers, MJ averaged almost 31 on nearly 50% while Mad Max averaged almost 14 on 41% when facing each other.

We can't mistaken Mad Max not backing down and not being scared of MJ for "locking him up."

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=maxweve01&p2=jordami01

 

It's like when you dump someone and they want to linger and make your life miserable. lof feel dumped and humiliated, but the way to get rid of such pests is by simply ignoring them. If you don't respond to posts such as this one or "Harden is worse ball handler compared to Lin" then they will go...

but the issue sits with the people who have nothing better to do like linman and linboy who like to pick internet fights. Very humiliating and brings down the quality of the board.

1 star thread!

 

Golden State Warriors winning without having 1 key Injury in the playoffs definitely more lucky. Rockets clutch city won flat out

 

Hell no

 

First of all, MJ played in 95 and couldn't make it to the finals

Second, saying "rockets wouldn't have won if MJ hadn't retired" is the same as saying "rockets would've won it all if Yao hadn't gone down in the Lakers series and if mcgrady hadn't gone down before that"

It's a dumb argument

I fully believe we would've beat the Bulls at least once had we faced them two years in a row. We would've been the only team to beat them.

 

Lucky that we didn't play Seattle.

 

Every championship involves luck in some way, stop being so obnoxious.

You're a grown man. Post like it.

 

Why do people conveniently forget Jordan Played IN '95? Different #, similar stats.

 

I was looking back at the playoff career of Tmac and Yao and i was surprised at the opportunities we blew.

In 2005, we probably would have gotten smoked by the Suns in the 2nd round just like the Mavs did because the Suns were an awful match up for Yao and our slow old vets. So 2005 went as well as it could have gone considering we had Ryan Bowen starting at PF. Of course i wish we didn't get embarrassed in game 7 but ultimately we would have been embarrassed by Phoenix if we won anyway. That Rockets team was just plain bad. After Tmac and Yao, Jimmy Jackson was third leading scorer at 13ppg on 41%. Next up? Mike James 12ppg on 43%, Wesley's 11ppg on 40% and Sura's 10pts on 42% Talk about freaking pathetic. Of course Tinman will have you believe it was all TMacs fault.

2006 DNQ: Injuries

2007: Game 7 Rockets up 4 with 7 min to go(biggest lead for Houston after Jazz were up 16 in the 2nd qtr), give up 2 offensive rebounds(AK47 throws the ball out of bounds but they call it Jazz ball ugh wish they had reviews back then). Boozer gets 2+1 on Yao. 1 pt lead. 5th foul on Yao. JVG takes Yao out and brings TMac back in. Tmac hits 2 FTs, 3 pt lead. Steal by Raefer, Tmac makes basket + foul. 88-83. TMac misses ft, Battier gets offensive rebound. Raefer tries to take it one on one and falls down for the TO. Boozer with the easy layup over a battier trying to draw charge. 88-85. Tmac gets doubled and passes to a wide open Juwan for an easy wide open midrange shot. Misses. AK47 drains a rainbow 3. Tie game 5 min to go. Time out JVG. Doesn't bring Yao back. Tmac takes a 3, misses. OR Juwan. TMac from the elbow breaks AK47s ankles but misses jumper. Boozer with an easy wide open lay up + touch foul. Yao comes back. FT good. 91-88 Utah with 4 min to go. Yao in the post 2+1. FT good. Tie game 91-91. Utah quick turnover. Just under 4 min. Yao post fadeaway...airball. Okur hits 3. 94-91. Tmac hits Yao under basket for easy dunk. 94-93. 3 min to go. Dwill with easy uncontested layup while Yao watches. 96-93. Yao in the post, okur knocks it out for the turnover. Harpring misses jumper, Yao reb. Under 2 min to go. Tmac with beautiful pass to Hayes under basket for quick 2. 96-95. 1:38. Okur misses 3, Boozer with rebound OVER Yao. Okur wide open 3. good. Yao hangs head in shame. 99-95. TMac hits Yao wide open for a dunk but too slow and is fouled and misses dunk. Both free throws good. 99-97. 57.8. Okur missed 3, long O rebound over yao by harpring. Okur for 3. Miss. Yao beaten to long rebound by boozer. 7th Jazz O reb of the 4th qtr. Boozer sinks 2 FTs. 101-97. Tmac layup 101-99. 9.8 seconds to go. Bull and Clyde begging for rockets to foul on inbound, battier and tmac opt not to. Dwill cross court pass to Harping who quickly passes it up court to Ak47, Yao stumbles to try and foul and is too slow. Battier makes it there from backcourt to foul while Yao was still gathering himself. Game over.

Yao and lack of scoring help blew that game. The supporting cast was awful and Tmac didn't attack enough and settled for long jumpers most of the game but still played a great overall game with 29pts 48% 5rb 13ast 3 blk 2to.
25 rebounds for Okur and Boozer while Yao had 6. Count em. 6 rebounds. Harpring had more rebounds than Yao. Harping and Boozer had more offensive rebounds in the 4th quarter than Yao had total rebounds.

Everyone knows GS beat Dallas and could very well have been our Denver beating Seattle moment. Utah easily dismisses GS and then gets whooped by SA.

That is now 2 healthy playoff runs of Yao and Tmac because of choking and terrible roster in which we should have been 2nd round and the WCF. That seems like a trend of champions. Championship next?

2008: errmagerd! 22 game win streak!! This is it, this is our year! Oh, Yao's out for the rest of the season? it's okay half of our streak was without him! And Yao was a bad matchup for Utah. Dike got this! Nope..it's over. Down 0-2. Down 1-3. Wait a minute! Rockets blowout win! 2-3. We have momentum! Lets send this to game 7! Nope. Blown out. Tmac cries and says he can't do this. Mentally broken and the dream is dead. TMac averaged 27, 8 and 7 with garbage support once again for a 3rd year. Tinman blames everything since 2005 on Tmac. Don't be so sad fanbase. Our young kids have good potential to go along with Scola.
If Yao had been healthy, would we have beaten LAL in the 2nd round or SA in the WCF? LA only lost 3 games before getting destroyed by Boston. But we beat Utah with Yao this year.

2009:Tmac with knee surgery in offseason. Pick your head up and come back strong Tmac! We got Ron Artest! We finally have a roster worth something waiting for you!
He plays terrible during season when on court, can tell he's not healthy and mentally not the same. The Utah loss crushed him. He told the world it was ON ME! ITS ON ME! He blamed himself when it was never his fault. Rockets fans go on to show terrible support. Is he really hurt out there? If so, just sit out OR does he just not care. Hard to tell with his sleepy expressions. But Rockets fans like Tinman decide for us and tell us Tmac was fine but mailing it in. Who are we to say what he was going through? Physically and emotionally. Anyway, Goes 2 weeks without playing before All star break. Announces micro fracture surgery on website without telling Rockets staff. Rockets fan base sour. Rightfully so, that was wrong of Tmac.
Rockets beat a young and inexpereienced Blazers team in round 1. Lose hard fought battle to Lakers in 7 with hurt Yao. Tinman uses this to hate on TMac even though a healthy Tmac+Yao+Artest and co. beats that Blazers team AND beats the Lakers AND beats the Nuggets for a Finals showdown with Orlando. History would be different if TMac was healthy and Yao didn't get hurt. I fully and completely believe we would have won it all in 09.

Of course health was never meant to be and TMac goes on to be trashed and called first round virgin. This is the life of an NBA player. One guy demands to be drafted by one of the most successful franchises in sports and gets to win rings with one of the most dominant athletes ever and then gets another dominant front line to beat a weak Orlando team and older Boston team all while being coached by the GOAT coach and is considered GOAT by little kids and top 10 by most NBA fans and the other guy gets 400lb Shawn Kemp, 50 year old Ewing, Pat Garrity, DeClerq, and 40 year old former Knicks players and hated on for being a loser with a lazy eye.

 

I hate the what if game.

What if the Rockets had better luck at the beginning of Hakeems career with injuries and losing players?

What if we had made Rudy T coach earlier?

What if Jordan wasn't lucky enough to return to team that was a contender without him?

 

Ohh, you're bringing back the stinging memories of ALMOST being good enough. Very well written summary though for people who weren't around at the time as Rockets fans.

 

Every major sports championship involves luck- but only after a ton of hard work and toughness.