My Dad going crazy when Ralph made the tip-in to beat the Lakers in 1986. He was/is a Celtics fan, but he had caught Rockets fever. I was 5.
One word......UNBEATABLE... Moved here when I was 10 in the beginning of '86 and the Rox made their finals run with the original Twin Towers and seeing them handle Showtime in the WCF's was absolutley amazing. They just ran into a buzzsaw that was the '86 Celtics(which IMO was easily Bird's best championship squad), but even as the Rox lost gthe series, all the time I was thinking...this guy Akeem is gonna be a stud for a long time...
Sadly, Rudy T getting punched. Hadn't moved to Houston, yet, and there wasn't much in the way of NBA national televised games then, so I was still college and HS bball focused. But the punch made national news, and SNL even did a skit about it. That was also the beginning of me becoming a Rockets fan.
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Vaguely remember something about the Rockets with Ralph Sampson and Hakeem in the Finals...I was 6. Next Memory's are... 1.) Rockets players on drugs. 2.) Sleepy Floyd (I liked his name) and Robert Reid 3.) An NBA Draft Party at the summit with my Dad (the Horry draft). I got Calvin Murphy and Robert Reid's autograph. Then the 92/93 season started, Dream suddenly started playing better basketball than any big man (and arguably player) ever, and I never looked back from there. I've only missed a handful of games since then.
My first memory is of my family taking me to a Rockets game when I was a little kid and remembering one of the players had the first name "Sleepy". Thought that was weird and funny.
1980 when the Rockets went to the finals against Boston. Moses Malone inspiring an old Elvin Hayes to play beyond his years.
My mom calling the nbc affiliate in the champ run in 1994 because Bill Walton was bad mouthing Hakeem and Co. the whole series... Not my first but my most vivid/funny...
I grew up watching 90s ball....i wouldnt really know how it was before then...but bball aint been the same since. even the bball shoes back in the 90s are better then what they are puttin out now lol
Listening to my radio at night when I was a kid under the covers so my parents would not know because the Rockets were on the West coast and the games started after my bedtime and hearing "Allen throws it into Mo...backing it down, backing it down...back out to Allen over to the Whopper at the top of the Key out to Bobby Jo who puts up the shot....off to the left.....OFFENSIVE REBOUND MO-FOR-2-AND-A-FOUL......Is that On JABBAR....It is Gene and that's his fourth. Moses will not be denied and goes to the line for 1. Gene, that is Moses' 10th offensive rebound of the game and his 4th here in the 3rd quarter!!! Moses can give the Rockets a 2 point lead if he makes the free throw. And he does!! Rockets by 2" I could listen to those 2 guys anytime. I used to turn off the TV sound as I got older and listen to them. They were the best.
