Robert Horry and Mario Elie combined for 37 points on 60% shooting in Game 3 versus Orlando, headlined by Horry’s dagger 3-pointer late.
The underrated story of the 1995 NBA Finals between the Orlando Magic and Houston Rockets was the difference in role players.
Superstars Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler did their part for the Rockets, while Shaquille O’Neal and Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway carried the Magic. But Houston often had key role players step up — such as Kenny Smith’s record seven 3-pointers in Game 1, and Sam Cassell’s 31 points off the bench in Game 2 — to supplement the star performances.
Meanwhile, the most noteworthy contribution from Orlando’s supporting cast was the four missed free throws late in Game 1 by Nick Anderson.
All of those trends continued in Houston’s 106-103 victory (box score) on June 11, 1995, which gave the Rockets a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. They went on to win the title three days later.
After the two point guards stole the show in the first two games, it was a pair of young forwards who stepped up in Game 3 at The Summit in Houston. Robert Horry (20) and Mario Elie (17) combined for 37 points on 60% shooting, including 5-of-9 from 3-point range (55.6%).
Those 3-pointers included one of the renowned daggers by “Big Shot Bob,” which extended Houston’s lead from one point to four with just over 10 seconds left and sent the “Clutch City” crowd into a frenzy.
Meanwhile, as Horry and Elie stepped up, their counterparts on the young Magic struggled. Anderson and Dennis Scott combined for 20 points on just 6-of-25 shooting (24.0%) from the field.
Generally speaking, the stars were all brilliant. Olajuwon had 31 points and 14 rebounds while Drexler added 25 points and 13 rebounds. Each had seven assists, headlined by Olajuwon’s pass to Horry for the clinching shot. For the Magic, O’Neal scored 28 points (64.7% FG) and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Hardaway added 19 points and 14 assists.
Yet again, it was the role players who gave the biggest comparative advantage to the Rockets. This time, it put them just one game away from a second consecutive NBA championship.
“We had a group of guys who weren’t scared,” Elie said of the 1990s Rockets. “A lot of these players were scared of Michael Jordan.”
Of the nine NBA championships awarded from 1991 through 1999, six were won by legendary guard Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
The other three champions of that era — the 1994 and 1995 Houston Rockets, and the 1999 San Antonio Spurs — shared a common thread in the form of defensive minded swingman Mario Elie.
Known as the “Junkyard Dog,” Elie’s combination of perimeter defense, toughness, and clutch shotmaking made him an essential role player for those title teams. While he admires the Bulls for their accomplishments, which have been featured in recent weeks thanks to “The Last Dance” documentary release, he understandably is partial to his own teams.
In an interview with Rockets broadcaster Craig Ackerman, Elie was asked about those Houston teams not being brought up in the film.
“I don’t really care if they didn’t mention us,” said Elie, whose teams never faced Jordan’s Bulls in the playoffs. “We still got those championships, first of all. “Second of all, we’d have matched up great against them.”
“We had Vernon [Maxwell] and myself,” he said. You’re not going to stop Michael Jordan, we all know that know that, but we’re two guys who can make him work. And Jordan really didn’t face a big man at the caliber of Hakeem Olajuwon. If Michael Jordan would have beat me and Vernon, he would’ve had to meet No. 34 at the rim.”
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Elie said the Rockets’ title teams were mentally tough, which he believes was in contrast to many other contenders in that era. He explained:
We had a group of guys who weren’t scared. A lot of these players were scared of Michael Jordan. It was like that Mike Tyson effect. When Mike Tyson was first on the scene and you walked in the ring, he’d have those guys beat by the staredown.
I thought we had guys that weren’t scared. We weren’t scared of nothing. Especially the two years we won, being down [in series]. We had adversity we had to deal with. We just had some tough, gritty guys.
In terms of the Xs and Os of a hypothetical matchup, Elie said he would have been fascinated by the potential of a young Robert Horry going against Scottie Pippen, as well as Otis Thorpe at power forward versus Dennis Rodman. Coaching strategies may also have played a key role.
“Robert would tell me that Phil Jackson didn’t like to double team,” Elie said. Years later, Jackson coached Horry with the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I played with Hakeem Olajuwon for five years,” Elie explained. “This man sees double and triple teams on a nightly basis and still gets 30 and 40 points. So imagine if Phil Jackson doesn’t double. He would kill them and get them all in foul trouble, etc.”
There’s certainly reason to question whether Chicago’s nondescript centers like Bill Cartwright and Luc Longley could have held up against Olajuwon’s Rockets, who were 5-1 against Jordan’s Bulls in six regular-season games from 1990-91 through 1992-93.
By comparison, many teams Chicago defeated in the NBA Finals in their title runs — 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.
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But in the end, Elie believes it’s the role players that would have given the “Clutch City” Rockets an advantage versus Chicago. He said:
I would take us in seven [games]. It would have been a great series. Jordan would have got his for sure, and Olajuwon would get his. … Both guys were on top of their games at the time.
I think it’d have been up to the role players, and I sort of like our role players a little better than theirs, you know. It’d have been interesting, but I would like our chances, especially with that ’94 team. We had size, we had athleticism, and we had toughness.
The 1994 team featured Otis Thorpe starting at power forward. Before the 1995 title run, Houston traded Thorpe in a deal for star shooting guard Clyde Drexler, which led to Horry sliding to power forward.
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Jordan didn’t play in the 1993-94 season after an abrupt mid-career retirement in October 1993, which lasted until March 1995. Stylistically, the 1993-94 Rockets with Thorpe had the most in common with the group that went 5-1 versus Chicago in the previous three seasons. Olajuwon was also regular-season MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in 1993-94.
Jordan returned the next season and played well in the 1995 playoffs, but his Bulls lost in the second round to the Orlando. The Magic were later swept by Elie’s Rockets in the 1995 NBA Finals.
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The Bulls regrouped in the subsequent 1995 offseason and signed Rodman as their next power forward, filling Grant’s old role. From there, Chicago took the next three championships from 1996 through 1998, which was when the Olajuwon-era Rockets were aging out of contention.
In the end, Olajuwon’s Rockets and Jordan’s Bulls peaked at different times in the 1990s, and NBA fans never saw the playoff matchup they craved between the two MVPs and Hall of Famers. But even decades later, it’s a debate that still lives on in NBA lore. Understandably, Elie is partial to “The Dream” and his teammates from that golden era in Houston.
Horry pointed to a shot taken as a rookie that has stood out above the rest as his all-time favorite.
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Robert Horry earned the “Big Shot Bob” nickname after hitting countless clutch shots over his 16 seasons in the NBA but it may have been a basket made as a rookie with Houston Rockets that stood out from the rest.
The seven-time NBA champion explained to Rockets broadcaster Craig Ackerman that a shot hit in Game 7 of the 1993 NBA Western Conference Semifinals against the Seattle SuperSonics was his favorite since his teammates trusted him to take it, via Ben DuBose of Rockets Wire.
We were playing Seattle in Seattle in Game 7 and I hit a jumper on the right-wing in my first year. I hit a jumper and we went into overtime. We eventually lost that game in overtime but nobody talks about that shot.
But for me as a confidence builder, and knowing that my teammates passed me ball, and I took the shot. Especially with all the things that happened to me where when I got traded from Houston for not shooting the basketball but this is a moment where I had to believe in myself.
It gave me that boost and encouragement that it’s just a game of basketball. It’s fun. You go out and play, you enjoy it. You take shots when you’ve got shots if you don’t make it, ‘Oh well.’ If you make it, ‘Woohoo!’
The shot by Horry in 1993 likely helped pave the way for his future clutch moments, coming with the Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs. He is one of only two players in NBA history to have won championships with three different teams.
The man who earned the nickname “Big Shot Bob” for his clutch shotmaking says his favorite came as a rookie with the Rockets in 1993.
Seven-time NBA champion Robert Horry certainly earned the nickname “Big Shot Bob” over his 16-year career, as evidenced by game-winning shots in the 2002 Western Conference Finals and 2005 NBA Finals.
But the 6-foot-10 forward says his favorite shot of all happened long before that, way back during his 1992-93 rookie season in Houston.
In a new interview with Rockets broadcaster Craig Ackerman, Horry explains why one shot from the 1993 playoffs stands out to this day. The Rockets were tied in the final minute of Game 7 during their second-round series with Seattle, and Horry buried a shot at the buzzer of the shot clock to give Houston the lead with just over 30 seconds left.
The Sonics answered the shot to tie the game and eventually won in overtime, but it still carried big significance for Horry. He explains:
It has personal meaning to me. We were playing in Seattle in Game 7, and I hit a jumper on the right wing in my first year. I hit a jumper and we went into overtime. We eventually lost that game in overtime, so nobody talks about that shot.
But for me as a confidence builder, and knowing that my teammates passed me ball, and I took the shot. Especially with all the things that happened to me, like when I got traded from Houston [it was ultimately voided] for not shooting the basketball. This is a moment where I had to believe in myself.
And it gave me that boost and encouragement that, you know, it’s just a game of basketball. It’s fun. You go out and play, you enjoy. You take shots when you’ve got shots if you don’t make it, ‘Oh well.’ If you make it, ‘Woohoo!’
The complete interview with Horry and Ackerman, which touches on a wide range of basketball topics from his storied career, is available here.
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Though the Rockets lost that game, they went on to win the next two NBA championships — and Horry’s propensity for clutch shots was a big reason why. Had they held on in Seattle, 1992-93 teammate Matt Bullard recently said he thinks the Rockets would’ve won three titles in a row.
See below for an extended montage of clutch shots by “Big Shot Bob” over his 16 years in the NBA from 1992 until 2008. The first four of those seasons came with the “Clutch City” era Rockets, headlined by the franchise’s first-ever championships in 1993-94 and 1994-95.
“It’s almost like Kobe just took everything [Jordan] said and did — his mannerisms, his language, his lingo — and just copied it.”
As a member of the Houston Rockets, Robert Horry played against Michael Jordan at the peak of his powers in the early-to-mid 1990s.
Then, nearly a decade later, the 6-foot-10 forward played with All-Star shooting guard Kobe Bryant with the Los Angeles Lakers on their way to three consecutive NBA titles from 2000 through 2002.
After watching ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary spotlighting Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls, the seven-time NBA champion says the two NBA legends have even more in common than what meets the eye. In a new interview with Rockets broadcaster Craig Ackerman, Horry was asked about his time playing alongside the late Lakers legend.
“He was just a great teammate, a great player, one of the smartest players you could ever play with,” Horry said of Bryant. He continued:
It’s so weird, getting a chance to really watch Michael Jordan in The Last Dance and hear the words that he used, it’s almost like Kobe just took everything he said and did — his mannerisms, his language, his lingo — and just copied it.
It’s like watching a ghost now. I hate to use those terms, but to watch Michael Jordan, it’s like ‘Man, how did Kobe learn everything this dude did to a T?’ And then he made it a little better in some areas.
Bryant, who was the NBA’s 2008 MVP, averaged 25.0 points (44.7% FG), 5.2 rebounds, and 4.7 assists in 36.1 minutes per game over his 20-year NBA career. In those years, Bryant was an 18-time All-Star, a five-time NBA champion, and a two-time NBA Finals MVP, among his numerous accolades. He’ll be enshrined at the Basketball Hall of Fame later this year.
Bryant passed away earlier this year in a tragic helicopter crash just outside Los Angeles. He was 41 years old.
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Horry also cautioned against comparing statistics of many of today’s greats to those of past generations like Jordan, Bryant, and Hakeem Olajuwon in Houston. (Regarding “The Dream,” Horry said in the interview that he views Olajuwon one of the top five NBA players of all-time.)
As for the difficulties of cross-generation comparisons, Horry said:
It’s funny how, my youngest son, we’ve been having this debate about who’s the greatest player. He’s the biggest LeBron [James] fan.
I said ‘Okay, well, you can have that debate because you never saw Michael play, you never saw Dream play. You only see highlights, and it’s hard to find good highlights.’ He said ‘Dad, they’re moving so slow!’ I said, ‘Yeah, but that doesn’t mean anything, buddy.’
Think about it. These guys averaged more points on less shots than these guys average nowadays. Think about it. They’re doing 100 possessions per game, whereas we only did, like, 60. That’s 40 more shots! He doesn’t understand it yet, but I’m trying to get him to learn basketball.
While those per-game numbers are somewhat exaggerated, “Big Shot Bob” is correct in his general premise that the NBA’s average pace has increased significantly over the past 10 years.
For his 16-year career as a whole, Horry won two of his titles playing with Olajuwon and the Rockets; three with Bryant and the Lakers; and two alongside Tim Duncan with the San Antonio Spurs.
“I tell people all the time, ‘You want to look at a really phenomenal athlete? Look at Clyde Drexler.’ Nobody talks about him.”
In the 25th anniversary year of the most recent Houston Rockets championship, former “Clutch City” forward Robert Horry still doesn’t think one of his 1994-95 teammates gets the credit that he deserves.
In an interview with broadcaster Craig Ackerman on the team’s official Facebook page, Horry was asked about his recollections of their improbable second NBA title run as a No. 6 seed in the 1995 playoffs.
While legendary center Hakeem Olajuwon understandably gets much of the credit for that run, Horry says fellow Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler — who began his NBA career with Portland — shouldn’t be forgotten. Then 32 years old, Drexler was acquired by Houston in a February 1995 trade.
Though the 6-foot-7 guard was recently highlighted on ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary as being outplayed by Chicago’s Michael Jordan in the 1992 NBA Finals, Horry says that shouldn’t define his legacy.
“People are always going to talk about the things that Dream did,” Horry told Ackerman. “But if you go back and look at some of the things that Clyde did? I was like, ‘Wow!’ I looked at the one game where they both had 40+ points. Clyde carried us a lot of times.”
Horry continued his comments:
I tell people all the time, ‘You want to look at a really phenomenal athlete? Look at Clyde Drexler.’ Nobody talks about him. The only time he gets talked about now is ‘Oh, Jordan ate him up. I say, ‘Yeah, but you never show the points he had against Jordan.’ Of course if I show you the highlights of me, I’m going to look like I killed you, because I won’t show any highlights of you. It’s one of those things that people don’t talk about much, but he’s probably one of the top five all-time best guards to ever play this game.
To play with him and have him on that run and help him win his first championship, that was incredible.
Drexler, who also played with Olajuwon at the University of Houston, averaged 20.5 points (48.1% FG), 7.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game as the second-leading scorer on the Rockets in the 1995 playoffs.
Over his 15-year NBA career, “The Glide” averaged 21.3 points (47.2% FG), 6.4 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game, all while grading out as a good defensive player as well. Drexler retired in 1998, and he still occasionally serves as a television broadcast analyst for the Rockets.
“I know Dream would’ve just killed the Bulls,” Robert Horry said regarding Olajuwon and the Rockets. “They had no answer for him.”
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.
Magic Johnson’s career came to a close at The Summit in Houston as Hakeem Olajuwon’s Rockets defeated the Lakers in a playoff series.
It was May 2, 1996 when Los Angeles Lakers legend and Hall of Famer Magic Johnson played the final NBA game of his storied career.
But it wasn’t at The Forum in Inglewood. Rather, it was in a loss to the two-time defending NBA champion Rockets at The Summit in Houston.
The Rockets won Game 4, 102-94 (box score). and clinched the best-of-five series, three games to one. Though the Lakers (53-29) were the West’s No. 4 seed and had home-court advantage over the No. 5 Rockets (48-34), Rudy Tomjanovich‘s squad again came up clutch in the playoffs.
Hakeem Olajuwon led the Rockets with 25 points (54.5% FG), 11 rebounds, and seven assists, while Kenny Smith and Robert Horry each scored 17 points with a combined seven 3-pointers between them.
The Lakers were led by 25 points and 12 rebounds from Cedric Ceballos. Johnson had 8 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in 30 minutes in his career finale, though he shot just 2-of-8 (25%) from the field.
Less than two weeks later, Johnson made his retirement official. Prior to the 1995-96 season, Johnson had not played in the NBA since testing positive for HIV just before the 1991-92 season.
“I’m going out on my terms, something I couldn’t say when I aborted a comeback in 1992,” Johnson said in his announcement. Though he was 36 years old and coming off a four-year layoff, Johnson was still effective in his final season — averaging 14.6 points (46.6% FG, 37.9% on 3-pointers), 6.9 assists, and 5.7 rebounds in 29.9 minutes per game.
That May 2, 1996 game was Houston’s final victory that season, since they were swept by eventual West champion Seattle in the second round.
“Young fella, if they call traveling on me, they definitely going to call travel on you,” Horry recalls being told by Jordan in 1993.
Former Houston Rockets forward and seven-time NBA champion Robert Horry recalls the first thing Hall of Famer Michael Jordan said to him on the basketball court, and it accurately portrays Jordan’s competitive fire.
Ahead of ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary, which premieres Sunday and chronicles Jordan’s final 1997-98 season in Chicago, The Athletic‘s Joe Vardon spoke to a wide range of NBA players from that era about what it was like to meet Jordan for the first time.
Here’s how Horry, who was drafted by the Rockets in the first round of the 1992 NBA Draft, recalls his experience:
I just remember him and Vernon Maxwell before the game started, Vernon talking trash to Michael and Scottie, and it was just so fun to watch the competitive nature they had going against each other. I remember the first thing Michael Jordan ever said to me. It was my second [calendar] year in the league. They were really trying to put an emphasis on traveling, which they don’t do now.
But I remember Mike made a move and they called traveling. I came down and did the same move and they called traveling. He looked at me and says, ‘Young fella, if they call traveling on me, they definitely going to call travel on you.’ And I looked at him. It was during the game, so you don’t want to smile or laugh about it, so I just shook my head and said, ‘You’re right.’ He was just a competitor. Really nice guy though, really nice guy.
Scottie Pippen said Michael was ‘distant’ at first. Ron Harper, well, he waltzed into MJ’s closet and out with a fistful of Nike tracksuits. I hope you enjoy these tales of what it was like meet Michael Jordan @TheAthleticNBA https://t.co/hjvnNhxoPF
Horry played against Jordan twice prior to his mid-career retirement in October 1993, once in December 1992 and again in January 1993. Houston’s rookie fared quite well against Jordan’s Bulls in those outings, averaging 17 points (51.7% FG) and four rebounds in 33 minutes. He did have two turnovers in the 1993 game, which likely reflects the travel.
Most impressively, the Rockets won both matchups against the eventual 1993 NBA champions by an average of 12.5 points per game.
Ultimately, Horry got the best of both worlds in his introductory experience. He had a friendly encounter with perhaps the sport’s greatest player of all-time, and his team won both games by double digits, too.
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