NBA Betting

History of the NBA Finals

Houston Rockets vs. New York Knicks - 1994

Courtesy Houston Rockets

Houston's Hakeem Olajuwon took Finals MVP honors in the Rockets' series victory.

There was a time when Hakeem Olajuwon would watch the NBA Finals and daydream. He'd see Magic Johnson and Larry Bird fuel their legends on pro basketball's ultimate stage and picture himself going up against Patrick Ewing in the same venue.

That fantasy became reality in June 1994, when Olajuwon's Houston Rockets and Ewing's New York Knicks met for the NBA championship. One of the two 7-footers would capture his first NBA title alter nearly a decade in the league.

The honor went to Olajuwon, who established himself as the sport's reigning star as Houston won the series in seven games. He joined Johnson, Bird and Michael Jordan -- who abdicated the crown to chase his own field of dreams -- as part of an elite group.

"This has to be considered a great team, and great teams are led by great players," New York Coach Pat Riley said of the Rockets. "Hakeem is a great player. This championship will kick him over the top."

It took the Rockets and Olajuwon 23 games to get over the top, a playoff road that went through Portland, Phoenix, Utah and New York.

The 1994 NBA Finals was one of the tightest playoff series in recent years. Neither team won by more than nine points as the Rockets and Knicks typically wallowed in the defensive mud for most of the evening before one team emerged with a brief surge at the end. For the first time since the 24-second shot clock was introduced in 1954-55, neither team scored 100 points in any of the championship-series games. Houston set a seven-game NBA Finals record by scoring just 603 points.

The methodical tone was established early. The Rockets and Knicks combined for just 63 points in the second half of Game 1, including a mere 28 points in the fourth quarter. Both figures set Finals records for futility. Although the homestanding Rockets suffered through a dreadful fourth quarter (2 of 13 from the field, 13 points),they held on for an 85-78 victory.

The Knicks also had shooting problems. They shot 34.1 percent from the field, including 21 of 69 in the last three quarters.

"When you get this far and work this hard, I don't care what it's about, you've got to hit your shots," Riley said. "We had the ability to win this game and didn't hit the shots."

Two nights later, New York hit its shots, especially the starting backcourt of John Starks and Derek Harper. After combining for just 19 points in Game 1, the duo responded with 37 points and 16 assists in a 91-83 New York win in Game 2. Starks scored 19 points and drilled three three-pointers in the third quarter to stake the Knicks to a seven-point lead.

"I know the type of player I am," said Starks, who was 3 of 18 from the floor in Game 1. "After coming off a bad game, I know how to turn everything around. I got in the locker room, meditated for a while and got focused on the game."

Harper got focused as well. Alter Houston's defense had given the Rockets a 79-78 lead with more than five minutes remaining, Harper buried two three-pointers in the final 4:27 to tie the series 1-1. The series shifted to New York for the next three games.

"I don't see anyone beating us three times on their home court or our home court," Rockets guard Vernon Maxwell said. "We're still confident."

That confidence was tested in Game 3. Houston squandered a 14-point lead in the third quarter, a collapse reminiscent of a 20-point, fourth-quarter lead the Rockets blew in a second-round playoff loss to Phoenix. Whether it was Maxwell shouting at a fan or Olajuwon shouting at his teammates, the Rockets seemed to lose their cool in front of 19,763 crazed fans at the Madison Square Garden.

What the Rockets didn't lose, however, was Sam Cassell's passion to win. The rookie point guard replaced an ineffective Kenny Smith in the clutch. Cassell scored nine of his 15 points in the fourth quarter, including seven in the final 32.9 seconds to convert what would have been an embarrassing Houston loss into a 93-89 victory.

"I think he's fearless," Rockets Coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "The bigger the challenge, the more he steps up."

Cassell stepped up in a game Olajuwon and Ewing didn't. What was supposed to be a titanic struggle between the two big men turned into a titanic disappointment. Olajuwon scored 21 points but was 8 of 20 from the field. Ewing had 18 points and was an unsightly 9 of 29.

"I let Hakeem disrupt my shot with the way he flicks his hand at the ball when I get it," Ewing said. "That took away my rhythm."

Trash talk -- a sensitive issue for much of the '94 playoffs -- was absent for most of this series. That was noteworthy since many people regarded the Knicks as being at the forefront of the inflammatory movement. But, interestingly enough, the only lapse in decorum came from Olajuwon, who said before Game 4 that New York would choke if Houston won the game to take a 3-1 series lead.

He never found out. Although the Knicks squandered an early 15-point lead, they regained their shooting touch late and held on for a 91-82 victory to even the series at two games apiece. Starks scored 11 of New York's final 17 points, and Harper, the Knicks' most efficient offensive player in the series, hit five three-pointers and finished with 21 points.

"This is my 11th year and we have the opportunity to win it all," said the 32-year-old Harper, whom the Knicks acquired in a trade in January from the Dallas Mavericks. "You really want to take advantage of it. You don't know if that chance will present itself again."

New York won Game 4 because forward Charles Oakley, hobbled by a sore left ankle and a bone bruise on his right loot, came through with 16 points and 20 rebounds. Oakley led a brutal assault on the boards that helped the Knicks to a 50-33 rebounding advantage. The Knicks won despite another poor performance by Ewing, who was outscored 32-16 by Olajuwon and missed 20 shots for the second consecutive game.

"I don't care what I shoot," Ewing said, "as long as we win."

New York did win Game 5, 91-84, to take a 3-2 series lead. In an unusual display of balance, five Knicks scored in double figures. The Knicks, who had gone to the free-throw line an average of 18.5 times in the first four games, went to the line 29 times in Game 5. Defensively, the Knicks held Houston to fewer than 90 points for the fourth time in five games and limited the Rockets to 40.7 percent shooting. New York had nine blocks, with eight by Ewing.

"Give New York credit-they've been playing great defense," Tomjanovich said. "During the year we were a 47 percent shooting team, 50 percent if you factor in the three-point shooting, and we haven't even been close to that in this series."

Ewing broke out of his slump with 25 points (11 of 21 from the field). A crowd of 19,763 left the Garden that night chanting, "Knicks in six. Knicks in six."

But it didn't happen. In what was the most dramatic game of the series, Olajuwon extended Houston's season by swatting away a three-point attempt by Starks with two seconds left to preserve an 86-84 Rockets victory at The Summit.

Starks did his best to finish off the Rockets. He scored 16 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, including New York's first eight points of the period. His three-point basket with 1:17 left cut the Rockets' lead to 84-82.

But with 39.5 seconds left, Starks drove to the basket and had a pass picked off by Olajuwon. Then, with two seconds left, his 25-foot jump shot was partially blocked by Olajuwon.

"I was trying to get close to the bail," said Olajuwon, who jumped out to defend Starks as the Knicks ran a pick-and-roll. "I just got a piece of it ... that's all you need."

Olajuwon's heroics sent the series to a seventh game, where history clearly was on Houston's side. The home team had won the past 19 times a playoff series had gone the limit, a string that began after Philadelphia defeated Boston in the 1982 Eastern Conference finals.

"It's time to be broken," said Riley, whose Knicks already had knocked off Chicago and Indiana in seven-game series in 1994. "I think playing for the world championship transcends any history in the playoffs."

As it turned out, the Knicks couldn't transcend history or Olajuwon. The Rockets won, 90-84, to give the city its first NBA title.

The final victory was a team effort. Maxwell, who struggled for most of the series, broke loose for 21 points and played stifling defense on Starks. Cassell was cool down the stretch again, scoring eight of his 13 points in the final quarter.

But the heart and soul of the championship effort was Olajuwon, who had 25 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in the biggest game in Rockets history. He was a unanimous choice as Finals MVP.

At the other end of the spectrum was Starks, who scored just eight points and shot his team out of contention down the stretch. He was 2 of 18 from the field, including 0 of 11 from three-point range.

"You go with your players," Riley said. "You go up with them, you go down with them."

Ewing also struggled. He had as many turnovers as points (four) in the first half and finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

"It hurts," said Ewing, who averaged 18.9 points but shot just 36.3 percent In the series. "I am extremely disappointed In the fact that we didn't win a championship, but I still feel proud of my teammates."

Olajuwon, meanwhile, averaged 26.9 points and shot 50 percent from the field to become the first player In history to win Defensive Player of the Year, regular-season MVP and NBA Finals MVP honors in the same season.

"If you write a book, you can't write it any better," Olajuwon said. "It has been a great season for us, and I'm so happy to bring a championship to this city.

"That means a lot."