Houston Rockets: The ten best shots in team history

Old man Eddie Johnson for the win

The Houston Rockets in the 1997 Western Conference Finals had a lot of old age on their team. They had four players who were over 33 years old on their roster. Three of them were voted to the top 50 players of all-time list and would eventually be enshrined into the Hall of Fame. The other was Eddie Johnson. And he was the oldest of the bunch.

So obviously when you’re tied at 92 in the fourth quarter of game four of the Western Conference finals in which you’re down two games to one and you need one person to take that final shot to even the series, you want it to be Eddie Johnson right?

Obviously that’s not in fact the case, but the Utah Jazz defended the Rockets extremely well after they inbounded the ball, denying an entry pass to Hakeem, hanging all over Clyde Drexler, eventually leaving only one option open. Eddie Johnson.

Johnson was known as a three point shooter and after Clyde was being hassled trying to get the ball to Hakeem or get a shot for himself, Eddie was jumping up and down hollering for the ball. Clyde finally got it to Matt Maloney who then quickly tossed it to the wide open Eddie Johnson who just heaves it, barely beating the clock and getting nothing but net.

The most memorable moment of course is the way Eddie ran down court, arms outstretched as his teammates followed him. The Rockets would go on to lose the series in painful fashion as John Stockton would hit a three at the buzzer to send the Jazz to the NBA Finals, denying the Rockets of their much desired match up against Jordan’s Bulls to shut fans up about how we wouldn’t have won any rings if Jordan hadn’t retired.

But this shot lives on in all of our memories and it was quite an incredible one.