Defined by defense, missed shots, and one of the most infamous performances in Finals history
Today, full NBA Finals games from the 90s are just a click away on the NBA’s official channels.
Back then, you held onto your VHS tapes like gold.
Game 7 of the 1994 Finals is remembered for its ugliness, its missed shots, and John Starks’ collapse. A night when offense disappeared, and one performance changed everything.
The Matchup: New York Knicks
Pat Riley’s Knicks were only the 21st-ranked offense in the league, averaging 98.5 points per game, but their identity was built at the other end. New York had the NBA’s best defense by a wide margin, allowing fewer than 92 points per game. The 1993-94 Knicks were rugged, physical, and relentless, winning 57 games in the regular season, tied with Atlanta for the best record in the East.
This was not the Showtime basketball Riley had once coached in Los Angeles. Different players, different roster, different vision of control. Still only 48 in 1994, Riley had already reached seven NBA Finals and won four championships.
On the morning of June 22, 1994, with a decisive Game 7 ahead, this veteran group, with an average age of 29, was preparing for its 25th playoff game, an NBA record at the time. The Knicks had just survived two brutal seven-game series, first against the Bulls in the conference semifinals, then against the Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals.
Led by 31-year-old Patrick Ewing and one of the toughest supporting casts in the league, New York was back in the Finals for the first time since its 1973 championship.
The Matchup: Houston Rockets
In his third season as head coach, Rudy Tomjanovich led the Rockets to 58 wins and the second-best record in the West behind Seattle. A former five-time All-Star who had spent a decade as a Houston player in the 1970s and nine more years as an assistant, Tomjanovich was as tied to the franchise as anyone. The Rockets were the only NBA organization he had ever known.
The same was true of Hakeem Olajuwon, who entered the 1994 Finals at the peak of his powers. At 31, he had just been named league MVP, with Ewing finishing fifth in the voting, and had won Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season. For Olajuwon, it was also a chance at redemption, eight years after Houston’s 1986 Finals loss to Larry Bird’s Celtics.
Around him, Houston had a well-balanced supporting cast: established role players like Otis Thorpe and Mario Elie, and younger pieces still growing into bigger moments, including Robert Horry and rookie Sam Cassell.
Setting the Stage
Oddsmakers at the time expected a close series, with a slight edge for Houston.
The Rockets had home-court advantage, more rest after finishing off Utah in five games, and Las Vegas listed them as 2-1 favorites. Charles Oakley, however, was far more confident, as he later recalled in his autobiography The Enforcer:
“I truly believed we were good enough to sweep the Rockets. That might sound crazy, because they had Hakeem Olajuwon. But we felt that if Patrick could hold his own against him, we would take care of the rest.”
That was not a ridiculous reading of the matchup. New York had Riley, depth, the league’s best defense, and the belief that if Ewing and Olajuwon came close to canceling each other out, the rest of the series could tilt toward the Knicks.
It would not play out that way. The bookmakers’ pragmatism proved closer to the truth than New York’s confidence.
Not a single game in the series saw either team reach 100 points. The first six were grinding battles, with no final margin larger than nine. Each team managed to win once on the road.
Game 6 was the closest. Houston won 86-84 at home on the night of the O.J. Simpson police chase, which was broadcast live alongside the game in split screen, much to the frustration of David Stern, already dealing with the league’s first Finals since Michael Jordan’s retirement.
The ratings reflected the post-Jordan drop, too. After the Bulls-Suns Finals drew a 17.9 rating in 1993, Rockets-Knicks fell to roughly 12.3 in 1994.
On the floor, Olajuwon made the defining play, getting just enough of John Starks’ final shot attempt to seal the win. Rudy Tomjanovich celebrated as if the title had already been won.
There would be three days between Game 6 and Game 7. The Finals still used the 2-3-2 format at the time, and rather than fly back to New York before returning to Houston, the Knicks chose to stay where they were.
Game 7, 1994 Finals
Inside a loud, packed Summit, Robert Horry sets the tone almost immediately after the opening tip, throwing down a violent dunk on Patrick Ewing, who stumbles backward and nearly goes down. The 16,000 fans in the Rockets’ home arena erupt.
Both teams apply full-court pressure early. With zone defense still illegal, there is nowhere to hide. This is old-school, physical one-on-one defense, full of hand-checking and body contact. Derek Harper is even called early in the first quarter for excessive use of his hands on Kenny Smith.
Getting the ball to the star centers proves difficult. Ewing does not score his first basket until six minutes in, and Olajuwon answers on the next possession. Early on, the supporting casts carry the scoring: Vernon Maxwell, Harper, Charles Smith, and Kenny Smith. There is pace, but little efficiency. Almost every shot is contested.
Houston leads 22-21 at the end of the first quarter.
Sam Cassell comes off the bench and takes control early in the second quarter. Anthony Mason answers for the Knicks, but Patrick Ewing still looks uncomfortable. He turns the ball over, gets blocked by Hakeem Olajuwon, and is even called for a travel on a drive to the rim.
Robert Horry goes at Ewing again, this time with a one-handed dunk over him. John Starks starts forcing shots and keeps coming up short, while Kenny Smith banks in a desperation three at the end of the shot clock on the other end.
Vernon Maxwell scores 11 points in the first half, while Derek Harper adds 13 for New York. Ewing attempts only six shots and makes two. Olajuwon, well defended himself, goes 4-for-12.
Houston leads 45-43 at halftime.
It is exactly the kind of first half the series had promised: physical, defensive, and heavy on bully-ball. Ewing is too passive, not looking for his offense enough. Olajuwon is not much more efficient, but he stays aggressive, bends New York’s defense, and continues to matter even when the shot is not falling.
Coming out of halftime, both teams adjust. The focus shifts toward getting the ball inside to the centers. Patrick Ewing still has trouble attacking the rim, but he knocks down a few mid-range jumpers and gets a measure of revenge on Robert Horry by blocking him at the basket.
Horry answers almost immediately, catching Charles Oakley off guard on the inbound and finishing a spectacular alley-oop. Derek Harper keeps New York close by finishing a fast break through traffic. On the next possession, Hakeem Olajuwon throws down a dunk over Ewing.
A few possessions later, the Knicks send a triple-team at Olajuwon. Pat Riley starts reacting, sensing the momentum shift. Ewing keeps fighting for position, but the misses are ugly now: short, rushed, nowhere close.
Houston eases off the full-court pressure, while New York keeps pressing. John Starks looks completely out of it, missing shot after shot, and even has a layup attempt swatted cleanly by Olajuwon. Harper knocks down the Knicks’ first three-pointer, building on his strong first half.
Carl Herrera closes the quarter with an awkward but effective scoop shot.
Houston leads 63-60 heading into the fourth.
The fourth quarter, often where New York made its push, begins with John Starks picking up his fourth foul. His expression says enough. He knows the kind of game he is having.
Patrick Ewing finally scores inside against Hakeem Olajuwon, but Sam Cassell answers with Houston’s first six points of the quarter, four of them at the free-throw line. The moment does not seem too big for him. A month earlier, against the Suns in the conference semifinals, the rookie out of Florida State had already delivered: 22 points, including nine in the fourth quarter, along with four rebounds, seven assists, and two steals in 29 minutes. Cassell had no fear.
Ewing adds another fadeaway, but Starks keeps unraveling. His only points come at the line and on a putback, while the misses keep piling up: open shots, forced threes, possessions that die in his hands. Charles Oakley and Greg Anthony try to keep the Knicks within reach, but too many trips end with Starks searching for a shot that is no longer there.
With under three minutes left, Houston is in control. Timeout.
Olajuwon scores over Ewing. On the next possession, Ewing goes back at him and comes up empty. Defensive rebound. Then Vernon Maxwell hits a three with two minutes remaining off a pass from Olajuwon, a shot he would later call the biggest of his career.
Houston goes up by eight. In a game like this, that margin feels almost insurmountable. The Rockets start to celebrate, Rudy Tomjanovich included, while Starks keeps firing from beyond the arc.
Final score: 90-84. The Rockets win the first championship in franchise history, a story that began in San Diego in 1967 and continued in Houston from 1971 on.
The Starks Collapse
The Knicks never found their rhythm, dragged down by John Starks’ historic collapse: 2-for-18 from the field, 0-for-11 from three.
After his disastrous Game 1, when he shot 3-for-18, Starks had actually bounced back over the next five games, averaging 21 points on 49 percent shooting and 45 percent from three. He had been especially effective in fourth quarters, often carrying the offense while Patrick Ewing struggled in his matchup with Hakeem Olajuwon.
But the sleepless night he later admitted to after Game 6, combined with the weight of his missed potential game-winner, seemed to follow him into Game 7. Even with a complete breakdown from their second-best scorer, and with Ewing clearly outplayed over the course of the series, New York was still not that far from a championship.
Scott Brooks, Houston’s backup point guard, later recalled the mood on the Rockets’ bench:
“At that point, Starks was our best player. His shot started to look like a medicine ball, that’s how hard it was for him to get it off. All of us on the bench, players and coaches, were waiting, thinking Riley would go to Blackman. For years in Dallas, he killed us. We couldn’t stop him, no matter what we tried.”
We will come back to Rolando Blackman shortly.
There was no surprise when Olajuwon was named Finals MVP. He averaged 26.9 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.6 steals, and 3.9 blocks per game, while shooting 50 percent from the field. The reigning MVP did not just deliver statistically. He controlled the series, dominated the matchup with Ewing, and held him under 20 points per game on a brutal 36 percent shooting.
Had the Knicks won the series, Derek Harper may well have taken home Finals MVP instead. The veteran point guard had clearly outplayed Kenny Smith, who had a solid Game 7 but an otherwise uneven series, partly offset by the emergence of rookie Sam Cassell, one of the revelations of Houston’s playoff run.
Pat Riley’s Regrets
Years later, Pat Riley would admit his first mistake had been leaving Doc Rivers off the playoff roster after his early-season leg injury. But the second, and the one most often discussed when looking back on Game 7, involved four-time All-Star Rolando Blackman.
Blackman had arrived in New York a year earlier for the final contract of his NBA career, before eventually heading to Europe to finish his playing days.
“I should have played Blackman, no question about it. At the time, Starks carried us in the second half of Games 3, 4, and 5. In Game 6, he had an incredible fourth quarter. But in the deciding game…”
Blackman himself agreed:
“My feeling is I should have gotten in the game, or Hubert Davis should have, just to give John a break. He needed to step away for a moment, to stop what was happening. He needed time. But I don’t want to criticize. It’s over. It’s in the past. We had other problems too, like Olajuwon…”
Charles Oakley saw it the same way, and even offered a possible explanation:
“I thought Pat Riley made a big mistake in that Game 7 loss. Ro was a great shooter, and if John was struggling, it made sense to give him a few minutes. If he hits a couple shots, the pressure shifts. I know why Ro didn’t play. Riley was punishing him because earlier in the playoffs, Ro went against his rule about not bringing wives on the road. Otherwise, why wouldn’t he have played? It’s one of the biggest mistakes of Riley’s career.”
Houston, later reinforced by the midseason arrival of Clyde Drexler, would go on to win back-to-back titles the following year, defeating the Orlando Magic led by Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway.
New York, meanwhile, would have to wait until 1999 to return to the Finals, without Ewing, who was injured, and would lose 4–1 to the San Antonio Spurs of Tim Duncan and David Robinson.
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