1983-85: How Do You Stop Two 7-Footers?
The good thing about bad seasons is that they generally yield high draft choices. That certainly held true for the Rockets, who would pick first in both the 1983 and 1984 drafts.
Houston wielded its picks well, selecting 7-4 Ralph Sampson in 1983 and the next year opting for 7-foot Akeem (now Hakeem) Olajuwon to assemble the tallest frontcourt the league had ever known.
Sampson, a three-time Naismith Award winner at the University of Virginia, possessed enough size and grace to be called the next Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Along with new coach Bill Fitch, the giant rookie helped the Rockets to a 15-game improvement in 1983-84 for a 29-53 overall record. Playing in all 82 games, Sampson averaged 21.0 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 2.40 blocks. At season’s end he was an easy choice for the
NBA Rookie of the Year Award.
The NBA’s biggest big men had been growing taller through the years, from George Mikan (6-10) to Wilt Chamberlain (7-1) to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (7-2). But the league hadn’t seen a double shot the size of the one that Houston unleashed in 1984-85.
Olajuwon was less experienced than Sampson. He had led the University of Houston’s “Phi Slamma Jamma” squad to three Final Four ppearances, but the native of Nigeria had never played basketball until 1978, two years before enrolling in college. Houston selected Olajuwon after winning a coin toss with the Portland Trail Blazers, which chose
Sam Bowie, leaving Chicago to take a guard named Michael Jordan.
Sampson (22.1 ppg, 10.4 rpg) and Olajuwon (20.6 ppg, 11.9 rpg) found enough room in the paint during their first year together to become the first teammates since Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor in 1970 to each average 20-plus points and 10-plus rebounds per game.
Olajuwon finished second to Jordan in the balloting for the NBA Rookie of the Year Award.
The squad and its so-called “Twin Towers” amassed a 48-34 record in 1984-85 for a second-place finish in the Midwest Division. The Rockets returned to the playoffs but were bounced in the first round by the Utah Jazz.
1985-86: “Twin Towers” Lead Rockets Back To Finals
For the 1985-86 season Olajuwon and Sampson were joined by a complement of capable players: Rodney McCray, Lewis Lloyd, Jim Petersen, Mitchell Wiggins, John Lucas, Allen Leavell, and Robert Reid. The team rolled to a 51-31 record and won the Midwest Division.
The Rockets entered the playoffs without their top point guards. Lucas had been suspended by the league after failing a drug test in March, and Leavell was shelved with an injury. With Sampson and Olajuwon on the court, however, guard play at times was irrelevant. The Rockets swept the Sacramento Kings in the first round; got by Denver, four games to two, in the conference semifinals; and upset defending NBA-champion Los Angeles, four games to one, in the conference finals. Sampson hit an awkward turnaround jumper to beat the Lakers in Game 5 and send his team to the NBA Finals against Boston.
The Celtics were Larry Bird’s team. His r?sum? for the year included his third consecutive MVP Award and a top 10 finish in five statistical categories, with 25.8 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 2.02 steals per game; an .896 free-throw percentage; and a .423 three-point field-goal percentage. Bird had also led the Celtics with 6.8 assists per game. Boston had tallied a 67-15 record that season for a remarkable winning percentage of .817.
In the Finals, Boston had too much firepower, too much depth, and too much Bird. The Celtics won the first two games at Boston Garden, and in the next three contests at the Summit, the Rockets managed to win only twice. Boston took the title in Game 6 at the Garden.
1986-88: Changing Of The Guard
The 1985-86 Rockets team would rank among the best in franchise history, although it quickly self-destructed. In an 18-month span following the 1986 NBA Finals, Houston’s top three guards-Lucas, Lloyd, and Wiggins-were all lost to substance-abuse problems,
ending the Rockets’ hopes for another shot at a title.
The Rockets compiled a 42-40 record in 1986-87, good for third place in the Midwest Division. They went quietly in the playoffs, advancing to the Western Conference Semifinals before losing to Seattle in six games. Olajuwon, meanwhile, was developing into a center of the highest order. While Sampson played only 43 games because of injuries, Olajuwon became the team’s leader on both ends of the court. He averaged 23.4
points, 11.4 rebounds, and 3.39 blocks and earned the first of three consecutive berths on the All-NBA First Team.
As the 1987-88 season got underway, discord between Sampson and Coach Bill Fitch led to an early-season trade that sent Sampson to Golden State for guard Eric “Sleepy” Floyd and center Joe Barry Carroll. (The trade marked the first time that two No. 1 draft choices had been swapped for each other.) Fitch said the trade would make the team better than the 1986 NBA Finals squad. In reality, Houston finished 46-36 and fourth in a tough Midwest Division-and Fitch was replaced by Don Chaney after the season. The Dallas Mavericks, who would later come within a game of the Finals, ousted Houston in a best-of-five series, three games to one.
In the fall of 1988 the Rockets began shuffling players to restock the roster. They sent Carroll and Lester Conner to the New Jersey Nets for Tim McCormick and Frank Johnson and packaged Rodney McCray and Jim Petersen to Sacramento for Otis Thorpe. The Thorpe trade would pay quick dividends.
A 6-10 power forward from Providence with hands as big as frying pans, Thorpe provided some help for Olajuwon inside and would consistently rank among the league leaders in both field-goal percentage and dunks. From 1987 to 1993 Thorpe registered 878 dunks, second only to Charles Barkley during that period.
1988-90: Rockets Set A New Trend-Quick Playoff Exits
The 1988-89 Rockets, with a starting lineup of Olajuwon, Thorpe, Floyd, Mike Woodson, and Buck Johnson, compiled a 45-37 record, second best in the Midwest Division. But Seattle scorched them, three games to one, in the first round of the 1989 NBA Playoffs.
Olajuwon made the All-NBA First Team for the third straight season, led the league in rebounding (13.5 rpg), and became the first player since the NBA began keeping such records to collect more than 200 steals and more than 200 blocks in the same season.
The Rockets fielded a squad in 1989-90 that was similar to that of the previous season’s.
Mitchell Wiggins returned to contribute 15.5 points per game, third on the team behind Olajuwon (24.3 ppg) and Thorpe (17.1). Fiery guard Vernon Maxwell was obtained from San Antonio, and John Lucas signed with the club for the fourth time.
The Rockets hovered around .500 until a slump in December dropped them to 12-18 on December 30. But the new year brought winning ways, and the Rockets stood at 19-20 after a 116-104 victory over Denver on January 22. They struggled to break even throughout the rest of season and needed a victory in their last game to finish at 41-41 and in fifth place in the Midwest Division. Houston then made a quick exit from the playoffs, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in a best-of-five first-round series.
Olajuwon, Thorpe, Wiggins, and Johnson were the club’s top scorers. Larry Smith added 6.1 rebounds per game off the bench. Lewis Lloyd, an explosive guard and an integral part of Houston’s run to the Finals in 1986, was on the court for 19 games but wasn’t the player he once was. He wouldn’t return for the following season.
Although Floyd (7.3 apg) and Lucas (4.9) still had some life, the Rockets wanted youth at the point guard position. Prior to the 1990-91 season they traded Tim McCormick and Lucas to Atlanta for Kenny Smith and Roy Marble. Smith, a native of Queens, New York, had been a high-profile collegian at the University of North Carolina. He finished his career as the Tar Heels’ all-time assists leader and took the team to undefeated
records in the Atlantic Coast Conference in both 1984 and 1987. Sacramento had selected him sixth in the 1987 NBA Draft, then traded him to Atlanta midway through the 1989-90 campaign.
1990-92: Houston Struggles Without Hakeem
Kenny Smith was part of a new mix that brought Houston 11 additional wins in 1990-91.
With a lineup of Hakeem Olajuwon, Kenny Smith (17.7 ppg), Otis Thorpe (17.5), Vernon Maxwell (17.0), and Buck Johnson (13.6), the Rockets had a solid starting five.
Olajuwon, however, missed 26 games because of injuries, the most disturbing of which was a fractured eye socket courtesy of a Bill Cartwright elbow on January 3. The injury kept Olajuwon out until February 28 and broke a string of six consecutive All-Star appearances. He finished the year leading the league with a 3.95 blocked shots per game but didn’t play enough games to qualify for his third straight rebounding title.
The Rockets were 17-13 before their center’s injury, 15-10 without Olajuwon, and then 20-7 with him back in the lineup, to finish at 52-30 and in third place in the Midwest Division behind Utah and San Antonio. Despite the strong finish, the Rockets ran into the Finals-bound Lakers in a first-round playoff series and were swept in three straight. For the team’s efforts, Don Chaney won recognition as NBA Coach of the Year.
Houston stayed with the same lineup in 1991-92 and jumped to an 8-2 start. But by February 21 the Rockets were 27-27, and by season’s end they were 42-40 and in third place in the Midwest Division. On February 18 Chaney was relieved of his coaching duties. Assistant Coach Rudy Tomjanovich was named interim head coach, and the Rockets shot out to an 11-4 record. But disputes between Olajuwon and the Rockets’ management proved to be a distraction in the final months of the season, and Houston staggered to a 5-10 finish, missing the playoffs by losing three straight to end the year.
1992-93: “Rudy T” Sees Season End In OT
The Rockets opened the 1992-93 season with a pair of games in Japan against the Seattle SuperSonics. Although Houston lost both contests, the trip was extremely fruitful; Olajuwon ironed out his differences with team management on the flight to Japan, removing a distraction that had hampered the Rockets throughout the preseason.
Tomjanovich had been elevated from interim head coach to permanent head coach for 1992-93, and he began to mold the Rockets into a strong defensive unit. After returning from Japan, Houston won six straight to climb atop the Midwest Division standings.
Robert Horry, a 6-10 rookie from Alabama, filled a void at the starting small forward spot. In addition, Tomjanovich employed an unlikely bunch of substitutes: power forward Carl Herrera, who was born in Trinidad and played high school basketball in Venezuela; Matt Bullard, a 6-10 forward who was a .374 three-point shooter; and Scott Brooks, a
5-11 point guard from UC-Irvine.
The main reason the team coalesced, however, was because of Olajuwon’s play. He had a tremendous season, winning the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award, finishing second to Charles Barkley for MVP honors, and earning selection to the All-NBA First Team and the NBA All-Defensive First Team. He led the league in blocked shots (4.17 per game), was fourth in rebounding (13.0 rpg), and ranked 13th in field-goal percentage (.529) and steals (150).
In addition to being an unequaled defensive player, Olajuwon developed into an unstoppable force on offense. Employing an extensive repertoire of moves, he averaged a career-best 26.1 points, fourth best in the NBA. In a time of great centers in the league (David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Shaquille O’Neal, and Alonzo Mourning were among his contemporaries), Olajuwon was in many minds the best post player in the business.
The Rockets were buried in third place at the All-Star break but soared in the second half to win the Midwest Division with a 55-27 record. In late February and early March they put together an NBA season-best 15 straight wins (only 12 teams in history have won as many games in a row), then shot past San Antonio to take the division title.