It’s only fitting that the man most responsible for the first title in Houston history is remembered for having the best-ever Rockets season.
With 75% of the final-round vote in our Rockets Wire bracket challenge, the 1993-94 campaign by Hakeem Olajuwon defeated the 2018-19 run of James Harden to earn the honor of greatest season in Rockets history.
In that 1993-94 season, Olajuwon averaged 27.3 points (52.8% FG), 11.9 rebounds, and 3.7 blocks per game while earning MVP honors and leading his Rockets to their first-ever NBA championship. The 12-time All-Star and future Hall of Famer was also named as the league’s Defensive Player of the Year and NBA Finals MVP in that same season.
The Rockets went 58-24 in the 1993-94 regular season, which at the time represented the winningest season in franchise history.
Olajuwon remains one of only three players to have won MVP in a Rockets uniform. (The others are Harden and Moses Malone.) An ESPN media panel recently ranked Olajuwon as the No. 12 player in NBA history, and the highest among anyone to have ever played for the Rockets.
In the 1993-94 playoffs, Olajuwon led the league in scoring at 28.9 points per game, along with 11.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocks. His Rockets defeated the New York Knicks in a seven-game NBA Finals classic to earn the first major sports championship by any team in Houston history.
See below for a look back at Olajuwon’s top highlights from the 1994 NBA Finals. Congratulations to “The Dream” for earning yet another honor!
