1994 NBA Championship

Lore & Background

This matchup was Hakeem Olajuwon's second NBA Finals appearance, his other being in 1986, when Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics defeated the Rockets, four games to two. The series was Patrick Ewing's first NBA Finals appearance. The Rockets came in with strong determination to win not only the franchise's first NBA championship, but the city's first championship in a league that still existed. The Knicks, who had been recently acquired by Viacom when it bought Paramount Communications (formerly Gulf+Western), were looking to win their third NBA championship and first since . The series was hailed as a meeting of the two great centers who had previously played for a championship in college. In 1984, while Olajuwon was with the University of Houston and Ewing was with Georgetown University, Georgetown beat Houston 84–75 in the 1984 NCAA Championship game. But in this series, Olajuwon outperformed Ewing, outscoring him in every game of the series and posting numbers of 26.9 ppg on 50.0% shooting compared to Ewing's 18.9 ppg on 36.3% shooting. However, Ewing set an NBA finals record in the series with a total of 30 blocks, and tied the single-game record of 8 blocks in Game 5. Tim Duncan later set the record for most blocks in a Finals series () with 32 blocks in six games, while Dwight Howard set the record for most blocked shots in a Finals game with 9 blocked shots in Game 4 of the 2009 Finals with the Orlando Magic. During the series, the Rockets played seven low-scoring, defensive games against the Knicks. After splitting the first two games in Houston, the Knicks won two out of three games at Madison Square Garden, which also hosted the Stanley Cup Final where the New York Rangers won their first Stanley Cup in 54 years. In Game 6, Olajuwon blocked a last-second three-point shot attempt by John Starks that would have given the Knicks their third NBA title, instead giving the Rockets an 86–84 victory and forcing a Game 7, which made Knicks Coach Pat Riley the first (and to this date, the only) coach in a Game 7 NBA Finals on two teams, having been with the Los Angeles Lakers in and . In addition, the Knicks set a record for most playoff games played in one season, with 25. The Detroit Pistons tied this record in . The Boston Celtics, coached by 1994 Knicks guard Doc Rivers, surpassed it during their championship season when they played 26. The Rockets be

In Their Own Story

The air inside Madison Square Garden was thick with tension, smelling of popcorn and sweat. The scoreboard read Game 7, the final breath of the series. He closed his eyes for a split second, blocking out the noise, focusing only on the rim ten feet away. As he released the ball, time seemed to suspend. The net snapped with a rhythmic swish that echoed louder than any cheer. In that moment, the red and black of Houston didn't just win; they conquered the world.

Reader's Guide

NBC Sports used Ahmad Rashad (Knicks sideline) and Hannah Storm (Rockets sideline). Marv Albert and Matt Guokas called the action. Hal Douglas narrated the season ending documentary Clutch City for NBA Entertainment. The Rockets chose Hakeem Olajuwon as the first overall pick in the 1984 NBA draft. Olajuwon's first nine NBA seasons included numerous All-Star, All-NBA and All-Defensive selections, but the closest he got to a championship was in , when the Rockets fell two games short of a title against a powerful Boston Celtics team. By his tenth season, Olajuwon became a more complete player, and he led the Rockets to a 15–0 start en route to a 58–24 record. But after a four-game defeat of the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round, they blew a pair of big fourth-quarter leads at home and lost to the Phoenix Suns to begin the second round (in the process earning the derisive nickname 'Choke City' from the Houston Chronicle). In response, the Rockets used the headline as motivation, overcoming a 0–2 deficit to defeat the Suns in seven games (earning the nickname 'Clutch City'). In the conference finals, Houston defeated the Utah Jazz in five games to claim their third conference title. Olajuwon won the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards at season's end. Like Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing was a first overall pick of the NBA draft. Ewing was picked by the Knicks in the 1985 draft, and won Rookie of the Year that season. But despite earning All-Star accolades of his own, the Knicks teams he played with only made it past the first round twice during his first six seasons (in 1989 and 1990). In the 1991 offseason, the Knicks hired Pat Riley as head coach. In contrast to the fast paced style of Showtime he used with the Los Angeles Lakers, Riley took a more deliberate and physical approach in New York. Aided by the likes of Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason, John Starks and Charles Smith, Ewing and the Knicks rose to prominence under Riley, and in 1994, they won 57 games to finish second in the Eastern Conference. Their playoff run began with a 3–1 victory over their cross-river rival New Jersey Nets. They had a hard time disposing of a Chicago Bulls team that had lost Michael Jordan to retirement (which lasted until the final months of the following season), but managed to win all four home games to advance. In the conference finals, they were pitted against the

Did You Know?

• This was the first professional championship for the city of Houston since 1975.
• After the Rockets won the NBA championship, the league opted to hold the awarding ceremony on the court for the first time. In previous years, teams received the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy inside their locker room
• Olajuwon outscored Ewing in every game of the series, while Ewing outblocked (4.3 to 3.9 bpg) and outrebounded him (12.4 rpg to 9.1 rpg). Ewing set a then NBA Finals record with a total of 30 blocks.