in 1995 the rockets pulled off a feat few before them had ever accomplished back-to-back championships in the process of two-peating they rebuffed the nickname choke city and instead became clutch city rudy tom janovich’s offense ran through all-star hakeem elijah one the agile post could shake and bake defenders or when he was inevitably doubled or tripled he could get the ball to the open man and he had options there was high-flying robert orry bad boy vernon maxwell and steady hand kenny smith getting big minutes off the bench he had confident young guns sam cassell and versatile workhorse mario ellie each rocket worked together in harmony they were great because they were a true team and halfway through 95 that team added another star clyde drexler hungry for his first ring he helped houston battle all the way from the sixth seed to the nba finals surviving five elimination games in the process charles barkley explained their never say die style the rockets are like a big old texas roach you put your foot on it you hear the crunch you think it’s gone then you pick your foot up and see that thing scurry away in the finals houston scurried right on past the magic in a four-game sweep and accepted their second crown surrounded by his team rudy stood up to those who doubted the rockets i have one thing to say those non-believers don’t ever underestimate the heart of a champion don’t ever that’s kind of a strong word don’t you think the houston rockets the machine that functioned as one unit started losing parts before the 95 season even ended that february vernon maxwell punched a fan now according to maxwell that’s because the fan heckled him about his stillborn daughter but the nba still suspended him for 10 games that’s when the rockets brought in clyde drexler to fill the 2 guard hole for those 10 games and then also keep being the starting two guard even when maxwell was back maxwell was not pleased he fanned a hamstring issue in the utah series and was sent home houston waved him a few weeks after the finals so they didn’t have vernon maxwell for the 95-96 season but they did have a whole new look as if trying to prove they were better than their uniforms implied the rockets got out to a dominating start ending november 11 and 4.
then everyone got injured they finished 48 and 34 and took the fifth seed in the west but hey that’s better than last year and uh they kind of have some underdog experience plus everyone was back from injury here we go they upset the lakers three to one could they really do it again oh my god they lost the first game of the western conference semis by 33 points they managed to mitigate their humiliation losing the next two by just single digits they pushed game four to overtime with a barrage of fourth quarter threes but they couldn’t keep it up in ot and the sonics took it that’s a sweep of the two-time reigning champs if it’s any consolation gary payton said it didn’t feel like a sweep and also compared the rocket’s tenacity to vampires instead of roaches which i think is a big step up the rockets had to get themselves back in title contention for the 96-97 season but how well the rockets love aging stars hungry for their first ring what can they say with hakeem barkley and drexler together the rockets looked pretty intimidating this was before the era when having a big three was common see they didn’t even have the vocab yet in order to get barkley the rockets had to give up robert orry sam cassell mark bryant and chuckie brown it wasn’t that houston wanted to get rid of those guys because last year went wrong it was just that they were willing to do whatever it took to get barkley now the rockets had two low post threats for their low post first offensive system barclay put the rockets into championship contention instantly which is pretty important because elijah and drexler were old and only grown older getting berkeley was a short-term solution when now before hakeem and clyde and barkley were ravaged by age worry about the future later houston was the oldest team in the league oh did i mention they added kevin willis to back up hakeem they also released kenny smith to fill their point guard gap they signed three-point threat brent price and cba player matt maloney but all in all the rockets weren’t super concerned about who they had at point the post run the show the 97 season was great until the injury bug reared its shiny little head barkley missed 25 games with back and hip and ankle problems drexler missed several weeks with hamstring trouble christ suffered a season-ending injury in late february which was a pretty big deal because the rockets were in talks to trade price for derek harper trying to give themselves some more strength at the one the rockets acted quick signing sedale threat to shoot threes off the bench and journeyman big guard eddie johnson who fun fact was 37 and that ragtag crew alongside elijahuan finished third in the west in the postseason houston had their big three reunited and despite only playing 40 games together it looked like their chemistry was there they swept the timberwolves got past the sonics in seven games and entered the western conference finals against mvp carl malone and the 64 win utah jazz and i bet that’s when houston really wished the derek harper trade had gone through maloney hung tough but guarding jon stockton was too much for him houston was destroyed the first two games then eddie johnson who was 38 years old at this point led him to a win in game three and hit a buzzer beater for the win in game four the jazz won the next one fine fine but how about game six it looked like houston was gonna take it they were up ten with just three minutes to go too bad jon stockton went off and with 2.8 seconds left the score was tied and utah had the ball stockton ran off malone’s pick which drexler called more of a bear hug and stopped the houston rocket season was over tom janovich saw no reason to change things up too much in the offseason they still had a great team they just had to hope for fewer injuries the 97-98 houston rockets season was dominated by injuries hakeem missed the first half of the season with a bum knee barkley struggled with a hernia and played with so little of his former fire he was forced to admit i’m not a great player anymore but i’m still a good player if you think that sounds sad you should hear how others were describing him but perhaps worse than injuries the rockets showed another sign of aging they got tired before the end of games it was a sad discouraging season they finished at 500 and squeaked in the playoffs as the eighth seed where everyone expected the jazz to sweep him up and throw him out but apparently that insult was just what houston needed they won game one so decisively mario ellie got to remind journalists of their broken dreams huston continued to defy critics and went up 2-1 in the series but in game 4 barkley tore his tricep early in the second quarter they lost that one and in game five’s loss the lack of barkley hurt but also age caught up with them a first-round exit for the rockets drexler retired after the season houston knew the window to capitalize on their two aging stars was closing but not shut yet there’s still some fresh air getting through so they doubled down on their win now with old star strategy for the 98-99 season and replaced drexler with six-time nba champion scottie pippen barkley had to take a pay cut in order for the rockets to afford pippin but you know what’s better than cash jewelry well a specific piece of jewelry sure they lost mario ellie to free agency and sure they were still weak at point guard but they drafted michael dickerson and coutinho mobley maybe they’d be good honestly with pippin barkley and elijahuan and that inside out offense who needs a point guard in the lockout shortened 99 season the rockets were inconsistent in march they lost their trailblazers by 40 points a week later they blew a 20-point lead over the suns and ended up losing by 14.
what happened well pippin wasn’t good he blamed his poor performance on the rocket’s offense he didn’t like everything running through the posts he didn’t know where he fit in and wanted to be more involved rudy tried to appease scotty running different plays even trying the bulls famed triangle offense to which scotty merely replied it’s not really the triangle offense tom janovich got frustrated and implied maybe pippin should work on getting himself open and while it’s easy to say scotty whined with the bulls and now he’s whining with the rockets there was kind of some truth to what he was saying in april houston lost 10 games and their offense was let’s see according to barkley we’ve got our choice of words so i’ll go with bad sorry i panic whether he was right or wrong the rockets pip in troubles continued into the postseason but in new and exciting ways round one game one with just over a minute to play the rockets were up on the lakers 100 to 98 barkley fouled shaq which was the style at the time and shaq actually made one of them with 26 seconds left and a one point lead pippin lost the ball la recovered it and went ahead and won the game pippin blamed barkley barkley and rocket fans and everyone who watched blamed pippin it leaked out more after the season but apparently pippen and barkley were not best buds the rest of the la houston series seemed to simply come down to youth defeating age shaq held elijah one to eight points in game two and just five points in game three la eliminated houston in four games after the season pippin demanded a trade barkley took issue with that and then pippin let loose calling barkley fat and selfish days later he got his trade the rockets sent him to portland in exchange for a bunch of subs of which they only kept three not the most lucrative trade in the world but houston was just happy to see scotty go with just two aging stars and a week back court the 99-2000 season didn’t look promising but thanks to geography the rockets caught a break stick with me here the vancouver grizzlies selected much heralded ball handler steve francis second overall but as you can see through his non-verbal communication skills francis did not want to play for vancouver it was too far away from his family in maryland and also too cold francis demanded a trade and in an 11 player deal rudy finally got himself a point guard with all-star potential plus he added free agent shannon anderson the plan for the 99-2000 season was still to run their post-first offense but to mix it up a little with some francis and anderson fast breaks but you know what they say about the best-laid plans of mice and men they’re stupid the injury bug that had bitten the rockets so many times before had apparently laid eggs which hatched this season in early december barkley suffered a career-ending quad tendon rupture while technically he returned at the end of the season to play a few minutes and say farewell the devastating injury was the end of the line for charles barkley elijah needed hernia surgery and missed 22 games after that a breathing problem limited him to just 24 minutes a game and eventually put him on the injured list when he did play hiking looked old and tired but that’s got to be because of his breathing problem right or maybe it’s because of his knees either way he wasn’t playing great the rockets finished 34 and 48 and missed the playoffs for only the second time in the last 15 years if it makes you feel any better catino mobley came into his own and steve francis was really good he won rookie of the year well co-rookie of the year houston even managed to beat some playoff teams at the end of the year so maybe the 01 season would be better it would certainly be different the houston rockets were now steve francis’s team and no longer old man elijah wands guess who didn’t like that now he might have been cranky because of a ton of nagging injuries a sore foot a swollen knee a blood condition but elijah made his crankiness known he complained to the press that he didn’t know his place in the offense and said he wanted to be traded or released tom jonovich and owner alice alexander had a meeting with elijah which smoothed things over hakeem even called in to tom jonovich’s radio show to apologize the rockets finished 45 and 37 just two games behind the eighth seed a second season with no playoffs but tom janovich was encouraged francis and mobley had solid seasons houston almost made the playoffs and their record was better than last year elijah became a free agent after the season houston offered him 13 million over three years but hakeem said no he thought he was worth more and so did the raptors hakeem olajuwon was no longer a houston rocket houston was sad to see the man who brought them two championships go but they also knew the team was moving on with or without him seemed hakeem knew that too and perhaps moving on was a bit overdue a short-sighted desire to capitalize on aging stars quickly and worry about the future later led to injuries decimating seasons back court weakness bruised egos and of course a big fall but the fall put them in good draft position and they still had an extremely talented young point guard thanks to his refusal to play in canada so while the championship era rockets were gone there’s plenty of reason to believe houston would rise again like the roach you thought you squished or the vampire you thought you stabbed 18 times or i guess a rocket [Music] hey everybody thank you for watching do you want to watch more stuff we’ve got just what you need more rockets and more collapse enjoy for secret base i’m clara morris good night and good game
