1994 NBA Finals

Although most fans in New York, and some members of the national media, blamed John Starks' poor performance, who shot 2-for-18 from the field in Game 7, as a contributing factor in the Knicks' loss in the series, another important factor in the Rockets series win was Olajuwon's performance. Olajuwon outscored Ewing in every game of the series, while Ewing outblocked (4.3 to 3.9 bpg) and outrebounded him (12.4 rpg to 9.1 rpg). Ewing set a then NBA Finals record with a total of 30 blocks.[4]

Houston Rockets

New York Knicks

Game 4 took place at Madison Square Garden less than 24 hours after it hosted the New York Rangers' first Stanley Cup celebration in 54 years, following their 3–2 win over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Rangers Captain Mark Messier attended the game,[7] bringing the Stanley Cup in a bid to inspire the Knicks, first to their locker room before the game, and again out onto center court at halftime, much to the delight of fans.[8] During NBC's broadcast of Game 4, Marv Albert, who himself handled the radio call of the Rangers' win, and Matt Guokas mentioned the Rangers' win and that the Knicks were happy that their arena was "the scene of one of the glorious moments in the history of New York sports."[7]

Game 5 took place hours after the ticker-tape parade in the Canyon of Heroes in Lower Manhattan honoring the new Stanley Cup champions.[9] Players and representatives of both the Knicks and the Rockets were among the 1.5 million who attended.[10][11]

Both teams came away motivated, as evidenced by the remaining series.[11][12]

During Game 5, most NBC affiliates split the coverage of the game between NFL Hall of Famer O. J. Simpson's slow speed freeway chase with the LAPD. At the time, Simpson had been an NFL analyst on NBC.

The coverage was presented on a split screen, with the game taking up the smaller portion of the television screen on the left, while live coverage of the chase was shown in a bigger screen on the right. The audio came from the chase as narrated by NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.[13]

KNBC in Los Angeles, serving the media market where the police were tracking Simpson, left the Game 5 broadcast completely for the chase with local coverage narrated by Paul Moyer and Colleen Williams; the station did not even put up a split screen until the end of the game, which was still close at the time. By this point, Simpson had returned to his mansion in Brentwood and had surrendered to police.

A complete re-broadcast of Game 5, with natural crowd audio substituting for the parts for which NBC did not provide audio, is part of the DVD release of this series from Warner Home Video.

The Rockets would repeat as NBA champions in 1995 although their season record wasn't so promising. Plagued by a lack of chemistry, the Rockets were stuck in the middle of the conference standings most of the year. Then, as the NBA's trading deadline approached, on February 14, 1995, the Rockets acquired Hakeem Olajuwon's "Phi Slama Jama" teammate Clyde Drexler. The Rockets finished the regular season as the 6th seed but the team on the court at season's end was clearly better than its 47–35 record. The new Rockets team had only had about two months to gel. The playoffs started rough for Houston, the team down 2 games to 1 to Utah in the First Round. However, the Rockets battled back and won that series, stealing the deciding Game 5 in Utah. The Rockets' ability to overcome adversity became more evident as the postseason wore on. They beat four 50-win squads (Utah, Phoenix, San Antonio and Orlando) to win the NBA championship, becoming the lowest seed ever to win it all.

Also in 1995, the Knicks enjoyed another strong season, with 55 wins. However, they were eliminated in seven games by the Indiana Pacers during the second round as Pacers guard Reggie Miller's 'Knick Killer' legacy continued. After the season Pat Riley departed for the Miami Heat, with whom he would win three championships, one as the head coach and two as its president. The Knicks would make the finals again in 1999, but fell to the Spurs in five games, and have not returned since.

Before this victory, only the Houston Oilers' AFL two championships at the close of the 1960 season and 1961 season and the Houston Aeros' two WHA Avco World Trophies in 1974 and 1975 represented Houston's only professional championships. The 1994 NBA Championship represented the city of Houston's first professional championship since those two teams, and the first in a league that did not later merge.

This was the last NBA Finals for three of the league's longest-tenured and most recognizable referees: Darell Garretson, Jack Madden and Jake O'Donnell. Garretson and Madden retired following the 1994 Finals, while O'Donnell worked the 1994-95 season, but did not work past the second round of the playoffs, marking the first time since 1971 O'Donnell did not officiate in the championship series. O'Donnell retired in December 1995 following the end of a lockout of NBA referees by Commissioner David Stern.

Overall, as of 2019, Houston's teams in the "Big Four" major professional sports are 6–1 over their New York City counterparts in terms of playoff series. The Rockets, in addition to their 1994 triumph, also defeated the Knicks in the 1975 Eastern Conference First Round. The NFL's Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans) followed with a victory over the New York Jets in the 1991 AFC wild card round, and the Houston Astros later prevailed over the New York Yankees in three MLB postseason series during the 2010s (2015 ALWC, 2017 ALCS, 2019 ALCS) The only time a New York-based team prevailed over Houston was in the 1986 NLCS, when the New York Mets won over the then-NL member Astros.

• 1993–94 New York Knicks season
• 1993–94 Houston Rockets season
• 1994 NBA Playoffs
• 1994 Stanley Cup Finals