Houston Rockets: The ten best shots in team history
Ralph Sampson sends Rockets to second NBA Finals
This is one that I can’t say I’m too emotionally tied to as it happened when I was two years old. So I don’t have a “I remember where I was” attachment to it because I’m pretty sure I was sleeping or just trying to figure out how to poop on my own when it happened.
But you have to appreciate the historic value and the insanity of the shot. I mean everything about this seems illogical. The ball gets lofted over multiple defenders into the post on an inbounds pass that was gently tossed. Sampson catches it, if that can even be called a catch with how briefly it was in his hands, and he basically tips it up over his head barely looking back at the hoop and it bounces around a bit and goes in.
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I really wish I had been alive to appreciate this because not only does it send us to the NBA Finals, but we did it over one of those amazing 1980’s Lakers teams that so frequently dominated and went to the NBA Finals. In fact, 1986 was the last NBA Finals of the 1980’s that didn’t have the Lakers as the Western Conference representative. And the Rockets won this series in five games.
Hakeem Olajuwon was coming into his own and he and Sampson were donned the title of Twin Towers in their time together. Though after this season they never were able to replicate its success.
Even still, despite the fact that this one is not emotional to me, it clearly is a huge playoff moment in NBA history and an even bigger moment in Rockets history.