10 things to remember about the Rockets’ first championship, 30 years later – Houston Public Media

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Thirty years ago, on Saturday, June 22, 1994, the Houston Rockets won their first consecutive NBA championship. They defeated the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals in seven games.

The championship was an exciting moment for a city that had seen more than its fair share of sporting disappointments (and more to come). For example, the Oilers had taken big leads in the NFL Playoffs several times before the franchise ultimately disappointed and left town completely after the 1996 season.

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Jeff Balke, who writes for Houston Press and co-host of the Bleav in Astros podcast, narrated Houston is important producer Celeste Schurman, things were different back then. The Astros were yet to complete their dominant stretch of playoff runs and two World Series victories.

“Houston wasn’t considered a great sports town at the time,” he said. “…Houston didn’t really have the kind of swagger that it has about itself now. It was a very self-confident city. It was a big deal here to have any title whatsoever.”

The Rockets were led by future Hall of Fame center and University of Houston alumnus Hakeem Olajuwon. Joining him were Kenny Smith, Vernon Maxwell, Robert Horry, Mario Elie, Otis Thorpe and Sam Cassell. The team’s head coach was Rudy Tomjanovich, who himself entered the Hall of Fame as a coach.

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While many Houstonians will never forget that title game and what it meant to the city, there are plenty of new and younger Houstonians who may need a refresher on this important milestone in the city’s sports history on the occasion of its 30th anniversary.

10 THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT ROCKETS’ FIRST CHAMPIONSHIP:

1. Blow Away — The 1993-94 Rockets started the regular season sizzling hot, going 15-0 and winning 22 of their first 23 games. They finished the regular season with a 58–24 record, won the Midwest Division and entered the playoffs as the second overall seed in the Western Conference.

2. Historic MVP Season — Olajuwon was named NBA MVP that season, becoming the first player born outside the United States to do so. And he would become the first player to win that award in the same season he was also named NBA Finals MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and won the championship.

David J. Phillip/AP

3. Going from ‘Choke City’ to ‘Clutch City’ – In the second round of the playoffs, the Rockets blew big leads and lost the first two games to the lower-seeded Phoenix Suns. After losing Game 2, the Houston Chronicle declared “Choke City” in a front-page headline.

However, as Houston rallied to win the series and ultimately the championship, the city’s other newspaper said The Houston Postthe headline read “Clutch City,” a nickname still used today.

When the Rockets added a new mascot in 1995, the team named him Clutch the Bear.

Pat Sullivan/AP

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4. A Very Different Kind of Fast Break — One thing fans who watched the NBA Finals on television that year will never forget is how, on June 17, 1994, NBC interrupted the broadcast of Game 5 to air live footage of the police chase of OJ Simpson.

The former NFL star and actor reportedly held a gun to his head and was suicidal in the back of a white Ford Bronco driven by his friend, AC Cowlings, on a Los Angeles freeway as police cruisers followed him. This was after an investigation into the murders of Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her boyfriend, Ronald Goldman.

“For Rockets and Knicks fans, that was something we weren’t really excited about,” Balke said.

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5. The atmosphere in the city — Balke recalled how, especially after beating Phoenix, the city was extremely supportive of the team.

“You can’t go anywhere without seeing Rockets shirts and Rockets hats. There were buildings decorated with Rockets stuff,” he said. “It was a very, very big deal, just like you would have seen when the Astros won their championships. It looked a lot like that.”

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6. How the game and the team were different — Nowadays, teams shoot a lot of three-pointers and score a lot more points. At the time, the league was dominated by big men in the middle and the game was much more defensive in nature.

Although the Rockets had the game’s most dominant center in Olajuwon, Balke said Tomjanovich encouraged players like him to give up the ball when they were double-teamed, kicking the ball to a cast of lethal long-range shooters such as Elie, Horry , Smith, Maxwell and Cassel.

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7. New York vs. Houston — The NBA Finals pitted the nation’s largest city against the fourth largest city. It pitted a city and a team with many championships under its belt against a city and a team looking for its first (at least in the modern era of major sports leagues).

On a certain moment, The New York Post (always known for his subtlety) called Houston a “hell hole.”

“It was a very intense rivalry and a very intense time in basketball, especially here in Houston,” Balke said.

8. Ugly Ball — The final was a tricky, back-and-forth, defensive, low-scoring affair that lasted the full seven games, with Sports illustrated to call the series “ugly ball,” Balke said.

The score totals in most games were in the 80-point range and never reached 100 points.

In Game 6, with New York leading the series 3-2, Knicks guard John Starks was on fire from the court. In the final moments, Starks made a three-point attempt that likely would have ended the series. But Olajuwon blocked that attempt to secure the victory and send the series to a decisive seventh match.

9. How the City Responded — After the Rockets defeated the Knicks in Game 7 by a score of 90-84 to win the title, Balke said he was struck by the way fans in the city reacted and celebrated. In some other cities, the festivities have become riotous, with cars overturned and things set on fire.

“Houston was the exact opposite,” Balke said. “It was a really euphoric feeling.”

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Like many other Houstonians, he drove into town to celebrate with the crowds of fans gathered along Richmond Avenue, near Greenway Plaza.

“People were jumping in the back of my truck, diving through my window and hugging me,” he said. “And you know, there were people dancing in the middle of the street.”

10. A turning point for the city — The 1994 championship followed an oil crisis and a time when the city was transforming from a more blue-collar oil town to a more white-collar town. Balke said the victory felt like a turning point for a city that many outsiders saw as flat, hot and ugly.

David J. Phillip/AP

“A lot of Houstonians were self-conscious about that,” he said. “I think this has given us something to hang our collective hat on and say, ‘Hey, maybe we’re not as bad as we thought we were.’”

Of course the Rockets won the championship again the following year, a playoff run is even more interesting than the first title, according to Balke, because the team faced more adversity (the playoffs started as a much lower seed) and the addition included University of Houston alum Clyde Drexler to the team.

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