Rockets lament what could have been vs. Bulls in 1993 NBA Finals

The matchups and numbers back up why 1992-93 was Houston’s best opportunity at defeating Michael Jordan’s Bulls in the NBA Finals.

Though Michael Jordan‘s Chicago Bulls and Hakeem Olajuwon‘s Houston Rockets combined to win eight straight NBA titles from 1991 through 1998, they somehow never faced one another in the final round.

The 1996-97 season was technically the closest the two Hall of Famers came to an NBA Finals showdown, since Houston was two wins away from defeating Utah in the Western Conference Finals. In every other season of those eight years, the losing team didn’t make the conference finals.

But as the Rockets see it, 1992-93 was probably the season that got away. “Had Seattle not beaten us in the playoffs in 1993, we probably would have three-peated in 1993, 1994, and 1995,” reserve forward Matt Bullard said last week. “We would’ve beaten the Bulls in 1993.”

Generally speaking, Houston’s confidence was based on two matchups: Olajuwon against whatever nondescript center the Bulls utilized, and Vernon Maxwell’s ability to defend Jordan. By 1997, Maxwell had left the Rockets, and a 34-year-old Olajuwon was slightly past his prime.

So even if the Rockets had beaten the Jazz in the latter season, it’s unclear how they might have fared against that version of the Bulls.

By contrast, they remain confident in their matchups earlier in the decade. Houston went 5-1 versus Chicago from 1991 through 1993, including 2-0 in the 1992-93 season — with both wins by double digits.

Jordan scored 29.2 points per game on 48.0% shooting against the Rockets in those six games from 1990-91 through 1992-93. That was down slightly from his usual averages of 31.4 points per game on 51.7% shooting in those years. Meanwhile, the fiery Maxwell averaged 18.3 points on 51.3% FG versus the Bulls — far superior to his 40.8% overall shooting clip and 16.1 points per game average for those seasons.

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The Rockets didn’t crack the top five of the West in either 1990-91 or 1991-92, so an NBA Finals matchup in those years wasn’t realistic. But they very nearly had an opportunity in 1992-93.

The Rockets went 55-27 and were tied for the West’s No. 2 seed in the regular season, including a 41-11 finish to the year. (That would represent a 65-win pace over a full season.) They took Seattle to seven games in the second round and lost by just two points in Game 7, and the Rockets had shots at both the end of regulation and overtime to win it.

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The 1992-93 season was also the best of Olajuwon’s entire career by Win Shares, with the big man averaging 26.1 points (52.9% FG), 13.0 rebounds, and a league-leading 4.2 blocks per game.

Had the Rockets beaten Seattle, they would still have needed to defeat top-seeded Phoenix in the 1993 Western Conference Finals in order to get their shot at Jordan’s Bulls in the championship round.

But Houston defeated the Suns in the playoffs in each of the next two years on their way to NBA titles, and they also beat Phoenix in their final two head-to-head matchups of the 1992-93 season. So, especially in hindsight, it’s understandable why they feel they’d have won that series.

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Olajuwon clearly earned Jordan’s respect over those years, as evidenced by Jordan selecting him 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 to 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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In the end, both sides are left with the hypothetical. But from Houston’s perspective, 1992-93 feels like the one that got away.

ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary, which chronicles the journey of Jordan and the 1990s-era Bulls, concludes on Sunday night.

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