The Los Angeles Lakers dominated the early ‘00s, winning three straight NBA championships from 2000-02 behind Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. The playoff losses to the San Antonio Spurs in 2003 and the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 NBA Finals signaled the end of the era, as the band broke up and Shaq left for the Miami Heat. It wasn’t until the 2009 Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA title that Bryant’s vindication was complete.
Over the last several years, LeBron James has become the NBA’s signature star, the consensus “greatest player in the world.” In that same timeframe, Dwight Howard has become synonymous with the word “diva”. But it wasn’t always so—in the 2009 NBA Eastern Conference Finals, “Superman”, as Howard modestly dubbed himself, trumped “King James” when Dwight’s Orlando Magic ousted LeBron’s Cleveland Cavaliers.
The San Antonio Spurs had started a new era in 1990, when center David Robinson came in and led them back to prominence. It was expected that the following year would see the team build off that success and take it to the next level. The 1991 San Antonio Spurs spent the entire regular season looking ready to do just that, before a surprising playoff flameout ended the year in disappointment.
The San Antonio Spurs are the model of NBA organizational excellence in the 21st century, but when the calendar flipped from the 1980s to the 1990s that wasn’t the case. The 1990 San Antonio Spurs were a franchise that had never reached the NBA Finals and hadn’t so much as won a playoff series in seven years. The long-awaited arrival of David Robinson changed the game forever in San Antonio.
Jordan, now a 15-year veteran, and sidekick Scottie Pippen, had just enough gas in the tank to survive strong challenges from the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals and the Utah Jazz in the NBA Finals.
The Bulls were the 5-seed in the Eastern Conference bracket and beat the Charlotte Hornets in the first round. Orlando, with not only Shaq, but guard Anfernee Hardaway, was seen as the new rising power in the NBA and held the top seed in the East. The Magic knocked out the Boston Celtics in four games—the first round was then a best-of-five—to set up the Shaq vs. MJ battle.
“Don’t ever underestimate the heart of a champion.” Those were the words of Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich in the post-Finals celebration, a quote that lives on in NBA championship montages. It was a second straight title that marked the Rockets as the team that owned the “interim” period in the Michael Jordan era of NBA history.
now it’s time to talk LeBron James legacy in particular and the Miami Heat in general. I’ve chosen to make this the first topic TheSportsNotebook has produced its own podcast on. In the 23-minute program found below, we address the following topics
The 1994 NBA playoffs haven’t taken a fabled place in the game’s lore. There was no dominant team building a legacy, even though the Rockets would win a second straight title a year later. But there was a lot of very competitive basketball, and one wild night of a White Bronco driving down the freeway in the midst of an NBA Finals game that these playoffs leave as their legacy.
The Detroit Pistons had completed their breakthrough of the Showtime Lakers and the Bird Celtics with a championship in 1989. If Detroit glance in the rearview mirror they could see the Jordan Bulls gaining steam, but the 1990 Detroit Pistons held off all challengers and won a second straight NBA title.
The Detroit Pistons knocked on the NBA championship door in 1987. In 1988, they beat on it. And to borrow a motivational phrase from former Houston Oilers’ football coach Bum Phillips, the 1989 Detroit Pistons were the team that kicked the door in.
A rematch of one of the great NBA Finals of all time is set. The Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs each closed out their conference finals in six games, and we’re back to where we were last June. It’s time to find out what NBA Finals rematch history teaches us about where Miami-San Antonio II might go.