[Billy Bibbit]

Tuq,

I voted for the Rockets too, and I was surprised they got so few votes. You didn't even mention that the Jazz came really close to bouncing them in the first round. If I remember correctly that series came down to the final minutes of Game 5.

1995 was a weak year in the NBA, when a lot of teams could've easily won it all: San Antonio, Phoenix, Utah, Orlando, Indiana, New York, and Chicago. The Rockets are overrated by history because they were on the positive side of variance and won the title (edit: and teams that were just as good as them in the 90's but never won are underrated). The Rockets are the worst team on Assani's list and the only other team that's even debatable is the 00-01 76ers.

As you noted, a lot of people forget that Michael Jordan played in those playoffs, and saying that he wasn't on top of his game is just hindsight IMO. He was scoring 40+ on a regular basis and at the time many, many people just assumed the Bulls would win the title in the absence of any historically great teams in the NBA that year. I am of the opinion that Jordan was just as good as ever in those playoffs but the reason the Bulls lost is that they didn't have Horace Grant or Dennis Rodman, but that goes against the conventional wisdom that Jordan won 6 titles by himself so I'll leave that debate for another thread.