[Examiner] Remembering the 1995 NBA Finals: Game one

MayoRocket · Jun 3, 2009

DonnyMost said:

Hakeem's tip-in of Clyde's finger roll was so poetic.

The two former collegiate teammates who came only a tip-in away from an NCAA championship some 12 years prior finally got redemption in that moment... assisting each other, no less.

That game sealed the series. Ask anyone who saw it. The Magic were DONE after that. They looked like someone ran over their puppy. The Rockets looked like the team god himself had ordained champions.
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Well-said. The Magic were young and VERY talented but they just didn't have the mental fortitude to recover from a heartbreaking loss.

Didn't Nick Anderson shoot 50% or something like that from the stripe for the rest of his career after that debacle?

speedball · Jun 3, 2009

K mf G said:

this game is when i found out i had special powers to make people miss freethrows by making faces at the tv
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awesome! i thought it was me!

Sweet Lou 4 2 · Jun 3, 2009

Olajuwon's put back to send it into overtime with fractions of a second left - his put back with the BACK OF HIS HAND - was one of the most amazing, heady plays ever.

djimi · Jun 3, 2009

The game that made me a Rockets fan. wasnt really into Rockets back then but after i saw that game and watched with awe how Dream schooled Shaq, i immediately became a Rockets fan.

Tb-Cain · Jun 3, 2009

Anderson hopes Magic's return to Finals erases pain of 1995

By Mike Lopresti, Gannett

What's the statute of limitations for missing a free throw? Or even four of them in the last 11 seconds, as a game in the NBA Finals slips away?
Back in Orlando, amid basketball fever, one of the original Magic wonders, 14 years later.

"People still bring it up," Nick Anderson said over the phone, as the resigned owner of an indelible slice of NBA infamy. "I've answered the questions and I'm willing to. I'll take them on."

He understands that with the Orlando Magic in their second Finals, memories of their first will be refreshed. That means June 7, 1995, will be taken out of deep freeze storage and reheated, to be served warm to anyone who has forgotten.

That was the night he became known, for those choosing to reduce a long and honorable career to a catchy sobriquet, as Nick the Brick.

Final 11 seconds of Game 1 of the 1995 Finals between Orlando and the Houston Rockets. The Magic, ahead 20 in the first half at home, were desperately holding onto a three-point lead.

At the line was Anderson, the first draft pick the Orlando franchise made in 1989, a reliable player and a 70-percent free throw shooter. The Magic crowd eagerly waited to celebrate leading 1-0 in the Finals.

But he missed.

Then missed again. Somehow he got the rebound and was fouled. Two more to shoot. One would do the job.

He missed both.

Fate was ready with brass knuckles. Kenny Smith's three-pointer for Houston forced overtime, where Hakeem Olajuwon's last-second tip gave the Rockets a 120-118 victory. They went on to win three more games and sweep the Magic.

When those finals are reviewed, no one seems to remember the 20-point lead squandered or the Olajuwon tip or the next three games. They remember Nick Anderson.

"I couldn't accept it for awhile," he said. "They forgot it was a seven-game series, and not a one-game elimination. I do think about that sometimes."

He learned that some bad nights never die. "Constant ridicule," is his memory of the long shadow afterward. Two seasons later, Anderson made only 40.4% of his free throws.

"I started to believe maybe I can't make free throws. Maybe I can't shoot," he said. "I started losing my aggressiveness."

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[Examiner] Remembering the 1995 NBA Finals: Game one

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