Why the Rockets would have beaten Michael Jordan’s Bulls in 1994

From the Players’ Perspectives

Several Rockets players from the 1994 team have spoken on what they believed would have happened if a series against the Bulls would have taken place.

I reached out to Vernon Maxwell on Twitter to ask him how he felt a Rockets and Bulls Finals would have played out:

“5-1, that’s all that needs to be said. I’m not sure who else had a winning record against them but I’m sure no one else was better against them than us.”

Maxwell has a point. From the time Olajuwon entered the league through their second championship run, Houston won 14 of 22 against the Bulls.

Robert Horry spoke to Scoop B on his podcast a couple of years ago and gave his opinion on the matter.

“I played for Phil [Jackson] and he doesn’t like to double team. You had to double Hakeem or he would have had 50 on you,” Horry said.

“So, I think we would have won. It would have been a good game. I know everybody thinks that Michael Jordan is the greatest to ever play the game, but Dream isn’t too shabby.”

One year before, Kenny Smith also joined the Scoop B podcast and made similar claims.

“We would’ve beaten the Bulls without a question, they didn’t match up well with us and during those years that they were actually winning championships, which wasn’t the playoffs. We were 8-2 against them during those years. We matched up well with them. We wouldn’t have been scared,” Smith said.

Of course, the Bulls had other ideas and Scottie Pippen spoke to this in an interview on ESPN’s The Jump.

“He forgot what my role was: I cut the head off of snakes; and I’m calling him the snake of that team,” Pippen said about Kenny Smith.

One thing is for sure: the Rockets’ players were extremely confident and believe they would have beaten Jordan and the Bulls, even at their peak.

Next: Defending Michael Jordan