In an Instagram Live session, seven-time NBA champion Robert Horry weighed in on the popular debate of what may have happened if Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan had not retired in the middle of his career.
Horry won the first two of his NBA titles as a starting forward on the 1993-94 and 1994-95 Rockets. The first title came in a season in which Jordan didn’t play, while Jordan unretired midway through the regular season of Houston’s second championship run. Jordan’s Bulls lost in the playoffs to the Orlando Magic, who were later swept by the Rockets.
The Bulls had won the prior three NBA titles from 1991 through 1993, which led some to hypothesize that they would have kept winning if Jordan hadn’t stepped away in October 1993. But Horry isn’t buying it.
Speaking on Major League Baseball’s Instagram, Horry said:
People ask would you have won if Mike wouldn’t have left. I’m like, We played the Bulls. We had a winning record against the Bulls.
People forget, we had a guy named Hakeem Olajuwon. They had no answer for him. Me playing under Phil [Jackson] and understanding that Phil doesn’t like to double team… I know Dream would’ve just killed the Bulls. I think if you really sit down and ask MJ who he feared… the only guy that he really worried about was the Nigerian nightmare, Hakeem Olajuwon.
Jordan’s Bulls are back in the national spotlight thanks to ESPN’s ongoing “The Last Dance” documentary, which airs each Sunday night.
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To Horry’s point, prior to Jordan’s October 1993 retirement, Houston went 5-1 versus Chicago in six meetings from 1991 through 1993.
Even though Jordan played, Chicago’s nondescript centers such as Bill Cartwright and Luc Longley offered little resistance to Olajuwon. By contrast, many of the teams the Bulls 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.
Olajuwon clearly earned Jordan’s respect, as evidenced by Jordan selecting the Houston legend for his all-time NBA team. Recently, former Rockets head coach Rudy Tomjanovich shared a story in which Jordan told him that Houston was the team that gave the Bulls the most trouble.
“He gave our team great respect,” Tomjanovich told The Athletic about his meeting with Jordan. “He didn’t feel that they could contain Hakeem [Olajuwon]. They just didn’t have the personnel to do it. And he said he thought we were the team that gave them the most trouble.”
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Besides the matchup, Horry also has some personal knowledge of what it takes to win three straight titles — which he did as the starting power forward of the Los Angeles Lakers during their 2000, 2001, and 2002 championship runs. Based on that experience, he’s skeptical that the Bulls could have continued their run of success, had Jordan not retired.
My last year [2002-03] as a Laker, fatigue set in. There’s no way the Bulls would have won eight championships in a row. Because your body breaks down. I hate that this happened to the Golden State Warriors. Look what happened to KD, pops Achilles. Klay [Thompson] tears an ACL. The body can only go through so much, and 82 games is a grind.
Ultimately, the Rockets and Bulls peaked at different times, and NBA fans never got to see the matchup in the playoffs. As it is, though, the 1990s Rockets are happy with their two titles — and they remain ready to push back against anyone trying to diminish their accomplishments.
Fortunately for Houston, it appears that even Jordan himself acknowledges that the Rockets have a valid argument.
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