This playoff year was the end of the Barkley era in Phoenix. The 3-1 blown lead against Houston is one of the biggest chokes in playoff history. In a fit of irony Barkley flopped in Houston
Utah Jazz, 60-22, Phoenix Suns, 59-23, San Antonio Spurs, 62-20 (league's best record), Orlando Magic, 57-25 (Eastern Conference's best record), Rockets were not favored in any of those series, but won every one of those series, no homecourt edge, and they beat all 4 of those teams who were all favored to win, but Houston would not be denied going back to back, regardless of their 47-35 regular season record, and 6th seeded team. Head coach Rudy Tomjanovich said it best to the skeptics: "Never underestimate the heart of a champion".
It's possible to win 2 (sometimes even 3) series w/o it in a single postseason, but it's extremely difficult to pull off in all 4 series. @@melvynsngltn27
@@melvynsngltn27 Hey Mel....did you know exactly 29 years ago on this date, June 14th this game transpired? With the last basket a Hakeem 3 pt shot that Shaq tried to contest?
The capper to one of arguably the most unlikely playoff runs to an NBA Championship of all time. Only sixth seed to ever defeat four top seeds (3rd, 2nd, and 1st seeds in the West, and the number 1 seed from the East) consecutively. This is why it hasn’t been repeated since.
They were the defending champs from 1994. When they beat my Knicks. Rockets were favorites to go back to back that year. It didn't matter what seed they were in. They had most of the same team from 1994 with the new addition of Drexler. They were much better and had the championship experience from the year before.
@@Melbester9 They also had some off the court issues, such as with Vernon Maxwell, who was ultimately released from the team, which is part of why they didn't win as many regular season games as the previous season.
I’ve always thought this was some kind of bad omen. My Rockets haven’t been to the finals since. This uniform had won 2 championships in a row, then it was gone. I liked the late 90s unis too, but these should’ve been treated like the Lakers/Celtics unis. Do not touch.
@@chrisuncleahmad Actually the majority of the jerseys in the 94-95 season still had the classic designs, the logos really started changing the next 2 seasons afterwards. This was also the last season w/the classic NBA playoffs/finals logo that changed the following year too.
@@ChrisM07 there were a few teams who changed their looks earlier in the 90s (Suns in 92-93, Bucks/Nuggets in 93-94, Cavs/Kings in 94-95) but 95-96 thru 97-98 was the biggest wave of logo/uni changes, at least 3 teams debuted new looks each of those seasons.
@@coreyrowe4119 Yeah that was also when the Internet got big the newer logos did fit the style of the NBA website better, it did seem like the 95-96 season was when the transition really started and it continued in 96-97 w/a different NBA on NBC design.
Phoenix in particular had zero excuse to lose to Houston that year. Zero. I cannot imagine a worse loss in Suns franchise history than the Kiss of Death game. Giannis 50 piece in 21, MAYBE
In my opinion, this was one of the greatest playoff runs ever. This series was lost for the Magic at the end of game 1 when Nick Anderson missed 4 consecutive free throws.
Everyone forgets he actually hit the winning shot game 1 of the West Finals. Even with Hakeem’s dominance, without Horry’s first game winner in the playoffs, that series goes 7
His reputation as a clutch shooter overshadowed the fact he was also a great defensive player. In his postseason career he's 18th in blocks and 14th in steals.
@@ladkatta Actually it's true the Rockets used a different system compared to almost every other team in the league back then. They didn't have their PG as the focal point of the ball handling offense which was the traditional system their playmaking consisted of team ball making it a bit more difficult to adjust defensively against them. Smith and Cassell didn't really have to do a lot for the Rockets to be effective offensively. Add to the fact that either could go off at any particular time I believe the Rockets would definitely be a problem.
Hakeem and Drexler were great every game but they needed to have 3rd scorer step up in each game. Game 1 = Smith Game 2 = Cassell Game 3 = Horry Game 4 = Elie
@@MDBBall sweet. I’ve seen the full versions posted on YT before but they keep taking them down. Looks like this format seems to work. Hopefully you get them and they have the NBA on NBC intros/lead-ins like this one!
He was "dominant" when matched up against slower players because he was also effective on the defensive end. He got neutralized more often by players w/speed, that's the reason Rodman was so effective against him despite not being an actual C.
@@ChrisM07 Honestly I hold the performances of the likes of Olajuwon, Duncan & Malone (the later 2 guarded him in stretches although not always the primary defender) higher when going against Shaq than "specialists" like Rodman and Ben Wallace. It's a lot more impressive to me to be all time great defenders and also repeatedly forcing Shaqs hand on defence than it is to be a guy that just defends and rebounds and doesnt have to expend the same amount of energy anchoring an offense. Rodman was also dirty and embellished flopping a lot vs Shaq. That had a bit to do with his effectiveness vs Shaq. Especially in Chicago because they were so popular.....the refs just turned a blind eye to this imho.
@@FuShengAlex Good point on Rodman, numerous players have mentioned how much they hated going up against him because of his antics. The problem was they usually ended up taking the bait and tried to be physical back w/him which played right into his hands. As the Rockets showed in 95 the best way to neutralize that was to just play through it and use reverse psychology by being friendly w/him.
