As the starter at point guard for the 1993-94 and 1994-95 championship squads of the Houston Rockets, Kenny Smith knows the merits and accomplishments of those teams as well as anyone.
“The Jet” is also well aware of the popular NBA hypothetical from those days, which has recently taken on new life thanks to ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary on the 1990s Chicago Bulls.
Would Houston have won those titles, had Michael Jordan not abruptly taken a mid-career retirement from October 1993 to March 1995? After all, Chicago did win the three NBA championships both preceding and following Houston’s two-year “Clutch City” run in 1994 and 1995.
Many around the Rockets have long bristled at that notion, especially because the 1994-95 team had arguably the toughest championship path in NBA history. There’s also the fact that Jordan was playing in the 1995 playoffs, but his Bulls lost in the second round to Shaquille O’Neal’s Orlando Magic. Then, in the NBA Finals, the Rockets swept those Magic.
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In a Friday interview with Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s First Take, Houston’s veteran point guard broached the subject by saying:
First of all, [Jordan] was wearing number 45, the year that they lost. And he was actually in the league. People forget that. But they were just too small. No Horace Grant. He was in Orlando. Dennis Rodman was still in San Antonio. That’s why they lost to Orlando Magic.
We would’ve done the same thing. The team that they lost to 4-2, we swept. It wasn’t Jordan wasn’t the best player. That wasn’t the best team. So if they didn’t keep Horace Grant or they didn’t get a Dennis Rodman with Michael, they would’ve been too small on the inside. I don’t think they would’ve won eight straight.
Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon recently made a very similar argument regarding his team’s championship merits.
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One popular theory is that Jordan was “rusty” in the 1995 playoffs after only playing in 17 regular-season games. But that’s not evident 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.
Olajuwon’s Rockets also seemed to have a matchup edge against Jordan’s Bulls. In six meetings between 1991 and 1993, all prior to Jordan’s retirement, Houston went 5-1. Olajuwon clearly earned Jordan’s respect, as evidenced by Jordan selecting “The Dream” for his all-time NBA team.
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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 in the 1990s, 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 their championship veterans like Smith will understandably push back against anyone trying to diminish that group’s accomplishments.
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