1993 NBA Playoff Predictions (NBA on NBC) 

*Michael Jordan watching in '93* "And I took that personally"

Bill walton predicted the 94 finals One year too early although he got the winning team wrong

Rockets have Seattle all they could handle to a game 7 in OT. Seattle then took Phoenix to the brink. The 1993 west had Hakeem, Admiral, Shawn Kemp, Karl Malone and Barkley all in their prime. An absolute buzzsaw!

This is pretty illuminating. The fact that there were enough voices in the sports media who didn't think the Bulls would win.

It’s ironic that one of the things that stops people from appreciating the toughness of these 90s teams is that the Bulls won so many championships. It has resulted in younger people now being like “oh all those teams sucked and had plumbers on their team compared to Jordan and Pippen.” And then you watch clips like this and the Bulls weren’t even the pick of multiple analysts, which shows you the real merit of these other teams and the hard path that the Bulls did actually go through to win as much as they did. Between the 92 and 93 Knicks-Bulls series and the 98 series against Indiana, Jordan and co. had legit challengers to fend off for the title though, with Utah being no slouch in 97 or 98 either. The Sonics didn’t have the offensive power in 1996 to match but they did a bang up job on defense against the Bulls in several games of the series and had a deeper bench.

All told,the 1993 Playoffs remains the best set of playoffs I've ever witnessed

Championship Picks (Eventual Winner: Chicago): Quinn Buckner: Chicago Bulls Bill Walton: New York Knicks Peter Vecsey: New York Knicks First Round Upset: Buckner: San Antonio over Portland (Reality: San Antonio won) Walton: Charlotte over Boston (Reality: Charlotte won) Vecsey: Utah over Seattle (Reality: Seattle won) Buckner parlayed his perfect predictions into his first and only coaching gig-with the Dallas Mavericks-the following season. They finished 13-69.

ESPN2's homage to the NBA on ABC, NBA on CBS and NBA on NBC during tonight's (4/6/2022) Nets/Knicks game was incredible. Never thought I would see them do something like that and actually bring back Bob Costas to talk about the NBA and play Roundball Rock on TV

I wish I could like this video a MILLION TIMES!! LOL This video represents EVERYTHING that was great about early to mid 1990's NBA and broadcasting, and shows EVERYTHING wrong with the current NBA and the CLOWNS(Skip Bayless, Shannon Sharpe, Nick Wright, Stephen A.Smith, Colin Cowherd, Kendrick Perkins, etc.) who discuss the NBA on TV!! Listening to the professionalism of Bob Costas, Bill Walton, Quinn Buckner and Peter Vecsey, and hearing them talk about how truly competitive things were during those days is tremendous! Compare that to the GARBAGE nowadays. Also, there was always at least 4 or 5 teams who were a serious threat to win the title. About their picks, its funny how none of them had Phoenix playing Chicago for the title even though Chicago had won back to back titles and Phoenix had the best record in the NBA in 1993. They must have thought the Bulls would be too worn out to 3 peat. As for Phoenix, the lack of confidence in them must have been the fact that this was Barkley's 1st year playing for them, the other top teams in the West had playoff experience together.

It's amazing that everyone thought that Nicks would have won the East and were n't even sure that Bulss would make the eastern finals! So many great teams back then!

When Charles Barkley started with TNT as an analyst with his brashness from day 1, which was a carryover from how Chuck played the game and dealt with the media, this was at a time when sports analysts were still relatively uptight. Peter Vesey was no fan of Chuck’s style and gave TNT an ultimatum to either get rid of Charles Barkley or he was leaving….the rest is history. Stuart Scott and especially Charles Barkley are key reasons why sports analysts today as we know are as loose, brash, and outspoken as they are.

Walton was right on the finals matchup, just 1 year early. Lol

Bill Walton is usually the smartest man in the room according to Bill Walton

I don't blame them for not having chosen the Bulls. The 60s Celtics were the last team to have three-peated and the Bulls' regular season had not been as impressive.

Wait? They’re not screaming at each other? What universe is this from?

Why this sounds/looks so much better than the current state of the NBA? Really sad how the NBA is nowadays. FeelsBadMan

This is pure gold 👍, they were so wrong lol

“It’s not happening for Chicago.””” 😂😂😂😂 oh bill walton. Clueless

They had no idea how far the bulls would actually go

I miss when the NBA looked like this. When it was real basketball

The disrespect towards the Bulls! Mind blowing that they took the Knicks.

Notice the words being used: defense, physicality, strong..... words not found in today's game.

Obviously in the 31 years since these playoffs, history shows that the Bulls won the NBA finals to accomplish their 3 peat……..But going into the 1993 playoffs the Knicks were the best team in the east and the Suns were the best team in the west. For people now who ridicule the guys who picked the Knicks to advance to the finals probably weren’t even watching the NBA back then. In 1992 the Knicks took the Bulls to 7 games winning once in Chicago. They were even better in 1993 and had the home court advantage over the Bulls. They SHOULD have been picked to go to the finals. They took a 2-0 lead on Chicago, and in game 3 Michael shot 3 for 18. It was his teammates that bailed him out. The final 10 seconds of game 5 when Charles Smith choked directly under the basket 4 times was the defining moment of the series. Only ignorant NBA fans would say the Bulls should have been favored over New York going into the 1993 playoffs.

Walton was off by a year on his prediction of the Knicks vs. Rockets in the NBA Finals, except the Rockets won it instead of the Knicks.

Interesting video. I think Walton had a bit of a point when he said that the Bulls were kind of a one-man team in the sense that Jordan needed to play even better than he had in the previous two Finals in order to beat Phoenix, and even then if the Paxson 3 didn't go in that's a Game 7 in Phoenix. Unrelated note but I like the intimacy that their format had, the small table size definitely worked well.

Finals Chicago Bulls over Phoenix Suns (4-2 Eastern Conference Finals Chicago Bulls over New York Knicks (4-2) Western Conference Finals Phoenix Suns over Seattle SuperSonics (4-3) Eastern Conference Semifinals Chicago Bulls over Cleveland Cavaliers (4-0) Eastern Conference Semifinals New York Knicks over Charlotte Hornets (4-1) Western Conference Semifinals Phoenix Suns over San Antonio Spurs (4-2 Western Conference Semifinals Seattle SuperSonics over Houston Rockets (4-3) Eastern Conference First Round Charlotte Hornets over Boston Celtics (3-1) Eastern Conference First Round Chicago Bulls over Atlanta Hawks (3-0) Eastern Conference First Round Cleveland Cavaliers over New Jersey Nets (3-2 Eastern Conference First Round New York Knicks over Indiana Pacers (3-1) Western Conference First Round Houston Rockets over Los Angeles Clippers (3-2) Western Conference First Round Phoenix Suns over Los Angeles Lakers (3-2) Western Conference First Round San Antonio Spurs over Portland Trail Blazers (3-1) Western Conference First Round Seattle SuperSonics over Utah Jazz (3-2)

Bill Walton's houston new york predication was one year earlier

Peter Vecsey is definitely a New Yorker you could hear it

Its not happening for Chicago

Peter Vecsey always hated the Sonics for some reason. Seattle beat Utah, and took Phoenix to Game 7 of the WCF

Quinn Buckner predicted correctly in picking the Bulls to win it all🎉

Let these kids tell it, The Bulls were a heavily favored superteam and the competition was weak. But right here in this video, there were doubts that the Bulls could get it done

Has Bill Walton ever been smart?

2:27 timestamp Bill Walton has always been a Michael Jordan hater. His hatred towards Michael Jordan is sickening.

When I loved the NBA

This was fun to watch. I’m eating a biscuit.

Peter looks like that guy in the original die hard that got killed by Hans because Willis didn't give into him

Walton picks Knicks to beat Rockets in Finals. Vecsey says Knicks will win it all for sure. Walton and Vecsey both predict the Jazz to upend the Sonics. ALL of those predictions were wrong. They all thought Chicago would have a hard road to the ECF. They didn't. The Bulls went 7-0. Also, the Pacers were not a patsy for New York. NY won the series 3-1 over Indiana. Game 1 was only a 3-point margin. Game 3 was an Indiana blowout. NY won Game 4 in OT.

But they always said the Bulls were always the favorite…..

Jazz, Sonics, Knicks, Suns were all empty during the 90's.

good times!!!!

ewing was very highly regarded other than by ny fans and media lol

Pat ewing could shoot?

jealous of mj and bulls

Peter fell off out of nowhere

So a 5 seed over a 4 seed… man these guys were really being risky here.

I don't watch basketball but I like it

Seating arrangement is horrible for buckner never got a chance at a rebuttal.

Bill Walton was ALWAYS a Bulls hater

Rockets over Bulls

If rockets won against Seattle maybe they can beat the sun's and Michael vs Hakeem in the finals

It’s not happening for the Bulls

Phoenix was the Vegas favorite that year and the Bulls were shaky in their paint protection. Pippen was really their best interior defender. They didn't reach a new level of defensive dominance until they got Rodman

Bill Walton wrong as usual ☠️

NBA and the ESPN/ABC may head for a divorce from what I’ve read so NBC possibly has a strong shot of getting the NBA back. If they do happy joy for us real basketball fans.

Listen don’t bet against MONEY

Micheal Jordan: “I exist...”

The Knicks?? They used to be so tough and physical, but Jordan and Pippen owned them! As far as the west, if Ceballos wasn’t hurt, the Suns could have taken the Bulls to 7 games.

these dudes were casuals. it showed. but yeah I wasn't feeling their picks

Walton was right about the Bulls... the problem is that he was completely wrong about Jordan

Lol 😆 sonics are going to lose in the first round.... 1 game away from the finals

Ewing isnt even top 25 shooting big man now.

nba isn't the same today

If Ewing didn't have bad knees, he would have definitely got a ring.

If rockets won against Seattle maybe they can beat the sun's and Michael vs Hakeem in the finals