In the 1990s, the Chicago Bulls were on top of the world. With Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen leading the charge, they won six championships and never lost in the NBA Finals. However, for two years in the middle of the decade, the Houston Rockets reigned supreme as Jordan retired from basketball in an attempt to pursue a baseball career.
To this day, many people believe Chicago would have won eight titles in a row if Jordan hadn’t retired. However, some members of the Rockets disagree with that sentiment. According to former Rocket and current NBA on TNT analyst Kenny “The Jet” Smith, Houston would have beaten the Bulls even if Jordan had been playing.
During a recent appearance on “Know Mercy” with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, Kenny Smith said that he thinks his Rockets teams would have beaten the Bulls, but he’s glad they didn’t because it would have hurt Jordan’s legacy.
“Yes, we would’ve beat the Chicago Bulls, I feel,” Smith said. “I’m glad we didn’t beat them because it would’ve hurt Michael’s legacy in the debate with LeBron.”
When asked why, Smith said Houston had too much size for Chicago to deal with.
“The reason I thought we would’ve beat them is because they were too small for us,” said Smith. “There was no Horace Grant. Dennis Rodman wasn’t there yet. So who’s going to guard Dream? No. Impossible. No way, no how. We would’ve beaten the Michael Jordan Bulls because they were too little. We would’ve smacked them.”
The debate will never actually be decided, as the era has come and gone, but it would have been a very interesting scene to see Jordan’s Bulls take on those Rockets teams in the Finals.
