The undefeated Rockets marched into Madison Square Garden last Thursday, ignoring the trash talk of the New York players and the derisive chants of their fans, and dismembered the Knicks, the best team in the NBA East, by a 94-85 score. “I’m not going to make any excuses ‘cause we got our asses kicked,” said Knicks coach Pat Riley The Rockets’ 15th consecutive win to start the season tied a 45-year-old record, set by the Washington Capitols under the legendary coach Red Auerbach. (Admittedly this isn’t a record that one fan in a thousand ever heard of before last week, but, hey, this is sports, where someone is always keeping count of something.)
“To be a great team you have to overcome human nature,” said Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich after the game. “Human nature says when everything’s going great, you ease up. These guys just won’t ease up.” The victory in New York was far more lopsided than the final score would indicate. But it was nowhere near as lopsided as the duel between the two great–but MVP-less–veteran centers, Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing. Hakeem scored 37 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, blocked three shots and, for good measure, displayed a deft passing touch with five assists. He held Ewing, who missed his final dozen shots, to 12 points. Afterward, Olajuwon skirted all questions about his current stature in the league, saying, “l will let you judge.” Hakeem has won too many individual battles and not enough team ones through the years to be confused about which ultimately counts. “What’s important is that we really showed character,” he said.
The next night the Rockets showed they were tired. They were beaten badly by an almost-as-hot Atlanta Hawks team. But the team remains the talk of the NBA. Houston is largely a collection of castoffs, guys like starting guards Kenny Smith and Vernon Maxwell, both of whom are 28 and on their third NBA team. Indeed, without Olajuwon, the Rockets would be, as one league official put it, a team every bit as good as the New Jersey Nets. “Hakeem is the best in the league night in, night out,” says Maxwell. “He’s our marquee guy. I’m just happy to be a part of it.” The team concept, emphasizing defense, took hold in Houston midway last season and propelled the Rockets to the NBA’s best second-half record and a division title. This season Houston held each of its first 15 opponents under 100 points.
The Rockets have provided the only luster in a league that is adjusting slowly to the post-Jordan era. Its biggest news has been about more retirement. Phoenix’s Charles Barkley, last year’s MVP, says he’ll probably quit after this season and might enter politics, where he’ll learn the true cost of speaking his mind. In Detroit, Bill Laimbeer, the baddest of the Detroit Pistons’ “Bad Boys” champion team, retired last week–but not before teammate Isiah Thomas broke his hand slugging Laimbeer after suffering one of his trademark, cheap-shot elbows in practice.
The NBA’s three glamour teams will struggle just to make the playoffs. The Jordan-less Chicago Bulls have been forced to make do with the “Michael Jordan of Europe.” Toni Kucoc has proved sound, but hardly a savior, and he turns out not even to be the best Croatian rookie. That’s the Boston Celtics’ Dino Radja, the NBA rookie of the month. Still, the Celtics are struggling around .500. The Los Angeles Lakers may aspire to .500 and are now the second best team in L.A., a legacy of Magic Johnson’s sad, premature departure. While Magic is gone, he won’t leave, barnstorming now with a group of NBA has-beens.
The NBA’s next generation of superstars like Shaquille O’Neal and Larry Johnson will probably prove worthy of their hype, but they haven’t yet transformed their teams into title contenders. So there is a void in the league that Olajuwon seems particularly well suited to fill. In multicultural America, what makes a more perfect hero than a giant emigre, with a work ethic, a shy smile and a three-foot vertical leap?
