1993-94 NBA Finals
June 8, 1994 – June 22, 1994
1993-94 NBA Finals result: HRHouston Rockets def. NYKNew York Knicks, 4-3, June 8, 1994 – June 22, 1994.
Result
| Team | Series | |
|---|---|---|
| Champion | HRHouston Rockets | 4-3 |
| Runner-up | NYKNew York Knicks |
Games
| Game | Date | Result | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Game 1 | June 8, 1994 | HRHouston Rockets 85–78 New York Knicks | The Summit, Houston, Texas |
| Game 2 | June 10, 1994 | NYKNew York Knicks 91–83 Houston Rockets | The Summit, Houston, Texas |
| Game 3 | June 12, 1994 | HRHouston Rockets 93–89 New York Knicks | Madison Square Garden, New York, New York |
| Game 4 | June 15, 1994 | NYKNew York Knicks 91–82 Houston Rockets | Madison Square Garden, New York, New York |
| Game 5 | June 17, 1994 | NYKNew York Knicks 91–84 Houston Rockets | Madison Square Garden, New York, New York |
| Game 6 | June 19, 1994 | HRHouston Rockets 86–84 New York Knicks | The Summit, Houston, Texas |
| Game 7 | June 22, 1994 | HRHouston Rockets 90–84 New York Knicks | The Summit, Houston, Texas |
Finals MVP
Hakeem Olajuwon. Olajuwon averaged 26.9 points per game on 50% shooting, outscoring Patrick Ewing in every game of the series, and was named Finals MVP as Houston won its first championship.
Series context
The 1993-94 season was the first NBA season to unfold without Michael Jordan, who had stunned the basketball world by retiring from the Bulls in October 1993 to pursue a career in minor league baseball. With the league's dominant dynasty on hiatus, the door opened for new contenders, and it was the Houston Rockets, led by center Hakeem Olajuwon, and the New York Knicks, led by center Patrick Ewing under coach Pat Riley (who had left the Lakers for New York in 1991), who emerged from the Eastern and Western Conferences to meet in the Finals. The Finals matchup was a showcase for two centers who had first faced off a decade earlier in the 1984 NCAA championship game as college stars for Houston and Georgetown. This time, Olajuwon got the better of Ewing throughout, outscoring him in every game of the series while averaging 26.9 points on 50 percent shooting; Ewing, for his part, set an NBA Finals record with 30 blocked shots while averaging 18.9 points. The series see-sawed through six games, with New York's stifling, physical defense under Riley keeping the Knicks competitive despite Houston's overall statistical edge. Game 5, played on June 17, 1994, became one of the most surreal nights in American sports broadcasting history: as the Rockets and Knicks played in Houston, NBC split its coverage to also carry live footage of O.J. Simpson's infamous slow-speed Bronco chase on Los Angeles freeways, with the basketball action largely overshadowed by the chase, which drew enormous national attention. Houston forced a decisive Game 7 by winning Game 6, 86-84, on the strength of a spectacular Olajuwon block on John Starks's potential series-winning three-point attempt in the closing seconds, a play that also gave Pat Riley the unwanted distinction of losing a Finals Game 7 with two different franchises (having lost Game 7 of the 1988 Finals with the Lakers). In Game 7, Houston closed out the series with a 90-84 win, delivering the Rockets' first championship in franchise history. Olajuwon, who capped the season by also winning the regular-season MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards, was named Finals MVP, cementing his place as one of the era's dominant big men in the post-Jordan interregnum. Both teams took circuitous routes to the Finals. Houston finished the regular season 58-24 after opening with a 15-0 start, then needed seven games to beat Portland, seven more to escape a 0-2 hole against Phoenix in the second round (becoming just the second team in NBA history to survive a series after losing the first two games at home), and five to eliminate Utah in the Western Conference finals. New York went 57-25, then beat New Jersey in four, outlasted Chicago in a physical seven-game second-round series that avenged three straight prior playoff losses to the Bulls, and needed seven games to get past Indiana in the Eastern Conference finals. Ewing's 30 blocked shots for the series remains a Finals record, and he tied the single-game Finals record with 8 blocks in Game 5, the same night NBC split its national broadcast with the O.J. Simpson chase.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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