NBA FINALS : THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Perhaps Best of All: It’s Over

Whew, what a finals this was--not.

The Houston Rockets stepped out of a storybook. The Orlando Magic got hit between the eyes in Game 1, which was all it took to convince its young players they were up past their bedtime.

At least, it was a heartwarming debacle. Hakeem Olajuwon, nicest of the nice, now the greatest of the great players, won his second title and finals MVP, once again by unanimous vote. His old Phi Slamma Jamma teammate, sweet, nearly forgotten 12-year pro Clyde Drexler, finally got a ring.

“It is just so special,” Olajuwon said. “We didn’t do it in college and 10 years later, in the pros, we win a championship.

“I think it is a special story. This will be something that I will give a chapter in my book.”

That’s “Dream and the World Dreams With You,” or something like that. He’s still working on the title, but at least, after years of indifference, he’s starting to happen, commercially.

Hakeem now has his own brand of bottled water. He just signed a deal with Uncle Ben’s rice (he swears he ate it in his native Nigeria). It might not add up to 1% of Shaquille O’Neal’s soft drink, sports drink, movies, records, et al., and Shaq dictated his first autobiography at age 21, but you have to start somewhere.

It was special in more ways than that. A year ago, the Rockets were madcaps who, after years of trying, managed to stay lucid long enough to saddle Olajuwon and ride him to a title.

A dozen or so incidents later, most involving Mad Max--Vernon Maxwell--they broke up the team, tumbled into the playoffs . . . and emerged as some kind of a beautiful butterfly, models of heart and tenacity.

It couldn’t happen, but it did.

One day Mario Elie is grumbling to everyone about the Drexler deal.

The next, Elie, the journeyman on his sixth team (including the Lakers, who cut him in camp in 1990), is telling everyone he can’t wait to see Drexler get that ring.

In the finals, Elie, a big guard starting at small forward because the Rockets are out of forwards, averages 16 points, shooting 65%, 57% on three-pointers.

As the final seconds of the final game tick away, Elie wraps up Drexler in a bearhug.

“We had so many big shots throughout this playoff,” Elie said the other day. “Robert [Horry] had a couple, Kenny [Smith] had one in Game 1.

“That’s been the story of this team throughout the playoffs. Not just Clyde and Dream. You gotta recognize the Marios, the Kenny Smiths, the Sam Cassells, the Charles Joneses and Chucky Browns.”

Kenny Smith? He gets 23 points, including the tying three-pointer with one second left in regulation of Game 1.

The rest of the series, he scores seven points. If that isn’t destiny, it’ll do until the real thing comes along.

It was brief but fun. For Game 3, a virtual Hollywood colony made up of the cast from “Apollo 13,” which was opening here, encamped on the southern baseline: Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, David Keith, director Ron Howard.

Of course, NBC hopped all over them for interviews. Hanks went on with Bob Costas at halftime, for which the network took a pounding by New York TV critics.

Costas defended it, saying Hanks was a “legitimate fan.” Actually, Hanks sounded like a man watching his first game, marveling at the players’ size and speed.

“They come down so fast!” Hanks gushed to Howard later as they watched the game. “The difference between making a play and not making a play is microseconds!”

Another time, Hanks observed, “That 24-second rule, that’s a good rule.”

Thank heaven. It has only been in effect the last 40 years.

At least it kept NBC from interviewing its own personalities, as it had all postseason. Jay Leno was the unofficial winner in presenting the ball to the referee at the start of games, although he, too, looked a little unfamiliar with it, carrying it like a beach ball.

In all, it was a little less than the NBA would have liked, or the Magic could have imagined or the Rockets could have dreamed, but it was a great postseason and it got everyone home before July 4.

Besides that, we finally found out what was missing in Drexler’s game: Hakeem Olajuwon.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

SWEEPING MOVE

Teams that swept their opponents, 4-0, in the NBA finals.

Year Team Opponent 1995 Houston Orlando 1989 Detroit Lakers 1983 Philadelphia Lakers 1975 Golden State Washington 1971 Milwaukee Baltimore 1959 Boston Minneapolis

SURPRISE PACKAGES NBA champions with the worst regular - season records:

Team Season Record Pct Washington 1977-78 44-38 .537 St. Louis 1957-58 41-31 .569 Houston 1994-95 47-35 .573 Baltimore 1947-48 28-20 .583 Golden State 1974-75 48-34 .585 Boston 1968-69 48-34 .585