Hakeem Olajuwon on second Rockets title: ‘Jordan was playing’

On the 25-year anniversary of Michael Jordan’s unretirement, Olajuwon reminds NBA fans that Jordan played during Houston’s second title run.

It was 25 years ago this week when Hall of Famer Michael Jordan returned from an 18-month retirement to resume his storied NBA career.

Given Jordan’s status as arguably the best player in league history and a six-time champion, many fans have wondered whether his Chicago Bulls might have won eight titles in a row, had he never retired.

The Houston Rockets, of course, won their two NBA championships in the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons, which immediately followed Jordan’s temporary mid-career retirement in October 1993. But superstar center and fellow Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon bristles at any notion that the titles won by Houston were due to Jordan’s absence.

In a new story by The Athletic‘s David Aldridge and Michael Lee regarding the anniversary of Jordan’s March 1995 unretirement, they write:

Hakeem Olajuwon has heard the comment so many times that he doesn’t bother getting annoyed by it. He simply serves up a saucy counter whenever someone tells him that the two titles the Houston Rockets won, in 1994 and 1995, happened because Jordan wasn’t there.

“You know, a lot of people they say that and it’s amazing because they act like (a Bulls-Rockets Finals) couldn’t have happened. Orlando beat them,” Olajuwon said. “He was playing (in 1995). He missed a year. They say he missed two years, but he lost in the semifinals of the Eastern Conference. Against a tough Orlando team. You have Penny Hardaway,  (Nick) Anderson and Shaq. That’s a monster. They beat them!”

One popular theory is that Jordan was “rusty” in the 1995 playoffs after only playing in 17 regular-season games. But that’s not really shown in the data. Jordan averaged more points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks per game in the 1995 playoffs than he did in the 1996 playoffs (when the Bulls won the title), all on superior shooting from the field.

The Bulls simply lost in 1995 to a dominant Orlando squad led by Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway, and the Magic were then swept by Olajuwon and the Rockets in the NBA Finals.

In the same feature published by The Athletic, starting point guard Kenny Smith offered a more blunt assessment:

“We would’ve won. Yes. We did win the title. He did play, wearing No. 45, and they lost to a team we swept. So, we were a better team that year,” Smith said, pushing back on the notion that Jordan wasn’t fully himself that season.

“When he had 55 points at Madison Square Garden, nobody was saying, ‘He’s not back.’ It was like, ‘He’s back! He just lost that year.’ And I always say this: they won three, we won two and then they won three again. I don’t think that they would’ve won eight titles straight. I think, between injuries, between lack of focus, between whatever it might have been, I don’t think they could’ve won eight in a row. It hasn’t happened in the modern-day era. LeBron James has gotten there (eight) times, but he didn’t win (eight) times. I just think that we were the better team that year, regardless of who was there.”

To Smith’s point about the hypothetical matchup, the Rockets went 5-1 versus Jordan’s Bulls in six meetings between 1991 and 1993, all prior to his retirement. Olajuwon clearly earned Jordan’s respect, as evidenced by Jordan selecting the Houston legend for his all-time NBA team.

While they never met in the playoffs, Chicago’s nondescript centers such as Bill Cartwright and Luc Longley offered little resistance to Olajuwon in the regular season. By contrast, many of the teams Chicago defeated in the NBA Finals — such as Charles Barkley’s Phoenix Suns, Karl Malone’s Utah Jazz, and Shawn Kemp’s Seattle Sonics — lacked the offensive production at center to challenge the Bulls at their weakest position.

Ultimately, the Rockets and Bulls peaked at different times, and NBA fans never got to see the hypothetical play out in a playoff setting. As it is, though, the Rockets are happy with their two titles — and players such as Olajuwon and Smith will understandably push back against anyone trying to diminish their accomplishments.

During their 1995 championship run, Houston won four playoff series against opponents that all won 57 or more games, which has never been done by any other team in NBA history. That included the Orlando Magic, who defeated Jordan’s Bulls in six games in the second round.

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