A look back at the Rockets’ first championship 30 years ago

June 22 will mark the 30th anniversary of the Rockets winning their first championship (and the city’s first). Thirty years is a long time, but much of that time has been memorable for Houston sports fans and, let’s be honest, for Houstonians in general. It was a very different time for the city, and in a way the title marked an inflection point between what Houston was and what it ultimately would be.

Now that the anniversary is upon us, it’s a good time to look back on some of the memories from this beloved era of Houston sports.

OJ Simpson’s chase brought Game 4 to a boring halt.

The arrest and trial of OJ Simpson have been widely chronicled in books, films and documentary series. But one thing Rockets and Knicks fans will remember distinctly is how the Simpsons story intersected with the Finals. During Game 4, NBC broke into the live action to play an extended play of the Simpson car chasing down that Los Angeles freeway. There was no alternative for sports fans wanting to watch the game, neither YouTube nor Twitter. There was the radio broadcast, where most went to watch the game, but the drawn-out nature of the car chase cost sports fans much of an important Finals game.

The trade that did not take place before the one that did take place.

Few people forget the 1995 Valentine’s Day trade that brought Clyde Drexler back to Houston and ultimately led to a second championship, but there was another defining moment and almost a trade that impacted the 1993-94 team. In early February 1994, the Rockets traded Robert Horry and Matt Bullard to Detroit for Sean Elliot, seeking a boost to their sometimes sluggish offense. But, just before Horry and Bullard could debut for the Pistons, Elliot missed his physical and both forwards were sent back to Houston.

Horry and Bullard returned different, but Horry, the second-year forward, appeared to be a changed player. “I was the only guy who was traded because he wasn’t shooting enough,” Horry would say years later. He returned to the Rockets being aggressive on both ends of the court and that has been a vital part of this team’s success.

Big men ran the NBA.

In today’s NBA, big men are a lot different than they were in the early 90s. Instead of unicorns like Victor Wembanyama, you had murderers and enforcers. On any given night, Hakeem Olajuwon would face a Hall of Fame candidate at center, from Patrick Ewing and David Robinson to Shaquille O’Neal and Alonzo Mourning. The offense flowed through the paint, with the big men literally being the center of attention on offense. The Rockets had the best player that year, who also happened to be Olajuwon’s best player.

Sam Cassell was a rookie.

When Boston beat Dallas on Tuesday for the NBA title, Cassell, now a Celtics assistant, earned his fourth championship ring. His first came as a rookie for the Rockets. But, although he played a key role in that title run, he almost never played in the first half of the season. Kenny Smith (yes, “The Jet”) was the starter and recent All-Star. Former Wizards and Thunder head coach Scott Brooks was the backup who got every minute for much of the season. It was only down the stretch that coach Rudy Tomjanovich began to give minutes to the rookie point guard. And Cassell brought a dynamic style of play on offense that contrasted with Smith’s long-range shooting. The combination proved deadly.

The offense was a fight.

In a league where 120 or 130 points in a game are commonplace, it’s probably hard to imagine games ever coming out of the ’80s, but that was the case in the early ’90s NBA, especially the Finals. The highest score for either team in the series was 93 for the Rockets in Game 3. Sports Illustrated later calling the slugfest “Uglyball”. The NBA took note and began making rule changes that would directly boost offenses. Most notably, they removed the ability for players to check their opponents, which significantly loosened up offensive players.

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From Choke City to Clutch City in just a few days.

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“Hellhole”

The Rockets and Knicks had a pretty fierce rivalry, but it intensified and turned into a battle between New York and Houston when New York Post Columnist Wallace Matthews described H-Town as “a nondescript, steamy, insect-infested prairie town.” The headline of the tabloid little known for its subtlety read “Hellhole”. It’s true that Houston was a city on the brink of transition. At the time, bayous were still considered glorified drainage ditches, not park spaces. And no one really thought about quality of life. In Houston, you probably lived in the suburbs and drove through hours of traffic every day to get to work, and that was it.

It was a city coming out of a massive oil crisis in the 1980s and trying to convert itself from a blue-collar oil town to a modern, vibrant white-collar city. In a way, Houston was hell back then. We didn’t need those damn Yankees telling us that.

Clutch City was born.

For many years, when you looked for what is now Lakewood Church on an online map, it would say Clutch City. That’s because The Summit, home of the Rockets before moving to the Toyota Center, was in Greenway Plaza and the name originated during the 1994 playoffs. After losing two home games to the Suns in the playoffs, THE Houston Chronicle dropped a title worthy of New York Post: Choke City. After back-to-back wins in Phoenix to even the series, the Rockets returned to a heroes’ welcome and a new title: Clutch City.

It got stuck. Now the name is ubiquitous in Houston and in the name of many of the city’s businesses. At the time, it was born out of tragedy and triumph.

Rudy Tomjanovich’s system has become the model for modern NBA offense.

In modern basketball parlance, “three and D” defines a player primarily known for shooting three-pointers and playing defense. But this concept did not exist before these Houston Rockets. Tomjanovich believed the only way to succeed with Olajuwon was to spread the floor, allow him to work in the paint and set up shooters. At that time, some teams were taking 10 or 12 threes per game, a far cry from the average almost 25 today. The Rockets, long before analytics told them that the three was better than the long two, understood that they could win with this strategy.

It also required a change in Olajuwon, who tended to want to take on all the load himself. His willingness to trust his teammates when they were open changed the team dynamic and introduced the league to a whole new style of play.

Hakeem Olajuwon was better than you think.

Highlights abound, but it’s hard to understand how dominant Olajuwon was on both ends of the floor without watching entire games. His footwork was better than that of any great man in history. His fadeaway “Dream Shake” was devastating. And he regularly led the league in blocked shots, leading the NBA to give him the Defensive Player of the Year award decades later.

His creativity on the court was absolutely masterful and he was clearly the best player on the court every night.

Houstonians were euphoric.

After the Game 7 victory, fans flocked to the streets of Greenway Plaza around the Summit. They danced on top of the cars and hugged and congratulated each other. We were far from the burning cars and greased streetlights of other cities. It was as if Houston breathed a collective sigh of relief. We won our very first title and it was just pure joy. In the days that followed, in nearly 100-degree heat, a million people filled the streets of downtown to watch the parade. They say the first is always the most coveted and this certainly lives up to it.