Still No Respect : After Struggling Into Playoffs, Rockets Have Opponents Where They Want Them

What do you call it when the twice-defending NBA champion falls to fifth in the West and has to open the playoffs on the road?

An improvement.

It is if you’re the Houston Rockets, the NBA’s least-respected, most-traveled back-to-back champions ever, who have to open in the Forum tonight. Of course, a year ago when they won their second title, the Rockets were No. 6 in the West.

The league has gone beyond disrespect, into contempt and amusement and back. The Rockets laughed the last two years in a row; now people know not to write them off before they pound a stake through their hearts.

“I think there’s a lot of people who think the Lakers are the better team,” said Sacramento King personnel director Jerry Reynolds, “but if the Rockets get through them, everybody in the West is going to be sweating big time.

“It’s like a wounded lion. You hope it doesn’t have time to heal up.”

Now all the Rockets have to do is . . . do it again?

It was amazing enough the first two times, as a survey of their recent finishes suggests.

1990-91: They have the usual volatile season, catching fire with Hakeem Olajuwon out because of an eye injury, winning a franchise-high 52 games. Talk radio callers in Houston recommend trading Hakeem, who is considered greedy, selfish, etc. Don Chaney is named coach of the year.

In the playoffs, Laker Coach Mike Dunleavy has his players collapse on Olajuwon, daring the guards to beat them. Vernon Maxwell takes 11 more shots than Olajuwon. The Lakers sweep, 3-0.

1991-92: Olajuwon, who has been grousing about his contract for years, says he has a hamstring injury--and is accused by General Manager Steve Patterson of faking it to force the team to renegotiate. Olajuwon subsequently calls owner Charlie Thomas a “liar.”

Chaney is fired at midseason. Assistant coach Rudy Tomjanovich takes over, looking overmatched. The Rockets die, finishing 0-3, losing to the Dallas Mavericks, who won 22 games all season, and miss the playoffs.

That summer, the Rockets agree to a deal sending Olajuwon to the Lakers. Salary-cap rules make it unworkable so everyone stays put. A year later, the rules are loosened.

1992-93: Olajuwon and Thomas make peace. The Rockets win 55 games, beat the Clippers, 3-2, in the first round--their first postseason series victory in six years--then lose to the Seattle SuperSonics, 4-3.

1993-94: The Rockets win 58 games but in a second-round series against the Phoenix Suns, start 0-2 at home. Both local papers, remembering the NFL Oilers’ collapse at Buffalo, run the same headline: “CHOKE CITY.”

The Rockets rally to win the series and advance to the finals. The team commissions a commercial showing a fan listening to a game, sitting on a ledge with an anvil tied to his ankle. Thinking the Rockets have lost, he throws the anvil over the side, only to hear the announcer yell the game is still on. As the fan grimaces, a voice intones: “Because it’s hard to be a sports fan in Houston.”

The Rockets fall behind the New York Knicks, 3-2, then win the last two games at home for their first title.

1994-95: Preseason yearbooks snub the defending champions, angering Rocket players who say they’ll use it to fuel their fires.

Happily, motivation is everywhere.

“I said when they won their first championship, they were the worst team ever to win an NBA title,” Clipper broadcaster Ralph Lawler says.

Motivation isn’t enough. A week after the All-Star game, with the Rockets fifth in the West, Tomjanovich trades Otis Thorpe to the Portland Trail Blazers for Clyde Drexler.

The Rockets go 17-19 to finish 47-35 and fall to sixth in the West.

In what many consider the most amazing run in NBA playoff history, they rally from a 2-1 deficit against the Utah Jazz, a 3-1 deficit against Phoenix, then upset favored San Antonio. In the process, they go 5-0 in elimination games--winning two in Phoenix and one in Salt Lake City.

In Game 1 of the NBA finals at Orlando, they trail by 20 but force overtime on a late three-point basket by Kenny Smith, who scores 23 points--and gets seven more in the series. The Rockets win the game on Olajuwon’s rebound, sweep the next three and claim their second title.

“The most underrated thing is Rudy T,” says Jazz personnel director Scott Layden. “He’s done a brilliant job.

“One of the things he did in our series, he took a chance and sent Maxwell [who had been pouting since losing his job to Drexler] home. Maxwell’s a jerk, but he sent him home and that became a rallying point. That’s when we were done.

“We sit here a year later and that looks like the logical thing to do, but it’s not. Maxwell’s a volatile character, you’re saying to yourself we’ve got a chance to win. And players are players--they can go the other way too. It was a gutty move.”

Says Lawler: “They’re definitely the worst team to win back-to-back championships, and if they win a third, they’ll be the worst ever to win three in a row.”

Actually, Lawler agrees with the consensus--if the Rockets, who lost their top six players for significant stretches late in the season, can pull it together fast enough to beat the Lakers, they’ll be the team to beat in the West, and the one best equipped to test the Chicago Bulls.

First they have to pull it together. When Mario Elie started the injury parade Jan. 18, they were No. 3 in the West. When Drexler left Feb. 24, they were No. 4. With a 15-man roster that had more players who had been in the CBA than hadn’t, they fell to No. 6. Olajuwon rested his sore knees for two weeks, but they were still sore when he returned. They finished 48-34.

On the other hand, they’re the Rockets. What do they care what happens in the regular season?

“You know they know what it takes to win a championship,” Reynolds says. “They’ve done it. They’re not going to be upset about playing on somebody else’s home court.”

They’re the Rockets. For the moment, what do they care about respect?