Houston Rockets: An alternate 1994 NBA Finals timeline against Bulls

Taking the path of an alternate timeline, what would the 1994 NBA Finals look like with the Houston Rockets, Bulls and Michael Jordan? Let’s examine.

The debate of how the Houston Rockets would’ve fared against the 1990s Chicago Bulls still lingers on. While the actual result may never be known, an idea of how the series would’ve gone down needs to be put to the test. We breakdown the NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets and the Chicago Bulls in 1994.

Houston Rockets fans:

We wait as the day gets closer for the NBA to restart in the midst of the chaos and we’re confident our team can figure out a way to get by the elite to win a championship. Although it might be the unlikeliest of circumstances, this could be another repeat of a championship earned even if the skeptics think otherwise.

Speaking of skeptics, we still have to answer and defend our stances of how our Houston Rockets in the 1990s would’ve fared against the Bulls in the NBA Finals had a certain someone not decide to spend a year-and-a-half away trying to play baseball.

On the count of three, say it with me…1…2 and THREE!

We know the truth.

But, you know what? The thing that sticks out to me when thinking about this is that while there are both sides to the argument, no one seems to be putting this theory to the test. Perhaps it’s the mystery of this what-if that should remain unsolved. After all, no one knows for sure how the Oilers would’ve done if Mike Renfro’s touchdown had been ruled that in the AFC title game. No one knows for sure what would’ve happened if the Texans had drafted Reggie Bush or Vince Young instead of Mario Williams.

I’ve seen articles talking about this hypothetical series in particular and breakdown the pros and cons for each side. Pros for the Houston Rockets were that we had a winning record against the Bulls and were dominant in the paint while cons were we struggled through the West and the Bulls were a different animal in the playoffs. Yet, what is strange is that no one seems to be tackling the problem here. How would the Finals pan out between the two?

Well, I decided to tackle the problem myself. Using the sports simulator website Whatifsports.com, which simulates match-ups between teams in the past and present, I figured why not see how the NBA Finals would’ve gone between the Bulls and Rockets.

Since we know that Michael Jordan did play in 1995 and how that ended up, I’m only going to be tackling the 1994 NBA Finals. Instead of the New York Knicks, the Houston Rockets will be facing the three-time defending champion Chicago Bulls.

Here’s a couple of things to take a note of:

• Because Jordan didn’t play in 1994, he isn’t listed on their roster that year. Therefore, I’m using the 1992-93 Bulls because they still had players on that team that did play in 1994. So sadly, Luc Longley, Toni Kukoc, and Steve Kerr aren’t on the roster although they would’ve played in 1994.
• The Rockets had a better record than the Bulls in 1994. So they get home-court advantage much like in the real 1994.

With all that said, let’s break down the matchups and find out the results.