NBA FINALS: Rockets 4, Magic 0
If there was a team in the mid '90s that was viewed as the "next big thing," it was the Orlando Magic. They had won the 1992 NBA Draft Lottery and selected Shaquille O'Neal (who was literally the "next big thing"), and then, to the skepticism of many, won the lottery again in 1993, flipping that pick to Golden State for the pick that would net point guard Penny Hardaway. This would be Orlando's version of Hakeem and Clyde, only younger and with more endorsements.
TOMJANOVICH: That was a good team; it wasn't just Shaq and Penny. They had Dennis Scott and Nick Anderson shooting threes; Horace Grant was a veteran presence. They had their way with us in the regular season. That was a hard place to play. It was a very frantic place for us. We always had a hard time getting settled, and Game 1 kind of started out that way.
OLAJUWON: I had just played against David, whose game was quickness, height, agility. That's one thing. You go from that to Shaq, who was power, the total opposite of David. Shaq is very smart; he doesn't go for your fakes. He makes you go wide and go around him.
The Rockets fell behind by 20 points in the first half of Game 1, cut the Magic's lead to 11 by halftime and then, behind a barrage of Kenny Smith three-pointers, clawed their way back in the fourth quarter, close enough to force Nick Anderson to make a free throw to clinch the game with seconds to go. Anderson would miss. And miss. And miss. And miss. Four times Anderson missed what would have been a game-clinching free throw. It was exactly the opening the Rockets needed.
TOMJANOVICH: Those four missed free throws were a miracle that allowed us to hang on by a twig on a cliff.
PETERSON: We called him Nick the Brick after that.
FOLEY: I think if Anderson makes the free throws, the Rockets still would have won the series, but the way they won Game 1, you could tell the series could be over early.
ELIE: I was pissed off we didn't get the rebound after Nick's first set of free throws.
BROWN: After Nick missed the first two, we knew he'd miss the next two. We were on the bench, and I remember Tim Breaux said, "Oh, he gonna miss these."
ELIE: Nick was definitely still thinking about the previous two he just missed, because he missed the first one on his next trip and he started smiling. When a dude is smiling, that's when you got him. That's when you know he's tight. And then he missed the second one, and Kenny went and got the rebound.
PETERSON: All Anderson needed was one. He missed all four, and I looked at Foley and said, "We're gonna tie this game." And that's what we did.
After getting the rebound on the final Anderson miss, Smith would call time out. Tomjanovich drew up a play ("a high screen, I believe"), but Smith saw an opening, stopped, faked, let Hardaway sail by, and launched a three pointer that tied the game. The Rockets would go on to win Game 1 in overtime on a Hakeem Olajuwon tip-in of a Drexler miss at the buzzer.
TOMJANOVICH: Kenny Smith's three-pointer is not talked about enough. If the Magic win that game, then our mystique is gone. But with Kenny hitting that shot, it had a huge effect on the Magic. I don't think people talk about Kenny's shot enough.
FOLEY: I don't think Olajuwon knew in overtime that he had won the game immediately, until he saw his teammates celebrating, and then he started smiling.
OLAJUWON, on his reaction to his game-winning tip-in: It was the silence in the arena that shocked me. At that moment, I thought something went wrong. It was complete silence at that moment. But then I saw somebody on our team jumping, and I knew it counted.
WORRELL: After that first game, I remember seeing Robert Horry in the locker room, and he just said, "We are gonna win." The tone was set.
MURRAY: Those four free throws changed Nick Anderson's whole career. He never posted up after that because he was too afraid to go to the line. He just shot jumpers after that. Mentally, that whole sequence did something to him that lasted the rest of his career.
ELIE: We had so much poise on our team. Orlando was young, and excited to be there, and got up early. The biggest part of that game, though, was Clyde Drexler's run at the end of the second quarter. He had an 8-0 run on his own and got us within 11 points, and we actually felt good being within 11.
MURRAY: That series was over after Game 1. The three games after that were just easy.
The main problem for Tomjanovich after that heart-pounding Game 1 was maintaining his team's focus, which led him to deliver a tongue-lashing to what he felt was a Rockets team a little too prematurely proud of themselves.
TOMJANOVICH: We were getting happy feet after Game 1. I had to explain to our guys that we had to be serious. We had an opportunity to really get an advantage. The Magic made you pay so much attention to detail, we needed to be focused.
PETERSON: The guys were goofing off, so proud of their lucky win in Game 1. Rudy gave them a tongue-lashing, and he was really serious. And four minutes in, you could tell, Orlando had no chance. And they beat them by 20.
BROWN: Well, if we were messing around, it wasn't me. Not where I came from. But Rudy sensed something, and he flat out told us, "You guys are gonna get your ass kicked." Hey, it worked. We beat them bad in Game 2.
TOMJANOVICH: Mario said after the San Antonio series that we need to stay hungry and stay humble. That became our battle cry.
As was usually the case, Tomjanovich knew exactly what buttons to push. His NSFW practice tirade jolted the Rockets into focus, leading to a 117-106 Game 2 victory. After a 106-103 Game 3 win in Houston, which was best remembered for the continued evolution of "Big Shot Bob" Horry, Game 4 was more of a coronation than a competition. The Rockets would clinch their second championship, the eagle once again landing, with a 113-101 win. Olajuwon would get his MVP trophy, his second NBA Finals MVP, averaging 33 points and 12 rebounds and baptizing Shaquille O'Neal.
PETERSON: Hakeem welcomed Shaq to the league in that series, plain and simple. He taught him how to play basketball in four games. He proved how good he was and how much Shaq had to learn.
TOMJANOVICH: Before the end of Game 4, I left the bench, because I knew there'd be chaos, so I could talk to (Orlando head coach) Brian Hill and let him know how much I respected them and that the series was much closer than a sweep.
WORRELL: Hakeem and Clyde ran right over to each other. I'm sure because of that title in college that had eluded them, they felt they were owed a title as teammates. A glorious moment.
ELIE: Helluva run. We were going down in history; it's a hard league to win a title in, let alone repeat.
BROWN: I was the last guy in the locker room after the celebration on the floor, and I remember Rudy coming up to me to tell me, "We need to take care of your contract for next year." I'm not a crier, but that got me. I cried. A real contract, not a ten-day contract. That was a big deal to me!
MURRAY: That was a group of guys who enjoyed being around each other. There was a night when I was still with Portland, and I was out in Cleveland by myself at a bar. In come the Rockets; I guess we were in town at the same time. And with the Rockets, everyone is together, not just players but coaches, too. They enjoyed each other. That night, I wished I could be a Rocket. And eventually I became one.
BROWN: That night we won the title, I was out at the clubs celebrating with my buddy, and I got pulled over for speeding at four in the morning and the cop let me go. That was the first time that "being Chucky Brown" got me out of a speeding ticket.
ELIE: We would love to have played Jordan; that dude was the best. People always hold it against us that Jordan left for two years. We'd have loved to have seen him. He came back in March and couldn't get it done. That's not our fault.
MAXWELL, who was watching from home: I was happy for them, happy for my teammates. I mean, that was something we'd been building since 1989.
TOMJANOVICH, on "Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion": We'd heard so many people tell us we're not gonna do it. We had people saying we would be the first team to win a championship and not make the playoffs the next year. But I wasn't trying to be cocky. I wanted people to know that there's something special in people who get through that kind of adversity. In two years, we won ten do-or-die games. I don't think anyone's come close to that.
ALEXANDER: Young lion wasn't ready for old lion. Orlando was too young.