» “Last Dance” examines Rockets’ titles with Jordan out.
Bulls lost five times to Houston in their first run of NBA titles but dominated second time
“The Last Dance,” ESPN’s 10part documentary on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, has brought back a lot of old memories for basketball fans.
There’s almost no doubt that Jordan is the greatest player of all time — unless you’re younger than 30 and refuse to budge from your LeBron James allegiance — but that doesn’t mean he and the Bulls dominated everybody.
It’s true the Rockets’ only two championships came in the two years Jordan inexplicably left basketball to give baseball a shot. This Sunday’s episodes deal with that time period.
It’s also true Jordan returned to basketball late in the 1994-95 season and couldn’t lead the Bulls past the Orlando Magic in the second round of the playoffs. That Magic team went on to get swept by the Rockets in the NBA Finals.
Even before Jordan decided to pick up a baseball glove, he still had trouble with the Rockets. During the Bulls’ first three-peat (199193), the Bulls went just 1-5 against the Rockets. In that six-game stretch, Jordan averaged 29.2 points per game, a tick down from the 31.4 per game he averaged against the league during those seasons.
If you’re not a numbers person, maybe you’ll listen to Michael Jordan himself.
When Hakeem Olajuwon torched the Bulls for 28 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and five blocks and dealt Jordan a 14-point loss on his home floor during the 1992-93 season, a frustrated “His Airness” threw the Rockets a backhanded compliment.
“We have no answer for the big guy,” Jordan said after watching the likes of Bill Cartwright and Will Perdue try to guard Olajuwon. “It’s a good thing they won’t ever make it to the (NBA) Finals, because I don’t think we could beat them.”
The next two seasons, Olajuwon and the Rockets were in the NBA Finals, but Jordan wasn’t around.
“There should be no doubt or label of fluke on our championships,” Olajuwon told the Houston Chronicle’s Fran Blinebury in 2005. “As for Michael Jordan, a lot of people don’t know and never looked up our matchups with Chicago during that time. If you check the records, you’ll see that we beat them on a consistent basis when Michael was playing and winning his first three championships.
“(Vernon) Maxwell guarded Michael and gave him problems. In ’95, we would have had Mario Elie on him. They didn’t have anyone who could contain me. Chicago was never a problem for us. We always looked forward to playing them. A lot of people don’t realize that.”
Count Steve Kerr, who was a part of the Bulls’ second threepeat after Jordan returned from baseball, among those who also don’t believe the Bulls necessarily would have beaten the Rockets in those Houston title years.
“Sometimes people say to me, ‘If Michael had stayed, you guys would’ve won eight in a row.’ That’s the most preposterous thing I have ever heard,” Kerr told the Athletic in March. “People have no idea how emotionally draining it is for a team to keep winning.”