1994 NBA Finals

Team Coach Wins Houston Rockets Rudy Tomjanovich 4 New York Knicks Pat Riley 3
Dates	June 8–22
MVP	Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston Rockets)
Hall of Famers	Rockets: Hakeem Olajuwon (2008) Knicks: Patrick Ewing (2008) Coaches: Pat Riley (2008) Rudy Tomjanovich (2020) Officials: Dick Bavetta (2015) Hugh Evans (2022) Darell Garretson (2016)
Eastern Finals	Knicks defeated Pacers, 4–3
Western Finals	Rockets defeated Jazz, 4–1

The 1994 NBA Finals was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1993–94 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion Houston Rockets played the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks for the championship, with the Rockets holding home-court advantage in the best-of-seven series. The Rockets defeated the Knicks 4 games to 3 to win the team's first NBA championship.

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 1973.

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,^[1][2][3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5] Tim Duncan later set the record for most blocks in a Finals series (2003) 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 Rangers' first Stanley Cup celebration in 54 years during the series.

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 1984 and 1988. In addition, the Knicks set a record for most playoff games played in one season, with 25. The Detroit Pistons tied this record in 2005.^[6] The Boston Celtics, coached by Doc Rivers, surpassed it during their championship season of 2008 when they played 26.^[6]

The Rockets beat the Knicks in Game 7, 90–84, enabling the city of Houston to not only celebrate its first NBA and fifth professional sports championship (first in an existing league), but also deny New York from having both NBA and NHL championships in the same year (Chicago had suffered this fate two years earlier in 1992, with the Bulls winning their second NBA championship and the Blackhawks losing in the Stanley Cup Finals). For his efforts, Olajuwon was named NBA Finals Most Valuable Player. Riley had the unfortunate distinction of becoming the first (and to date, the only) coach to lose a Game 7 NBA Finals on two teams, having lost to the Celtics in 1984. It also denied him the distinction of being the first coach to win a Game 7 NBA Finals with two teams, having defeated the Detroit Pistons in 1988.

It was the first championship series since 1990 without the Chicago Bulls.

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.

Background

1994 NBA Finals rosters

Series summary

Game 7

NBC

June 22 9:00et

New York Knicks 84, Houston Rockets 90
Scoring by quarter: 21–22, 22–23, 17–18, 24–27
Pts: Derek Harper 23 Rebs: Charles Oakley 14 Asts: Derek Harper 5		Pts: Hakeem Olajuwon 25 Rebs: Hakeem Olajuwon 10 Asts: Hakeem Olajuwon 7
Houston wins the NBA Finals, 4–3

The Summit, Houston, Texas Attendance: 16,611 Referees: No. 25 Hugh Evans No. 17 Joe Crawford No. 4 Ed T. Rush

External videos
Full game broadcast by NBC on YouTube

Olajuwon vs. Ewing

Although most fans in New York, and some members of the national media, considered John Starks, who shot 2-for-18 from the field in Game 7, a contributing factor in the Knicks' loss in the series, another important factor was Olajuwon's performance. 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.^[4]

Player statistics

Houston Rockets

New York Knicks

Telecast interruption

During Game 5, most NBC affiliates split the coverage of the game between NFL Hall of Famer O. J. Simpson's slow speed freeway chase with the LAPD. At the time, Simpson was an NFL analyst on NBC.

The coverage was presented on a split screen, with the game taking up the smaller portion of the television screen on the left while live coverage of the chase was shown in a bigger screen on the right. The audio came from the chase as narrated by NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.^[7]

KNBC in Los Angeles, serving the media market where the police were tracking Simpson, left the Game 5 broadcast completely for the chase with local coverage narrated by Paul Moyer and Colleen Williams; the station did not put up a split screen until the end of the game, which was still close. By that point, Simpson had returned to his mansion in Brentwood and surrendered to police.

A complete re-broadcast of Game 5, with natural crowd audio substituting for the parts for which NBC did not provide audio, is part of the DVD release of this series from Warner Home Video.

Aftermath

The Rockets repeated as NBA champions in 1995 although their season record was worse. Plagued by a lack of chemistry, the Rockets were stuck in the middle of the conference standings most of the year. Then, as the NBA's trading deadline approached, on February 14, 1995, the Rockets acquired Olajuwon's "Phi Slama Jama" teammate Clyde Drexler. The Rockets finished the regular season as the 6th seed but the team on the court at season's end was clearly better than its 47–35 record. The new Rockets team had only had about two months to gel. The playoffs started rough for Houston, the team down 2 games to 1 to Utah in the First Round. But the Rockets battled back and won that series, stealing the deciding Game 5 in Utah. The Rockets' ability to overcome adversity became more evident as the postseason wore on. They beat four 50-win squads (Utah, Phoenix, San Antonio and Orlando) to win the championship, becoming the lowest seed ever to win it all.

During the Finals, Viacom stepped up in trying to sell their Madison Square Garden properties, which included the Knicks and the New York Rangers.^[8] In August 1994, Viacom sold the Knicks to Cablevision Systems and the ITT Corporation (the latter sold its shares years later).^[9] Also in 1995, the Knicks enjoyed another strong season, with 55 wins, but were eliminated in seven games by the Indiana Pacers during the second round as Pacers guard Reggie Miller's "Knick Killer" legacy continued. After the season Pat Riley left the Knicks after they balked at his request for a stake in ownership and the role of team president in negotiations for an extension.^[10] He departed for the Miami Heat, with whom he won three championships, one as head coach and two as president. The Knicks made the NBA Finals again in 1999 as the first eighth seed to make the Finals, but fell to the Spurs in five games, and have not returned since.

Before this victory, the Houston Oilers' AFL two championships at the close of the 1960 season and 1961 season and the Houston Aeros' two WHA Avco World Trophies in 1974 and 1975 represented Houston's only professional championships. The 1994 NBA Championship represented the city of Houston's first professional championship since those two teams, and the first in a league that did not later merge.

This was the last NBA Finals for three of the league's longest-tenured and most recognizable referees: Darell Garretson, Jack Madden and Jake O'Donnell. Garretson and Madden retired after the 1994 Finals, while O'Donnell worked the 1994-95 season, but did not work past the second round of the playoffs, marking the first time since 1971 he did not officiate in the championship series. O'Donnell retired in December 1995 following the end of a lockout of NBA referees by Commissioner David Stern.

Overall, as of 2019, Houston's teams in the "Big Four" major professional sports are 6–1 over their New York City counterparts in playoff series. The Rockets, in addition to their 1994 triumph, also defeated the Knicks in the 1975 Eastern Conference First Round. The NFL's Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans) followed with a victory over the New York Jets in the 1991 AFC wild card round, and the Houston Astros later prevailed over the New York Yankees in three MLB postseason series during the 2010s (2015 ALWC, 2017 ALCS, 2019 ALCS) The only time a New York-based team prevailed over Houston was in the 1986 NLCS, when the New York Mets won over the then-NL member Astros.

See also

• 1993–94 New York Knicks season
• 1993–94 Houston Rockets season
• 1994 NBA Playoffs
• 1994 Stanley Cup Finals

References