In that era of gods, there was a god, that is, Michael Jordan, in the time when Jordan dominated the league, he won three consecutive championships twice, and in the middle due to the death of his father, Jordan briefly switched to baseball, and these two years became the best time for many NBA stars to win the championship, and the Rockets led by Olajuwon seized this opportunity and won the championship twice.
In the 93-94 season, Olajuwon led the Houston Rockets to a second-place record of 58 wins and 24 losses in the West, averaging 27.3 points, 12 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 3.7 blocks, 1.6 steals, and won the regular season MVP, the playoffs, they eliminated the Portland Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz and then reached the Finals, the opponent was the New York Knicks, on the stage of the Finals, the Rockets finally defeated the Knicks after seven major battles and lifted the championship trophy. In seven games, Olajuwon averaged 26.9 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.6 steals, 3.9 blocks, and shot 50 percent from the field, while Patrick Ewing, the counterpart, averaged 18.9 points, 12.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.3 steals, 4.3 blocks, and 36.3 percent from the field, Ewing outperformed Olajuwon in rebounding and blocking, but lost a lot in terms of efficiency.
Olajuwon also led the team to the championship for the first time, and he also won the regular season MVP, the Finals MVP, and the best defensive player.
But in the second season after the championship, the Rockets had a flood of injuries, and management had to make a trade to poach drexler the "glider", and he was 33 years old, not even going in the annual three teams, after the end of the regular season, they ranked sixth in the West, and no team in history has ever won a championship without ranking sixth.
In the first round of the playoffs, they faced the Jazz, who had just achieved the best record in team history, their home will be Stockton, who has occupied the top of the assist list for eight consecutive years, and another No. 13 coach, Karl Malone, in the first three games, they are 1:2 behind the Jazz, when they are still in a five-game best-of-three system, they are one game away from being eliminated, this time it is Drexler who stepped forward to save the team, who brought the team to the final with a 41-point performance, and finally helped the team to reach the Western Conference semifinals with a 3:2 victory over the Jazz. Olajuwon's stats are averaging 35 points, 8.6 boards, 4 assists and 2.6 covers per game.
In the semifinals they ushered in a powerful sun, when the sun was led by the peak Barkley, the first four games the Suns led 3:1, in the fifth game, Drexler suffered an injury, forced a comeback, he shot and even the basket could not touch, the Rockets seemed to return to the state of Olajuwon single core led the team, they fought fiercely for 48 minutes, into overtime, and finally the Rockets brought the game back to Houston with a strong will, the sixth victory over the Suns, the seventh Barkley old injury recurred, and finally they eliminated the Suns 4:3, In this round of the series, Olajuwon averaged 29.6 points, 9 boards and 3.7 assists and 2.3 covers per game.
In the Western Conference Finals, they faced the Spurs, who had an admiral, and Big Dream averaged 35.3 points, 12.5 boards, 5 assists, 4.2 caps per game throughout the series, while the Admiral averaged 23.8 points and 11.3 board shooting rate of only 44.9%. Olajuwon almost completely blew up the new MVP. The Spurs were the first in the West that year, Rodman averaged 16.8 rebounds per game to lead the league, and Tang Shuai's change of lineup, put Horry on the starting line- and changed the direction of the whole situation, Rodman against Horry, which greatly reduced the pressure on Olajuwon.
In the Finals, the Rockets faced the magic of O'Neal's team, who once said that "Big Dream is the first player to humiliate me arbitrarily on the basketball court, and I don't know what he's going to do next." The pre-game media was also more optimistic about this talented youth army, they had O'Neal, they had Hardaway, they were a bunch of monsters playing on the basket, the first game quickly led the Rockets by twenty points, but at this time the resilience of the Rockets was once again reflected, relying on Olajuwon's kill, they finally completed a twenty-point reversal.
Although O'Neal has a 60% shooting percentage and the Warriors also achieved a 25+8+8 performance, the Rockets used their flesh and blood to pile up a set of human flesh walls on the inside, allowing O'Neal to make 21 mistakes, accounting for one-third of the team's total, and finally the Rockets swept the Magic 4-0, while Olajuwon could average 32.8 points, 11.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, shooting 48.3%.
Many people say that Olajuwon won two consecutive championships because Jordan retired, but Olajuwon's opponents in each round have superstars, and Olajuwon, whether facing Karl Malone or Robinson or Barkley or O'Neal, almost all played the dominant level data, his championship, full of gold, and this playoff trip, Tang Shuai also left people with the classic sentence "Never underestimate a championship heart." ”
Do you think the Rockets are the most gold-laden champions on four or fewer grams? If Jordan does not retire, will Olajuwon still win the championship?
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