The Houston Rockets were the only 80s team that won the western conference over the Lakers, and they did it twice. The first time was with an MVP Moses Malone, and the second was with a young Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson. Although these teams had the potential to be consistent contenders, they were always bad or mediocre outside of their two magical finals runs. But why? What stopped them from becoming champions?
#nba #rockets #houston
46 Comments
Not good enough.
Take away the drug problems and Sampson's injury and that's most likely a dynasty that spans 2 decades.
Dope
I love this video and absolutely hope to see many more of them but just one little critique and that is: one cannot have a 'fatal injury' and then continue to play for several more years (you said this about the Kermit Washington hit on Rudy T).
Fatal usually means fatal.. Just saying. 😉
Your channel is underrated and AMAZING !!!
🚀 ROCKETS' problem was, besides getting by the LAKERS in 1981 was: 1)Getting past the CELTICS in 1981 & some guy named 🐦 BIRD. & 2) Besides getting by the LAKERS in 1986 was getting by the CELTICS & some guy by the name of 🐦 BIRD.
Weird that DREAM went to the finals before MICHAEL JORDAN & had to wait 8 MORE SEASONS! to return to the finals.
Fire video keep it up!
Was good but could have been better if drug problems didnt get in the way
They weren’t good enough kind of like Doc without Moses
💯kant beleive yt jus now showin me ur khanell🤦🏾♂️😮💨🤞🏾
If that Houston team had a legit point guard they'd have been dominant.
As a kid Iwatched Houston take out the lakers in 86 in game 6 with the last 2nd
R. Sampson shot At the time it was one of the greatest playoff upsets in history You had a young Hakeem & a young Ralph Sampson we thought the twin towers was gonna go on for at least a decade but injuries derailed that
"Rudy suffered a fatal injury…."
Please, no one tell Mrs. T. She's gonna want to know who's been sleeping in her bed for the past 45 years!
That fearsome thumbnail already provided the answer. Great documentary.
Had Sampson stayed healthy, basketball history would have been very different through to the late 90’s. There was no team who could stop one of Hakeem or Sampson, let alone both of them.
Do you think you’ll do a video about the early 2000’s Nets who went to two straight finals and lost and if they were really good or not?
I used to work with Billy Paultz a few years ago… He's hilarious.
The Lakers didn't pass the ball to Kareem in 81 that's why they loss. I watched that shit, I was so pissed. 🤨
10:37
Saving for future reference.
They were good, just not good enough to beat Boston.
A fatal injury? Gosh, Rudy coached while dead?
great video, Would love to see more decade breakdowns like this. Also very well written
Sorry, the Boston crowd had zero to do with Celtics winning in 86
Moses took akem off the soccer field ( goalie) when he came from Nigeria when we stress how bad u of Hou. needed a dominant center. In one season he became an all American. That's why we call him 'The Dream '. He was a coaches dream.
Moses was the first player to go pro from Highschool
In college I witness when Jordan came to Moses camp that Jordan always wanted to be Hakem (7' tall) and Hakem always wanted to be Jordan. (Footwork)
Hakem name is really spelled Akem. He added the H so that the NBA would pronounce it correctly.
Nice vid! As a Rockets fan I always wanted more info on these teams since theyre in every Lakers V Cetlics docs.
A Buffalo Braves fan who is still grateful for the owners trading for Malone…and trading him away a day later for the equivalent of guys named Joe and some cash.
How'd that go for them?😑
The guard play of the 80's rockets wasnt as good as how it was when they won back to back in the 90's
Moses Malone was playing for the rockets while Olajuwon was playing the cougars.
Willoughby could leap! In fact, his nickname was "Son of Flubber!"
Good video. They could've had Dream, Jordan and Drexler. I wonder how that would've worked.
the shotblocking from hakeem olajuwon didn't equal the scoring from larry bird and passing from magic johnson let alone the scoring from kareem abdul-jabbar and superstar describes moses malone and legend describes hakeem olajuwon larry bird magic johnson and kareem abdul-jabbar
Health and drugs. MJ would have been dominated by Dream and Sampson
As a younger rockets fan. Thanks for this content!
The not having a healthy Sampson part is the worst of it all. Even if the other guys had the drug problems, the easier part was just building around the Twin Towers. It would've even more fun to have seen them from around '88-96.
The Lakers could of had Ralph Sampson as he wanted to go to the Lakers.
The Clippers refused to help the Lakers in 1982 so Sampson stayed in school…
Due to this, MJ is still the GOAT instead of LeBron James.
Really Robert read ? You retired because you thought you were sinning lol? I’m done
If Ralph could have stayed healthy…… Mannmnm
Faster than the lakers
They should have beaten Boston in 1986 but the referees did everything to keep Sampson and Hakeem in foul trouble…both spent much of the series on the bench.. because Boston couldn't compete with them both on the floor at the same time
1:51 fatal means that the person died. Maybe change it to near-fatal.
Anyone who watched the games knows that reed was the 1 and Lewis was the 2. Can't take these YouTube clips seriously if the creators don't research it seriously.
That '81 run was something to behold. National TV contracts for the playoffs were still a few years in the future, so even those of us in Houston didn't get to see all of the games. The game seven against the Spurs was shown only on a UHF station in Houston IIRC.