The 1993-1994 Finals are still praised by people because it was the last collision between superstars in the NBA, after which the NBA Finals became a world of guards, and centers only became supporting roles. This year, it happens to be the tenth year of Olajuwon's entry into the industry, and the whole ten years of grinding have made Olajuwon's skills at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends have already been perfected, but because of Jordan, he still does not have a ring on his hand, and Ewing, who entered the industry a year later, established the position of the first center in the East with his absolutely dominant defense, and led the team to the playoffs in a row, and it is also because of Jordan that Ewing does not have a ring on his finger, at this time, both teams are standing on the most dazzling stage of the NBA, only the strongest of the strong, to be worthy of this ring!

The New York Knicks first eliminated Coleman's Nets 3-1 in the playoffs, then sent home the Bulls without Michael Jordan after seven big games, and then another tie-break, Ewing hated Reggie Miller's Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, so Houston and New York, Rockets and Knicks, Olajuwon and Ewing, stood on the highest stage in NBA1994.

Rockets vs. Knicks, there is no doubt that the alignment of Olajuwon and Ewing is the key to victory for both teams, technically speaking, the two are very similar, Olajuwon recalled this period many years later and said frankly, his alignment with Ewing is like countering himself in the mirror, first of all, both of them are the defensive pillars of their respective teams, Olajuwon is good at supplementing defense, and Ewing is better at standing on the pile, on the offensive end, the left waist is the most fierce area of competition, if these two people take the ball in this position, then in addition to fouls, There is hardly any way to stop them from scoring, Olajuwon is good at his feet, his shaking, his grasp of footwork is unique in the league, and Ewing only has two moves, either a strong hook close to the defender, or a mid-range shot after a breakthrough jump, at best there will be one more shooting feint, but these two moves are extremely lethal, the shot is accurate, the body is good, and almost no one can defend.

In the first game of the finals, the two teams came up with a championship-level suffocating defense, and the strong defensive ability made the shooting rate of both players not very high, in a "clanging" iron, the Rockets still defeated the Knicks 85:78 to get off to a good start, Olajuwon and Ewing were very exciting, the former scored 28 points and 10 rebounds on 10-of-22 shooting, while the latter's data was 26-of-10, scored 23 points, 9 rebounds, and the shooting rate of other players on both teams was miserable, Maxwell was 4-of-16, Horry was 3-of-10, Kenny Smith was 1-of-4, while the Knicks' second-in-command Starks was even worse, shooting 3-of-18 from the field, while others Hubble was 3-of-10, Mason Jr. was 1-of-5, Hubert Davis was 1-of-6, and the Rockets' big bench Carl Herrera was the hero of the team's victory, playing 20 minutes and scoring 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

In the second game, the Knicks were all soldiers, six players scored double-doubles, and the team's shooting rate was as high as 52%, while the Rockets were less than 40%! Ewing scored 16 points on 7-of-19 shooting, 13 rebounds, 6 blocks, and the team's outside became the key to victory, the second-in-command Starks scored 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting, 9 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals, Derrick Hubble used his tough defense to disturb the outside of the Rockets, and he scored 18 points and 7 assists on 7-of-11 shooting, while Kenny Smith on 1-of-6 shooting and only scored 2 points! Although the Rockets had Olajuwon scoring 25 points on 10-of-21 shooting and 7 rebounds, his shooting rate was only 50% in two consecutive games! Such a performance obviously could not win, and the Rockets were tied 1:1.

In the third game, Olajuwon played less than ideal again, scoring 21 points on 8-of-20 shooting, 11 rebounds, 7 assists and 7 blocks, while Ewing was even more exaggerated, hitting only 9 of 29 shots, 18 points, 13 rebounds and 7 blocks, Hubble once again suppressed Kenny Smith with a strong defense, who shot 3 of 6 from the field, only got 7 points and 1 assist, and contributed little, while Hubble was 10 points, 10 assists, 4 rebounds and 4 steals of all-round data, but the final result was that the Rockets won, Because the Rockets are not only a point guard for Smith, the guy who wears the No. 10 jersey and looks extremely ugly doesn't look like a rookie at all, the Rockets led the Knicks 65:62 in the first three quarters, but in the fourth quarter, the form on the court changed abruptly, and the Rockets couldn't score for nearly eight minutes! But the Rockets used his strong defensive ability to make the Knicks' scoring seem difficult, 32 seconds before the end of the game, the Knicks led 88:86, but the ball was owned by the Rockets, at the critical moment, Olajuwon singled Ewing, shaking continuously with his standard dream steps, but Ewing was not moved at all, did not give Olajuwon a chance, and everyone on the court watched the duel between the two of them, but! Olajuwon noticed Cassel lurking outside the three-point line on the left side and passed the ball with one hand, and the latter didn't hesitate at all and opened his hands to shoot! With the crisp sound of brushing the net, the three-point hit! The Rockets lead by one point! In this game, Cassel's performance from beyond the three-point line was 3 of 3 shots! With only 22 seconds left, the Knicks decided to use foul tactics, and the Rockets were no one else who executed the key free throws, but Cassel, who made four free throws from the free throw line, all of which were securely hit, and the Rockets won the only away win in seven games, and Cassel scored 15 points on 4-of-6 shooting!

Before the fourth game, the Rangers of New York had the last laugh in the seven-game game in the American Hockey League Finals, they won the championship first than the Knicks, and the whole city went crazy, so the Knicks were united in this game and played extremely confidently, although the Rockets Olajuwon returned bravely, hitting 14 of 20 shots and cutting 32 points and 8 rebounds, but the other people scored the most Maxwell's 12 points, shooting 5 of 13...... The Rockets lost to their opponent 82-91, and Ewing's shooting percentage was once again miserable, with 16 points and 15 rebounds on 8-of-28 shooting, and Derrick Hubble and Starks played well, with a combined 41 points and a 13-of-26 shooting percentage.

Before the fifth game, an earth-shattering event happened in the United States, the American Football League Hall of Fame-level superstar OJ Simpson was suspected of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her lover Ron Goldman, the modus operandi was extremely cruel, Brown's head was almost cut off alive, Goldman was slashed more than 20 times, when the police announced Brown's ex-wife Simpson as a suspect, the latter took the lead in driving a Ford Mustang to escape, the police learned the news and used more than 100 police cars, Three hours to hunt down The Simpsons! This sudden incident caused all three major television stations in the United States to stop broadcasting all programs, and the channel switched to the road battle between the police and Simpson - and at this time, the battle of Tianwang Mountain in the finals was in full swing!

This sudden time made the players in the game confused, and in the interval of the game, there were even players watching the road chase on the sideline TV, and finally the last laugh was the Knicks, they defeated the Rockets 91-84, Ewing at this time, only one game away from the championship, although Olajuwon hit 12 shots from 21 shots to score 27 points and 8 rebounds, but he had a full 8 turnovers, but the team's outside performance was still poor, Horry shot 2 of 14, Maxwell shot 3 of 11, and Knicks Ewing returned to play the highest shooting percentage in seven games! He made 11 of 21 shots from the field and had 25 points, 12 rebounds and eight blocks, while Starks had 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists, and Anthony Mason Jr. exploded off the bench to finish with 17 points and nine rebounds.

At this time, the big score was 3:2, the Knicks were ahead, they were only one game away from the championship, and no one thought that it was Olajuwon who decided the trend of the last two games, not Ewing, but Starks. The latter is a three-point shooter with a career three-point shooting rate of 34.5 percent, and he is also a violent dunker who can't stop anyone as long as he rushes up, and in last year's Eastern Conference Finals, Starks was selected as one of the top 10 goals of the season for a slam dunk on Jordan's head.

The sixth game between the two teams can be called a classic battle, which has been talked about by countless fans to this day, 3 minutes and 18 seconds before the end of the game, Kenny Smith, who was extremely uncomfortable with Hubble for the entire series, hit a key three-pointer to help the team lead the Knicks by 7 points at 84:77, the big picture is decided? No! At this moment, Starx suddenly exploded! He hit back-to-back three-pointers from beyond the three-point line, scoring 16 of the 27 points in the final quarter, and Starks single-handedly pulled the Knicks back from the brink. 5.5 seconds before the end of the game, the Rockets 86:84 only led by 2 points, the Knicks' possession, Oakley bounded the ball, passed to Staks outside the left three-point line, at this time, Starks, outside the three-point line performance is 8 shots 5, when the Knicks' head coach Parker Riley arranged a very complex blocking tactics, Ewing blocked Maxwell, but Hubble did not use this pick-and-roll, but gave this opportunity to the hot Starks, who took advantage of this pick-and-roll, after the Starks passed, Ewing strode to the free throw line-- This is the most accurate place for him to vote!

Olajuwon is in front of Ewing, pass or not! Starks immediately gave the answer, he jumped up from beyond the three-point line, lifted the ball over his head, shot a three-pointer, and just like his first eight shots, the basketball was out of his palm and went straight to the basket! Suddenly, a red figure appeared in the oblique stab! With an open arm, he touched the ball spinning in the air with one finger! The game was over, and the Rockets won Game 6 in a thrilling way.

Many years later, some fans asked Olajuwon why he rushed up to block so resolutely at that time, if Starks gave the ball to Ewing, the latter would be a completely empty space, and that position was Ewing's point, Olajuwon said with a smile, because I have studied Starks, when he receives the ball passed to him with his left hand or when he stops the ball with his left hand, then he will definitely shoot.

Kenny Smith, as the person who came to that round of the series, has the most intuitive impression of the changes that have occurred in Olajuwon, Kenny Smith once said that when he first came to the Rockets, Olajuwon was not a person who liked to communicate with others very much, and when he took the bus to play away, he always stayed alone in the last row of the carriage, quietly reading books, listening to music, the leader was like this, and the same was true for others, in short, at that time, the bus of the Rockets was always quiet, But before the 1994 Finals, Olajuwon seemed to be a different person, often pulling him, Thorpe, Maxwell, Herrera, Horry and others discussed how to limit Ewing, and they "conspired" a lot of tactics together, from off-ball to around, from cutting the ball to hanging high, etc., Ewing averaged 18.9 points and 12.4 rebounds per game in seven games in the Finals, as well as 1.7 assists, 1.3 steals and 4.3 blocks, and his shooting percentage was 36.3%, Is this low hit rate? He didn't think it was low at all, and Smith felt that with the tactics that several of them had designed for Ewing, Ewing didn't deserve a single point in the whole game!

The Rockets took away the victory with a two-point difference of 86:84, Ewing scored 17 points on 6-of-20 shooting, 15 rebounds and 4 blocks, Olajuwon scored 30 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks on 11-of-21 shooting, and Karl Herrera suddenly broke out, scoring 12 points on 6-of-6 shooting, which turned out to be the second-highest score after Olajuwon's 30 points!

In the crucial tie-break, Ewing scored 17 points and 10 rebounds on 7-of-17 shooting, Derrick Hubble scored 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting, Olajuwon of the Rockets scored 25 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists on 10-of-25 shooting, "Madman" Maxwell finally broke out, scoring 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting, and Sam Cassel came off the bench for 18 minutes and scored 13 points on 4-of-6 shooting.

It was still Starks who decided the game, and the last game's stunner was blocked by Olajuwon, which made the discerning New York fans very unhappy, and Starks could even feel the hostility of passers-by when he walked down the street, "Why don't you pass the ball to Ewing!" This sentence became a nightmare that lingered in Starks' mind!

In the seventh and final game of the season, Starks didn't play - or his body stayed on the field, but his soul had escaped from his shell, and he kept repeating one thing the whole game, which was to shoot-dang, shot-dang! Strike again--dang! Starks was sleepwalking in the whole game, only hitting 2 of 18 shots, including 0 of 11 from beyond the three-point line, and the New York fans who came from 2,617 kilometers away cheered to booed and cursed, which is their true portrayal of Starks' game.

The final score was fixed at 84:90, the Rockets won the tie-break, if Starks was normal, even if he only hit 2 of 11 three-pointers, the result would not be like this, but this is basketball, the game has no if, after the game, Olajuwon and Ewing hugged each other tightly, the outcome is finally decided, the two major focus Olajuwon averaged 26.9 points and 9.1 rebounds per game, 3.6 assists, 1.6 steals, 3.9 blocks, shooting 50%, Ewing's stats were 18.9 points and 12.4 rebounds, along with 1.7 assists, 1.3 steals and 4.3 blocks, while shooting 36.3 percent from the field

After the game, Olajuwon told the media, "In this series, it's not that I beat Ewing, it's just that the Rockets beat the Knicks." ”

The so-called heroes cherish heroes, probably so.

"This is the biggest mistake I've ever made" is what Riley said to the New York Journal in 2006, Starks didn't hug anyone after the game, leaving the court early with tears in his eyes, and years later, Riley admitted that when Starks shot 1-of-10, Pat Riley, then Knicks head coach, wanted to replace him and never let him play, but in the end, love prevailed over reason, and his preference for Starks cost him.

In this way, Olajuwon won the first championship in team history for the Rockets, and won the FMVP for the first time, ascending to the throne of the first person in the league, but there will always be people talking behind Olajuwon's back, the ingredients of this ring are insufficient, because without Jordan's participation, without Jordan's championship, he can't prove himself, so there is Jordan's championship!

On March 18, 1995, Michael Jordan, the "God of Basketball" who did not achieve much on the baseball field, still felt that he was more suitable for basketball, at noon, the three major television networks in the United States cut off all TV programs at the same time, and all the TV screens appeared with the footage of Jordan flying and dunking, and all basketball fans around the world knew what would happen in a while, and an hour later, Jordan's agent Falk brought Jordan's original words on TV with trembling vocal cords,

“I’mback！ (I'm back!) ）”