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The 1994 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 1993–94 National Basketball Association season, featuring the Western Conference's Houston Rockets defeating the Eastern Conference's New York Knicks. This matchup was Hakeem Olajuwon's second NBA Finals series appearance, his other being in 1986, where Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics defeated the Houston Rockets four games to two. The series was Patrick Ewing's first NBA Finals appearance. The Rockets came in with strong determination to win not only the franchise's first NBA championship, but the city's first championship in a league that still existed, all while the Knicks were looking to add a third NBA championship trophy, as the Knicks' last trophy came from the 1973 NBA Finals. The Knicks also hoped to impress their new owners Viacom, who had just bought Paramount Communications (formerly Gulf+Western), their longtime owners (after the series however, Viacom sold the Knicks and the rest of the Madison Square Garden properties). The series was hailed as a meeting of the two great centers who had previously played for a championship in college. In 1984 while Olajuwon was with the University of Houston and Ewing was with Georgetown University, Georgetown had beaten Houston 84–75 in the 1984 NCAA Championship game. In this series, however, Olajuwon outperformed Ewing, outscoring him in every game of the series and posting numbers of 26.9 ppg on 50.0% shooting compared to Ewing's 18.9 ppg on 36.3% shooting.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=History of the NBA Finals: Hakeem Olajuwon: The NBA’s Best In The Mid ’90s )〕 However, Ewing set an NBA finals record in the series with a total of 30 blocks, and he tied the single-game record of 8 blocks in Game 5.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Patrick Ewing Bio )〕 Tim Duncan would later set the record for most blocks in a Finals series (2003) with 32 blocks in six games while Dwight Howard would set the record for most blocked shots in a Finals game with 9 blocked shots in Game 4 of the 2009 Finals while with the Orlando Magic. During the series, the Houston Rockets played seven low-scoring, defensive games against the New York Knicks. After splitting the first two games in Houston, the Knicks won two out of three games at Madison Square Garden, which also hosted the Rangers first Stanley Cup celebration in 54 years during the series. In Game 6, however, Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon blocked a last-second championship-winning shot attempt by John Starks, giving the Rockets an 86–84 victory and forcing a Game 7, which made Knicks Coach Pat Riley the first (and to this date, the only) coach in a Game 7 NBA Finals on two different teams, having been with the Los Angeles Lakers in and . In addition, the Knicks set a record for most playoff games played in one season, with 25. The Detroit Pistons tied this record in . The Boston Celtics, coached by Doc Rivers, would surpass it during their championship season of 2008 when they played 26.〔 The Rockets beat the Knicks in Game 7, 90–84, enabling the city of Houston to not only celebrate its first NBA and fifth professional sports championship (first in an existing league), but also deny New York from having both NBA and NHL championships in the same year. For his efforts Olajuwon was named NBA Finals Most Valuable Player. For the Knicks, Riley had the unfortunate distinction of having become the first (and to this date, the only) coach to lose a Game 7 NBA Finals on two different teams, having lost to the Celtics in 1984. It also denied him the distinction of being the first coach to win a Game 7 NBA Finals with two different teams, having defeated the Detroit Pistons in 1988. NBC Sports used Ahmad Rashād (Knicks sideline) and Hannah Storm (Rockets sideline). Hal Douglas narrated the season-ending documentary ''Clutch City'' for NBA Entertainment. ==Background== Hakeem Olajuwon, then named Akeem, was drafted first overall by the Houston Rockets in the 1984 NBA Draft. Olajuwon quickly rose into an NBA All-Star, and in his second season, he led the Rockets to the 1986 NBA Finals, where they would lose in six games to the Boston Celtics. However the Rockets would gradually dismantle that team, and by 1991, only Olajuwon remained from that 1986 squad. Midway to the 1991–92 season Rudy Tomjanovich took over as head coach and almost led the team to the playoffs. By 1993 the Rockets were on the rise, with Olajuwon transforming into an all-around player while remaining a defensive presence in the paint. The Rockets would come within a game of the conference finals that year, losing to the Seattle SuperSonics in seven games. The Rockets then started 15–0 the next season en route to a 58–24 record, finishing behind Seattle in the West. In the playoffs they defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 3–1, the Phoenix Suns 4–3 (after losing the first two games at home), and the Utah Jazz 4–1 to advance to the finals. Patrick Ewing was drafted No. 1 by the New York Knicks in the 1985 NBA Draft. However his rise to stardom was stalled by a pair of losing seasons and several leg injuries, despite winning Rookie of the Year in 1986. Nevertheless, Ewing continued to excel, and by 1989 the Knicks were mentioned as playoff contenders. It wasn't until they hired Pat Riley as head coach in 1991 that the Knicks started to rise among the Eastern Conference elite. Riley transformed the team into a tough, defensive-minded group, anchored by Ewing, Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason, John Starks and Charles Smith. In the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals the Knicks led 2–0 on the defending champion Chicago Bulls, but then lost the next four, highlighted by a flurry of blocks by the Bulls defense on Smith in Game 5. With Michael Jordan retired the next season, the Knicks took advantage by winning 57 games, then defeated the New Jersey Nets in the first round 3–1. Still, the Knicks had to overcome the Jordan-less Bulls in seven games, before dispatching the hot-shooting Reggie Miller and the Indiana Pacers in seven games of the Eastern Conference Finals. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1994 NBA Finals」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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