This is, of course, subject to change, but the league office, the team owners, and the players have agreed to the plan as stated above.
The New York Knicks have already been eliminated from Playoff eligibility, so their season is over. The Brooklyn Nets have not, so they will keep playing. If the current standings hold, they will be the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference.
If the current standings hold, the Houston Rockets would be the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference. They would be seeking their 1st berth in the NBA Finals, and their 1st NBA Championship, since 1995.
While the Houston Oilers won the AFL Championship in 1960 and '61, thus going as far as the structure of pro football at the time allowed them to go, the Rockets were the 1st Houston team, and if you throw in the San Antonio Spurs the 1st South Texas team, to win a World Championship, taking back-to-back NBA titles in 1994 and '95, the years of Michael Jordan's "1st retirement."
The Rockets last won the NBA Championship on June 14, 1995. That's exactly 25 years. How long has that been?
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The Rockets have moved into a new arena, leaving The Summit for the Toyota Center in 2003. The Summit is now Lakewood Church Central Campus, the home "megachurch" for televangelist Joel Osteen, who had to be shamed into opening it for victims of Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
The Houston Astros have moved from the Astrodome into a new ballpark, Minute Maid Park, and reached the Playoffs 10 times, winning the World Series in 2017 and losing it in 2019, and been exposed as cheaters. The Houston Dynamo have been play in MLS, and have moved into a new stadium, BBVA Stadium.
And the Houston Oilers have moved out of the Astrodome, to Nashville to become the Tennessee Titans, and have been replaced, in a new stadium, by the Houston Texans. That new stadium, currently named NRG Stadium, has now hosted 2 Super Bowls and 2 Final Fours.
All of the major league teams in the New York Tri-State Area have gotten new buildings, except for the Knicks and Rangers, and Madison Square Garden has been seriously renovated in that time. In fact, the Knicks are 1 of just 6 NBA teams not to have moved to a new arena since the Rockets' last title. The others are the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Utah Jazz, the Phoenix Suns, the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Andy Pettitte had made his major league debut on April 29, Mariano Rivera his on May 23, and Derek Jeter his on May 29. The other eventual member of the Yankees' "Core Four," Jorge Posada, would debut on September 4.
The Rockets succeeded themselves as NBA Champions. The titleholders in the other sports were the New York Rangers, the San Francisco 49ers, and in baseball… well, officially, the Toronto Blue Jays, since there was no 1994 World Series. George Foreman was in his improbable 2nd reign as Heavyweight Champion of the World.
The Nets moved from the Meadowlands to Newark and then Brooklyn. The Toronto Raptors and the Vancouver Grizzlies began play the next season. The Grizzlies later moved to Memphis. The Seattle SuperSonics became the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Charlotte Hornets became the New Orleans Hornets and then the New Orleans Pelicans. They were replaced in their previous hometown by the Charlotte Bobcats, who then received the rights to the Hornets name.
The Utah Jazz, the San Antonio Spurs, the Indiana Pacers, the New Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets, the Miami Heat, the Dallas Mavericks, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors had not yet reached the NBA Finals. The Spurs, the Heat, the Mavericks, the Cavaliers and the Raptors had never won an NBA Championship. The Golden State Warriors had not won a Championship, or even been to a Finals, since 1975. All of those facts have since been rendered untrue.
The Rockets had Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, who went on to be elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Also playing in the NBA that season, and have since been elected, were Moses Malone, Robert Parish, Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, Joe Dumars, Dominique Wilkins, Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan, David Robinson, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Chris Mullin, Reggie Miller, Gary Payton, Sarunas Marciulionis, Alonzo Mourning, Mitch Richmond, Dikembe Mutombo, Shaquille O'Neal, Grant Hill, Jason Kidd, Dino Rajda and Vlade Divac.
The Rockets were coached by Rudy Tomjanovich, who should be in the Hall of Fame as a coach, but isn't, and was a pretty good player, too. Current Knick coach Mike Miller was an assistant coach at Texas State University. Current Net coach Jacque Vaughn was playing at the University of Kansas.
Barry Trotz of the Islanders was the head coach of the minor-league Portland Pirates in Maine. Alain Nasreddine of the Devils was playing for the Chicoutimi Saguenéens of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. David Quinn of the Rangers was an assistant coach at Boston University.
Aaron Boone of the Yankees was playing in the Cincinnati Reds' minor-league system. Chris Armas of the Red Bulls was playing for the Long Island Rough Riders. Ronny Deila of NYCFC was playing for Odds Ballklubb in Skien, in his native Norway. Adam Gase of the Jets was in high school. Luis Rojas of the Mets and Joe Judge of the Giants were 13 years old. And Walt Hopkins of the Liberty was 10.
The Olympic Games have been held in America (twice), Japan, Australia, Greece, Italy, China and Canada. The World Cup has been held in France, Japan, Korea, Germany and South Africa -- and had never previously been held in Asia and Africa, or in a joint venture (2002 in Japan and Korea).
The European Cup/Champions League soccer tournament has been won by Ajax Amsterdam, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid (5 times), Manchester United (twice), Bayern Munich, AC Milan (twice), Porto, Liverpool (twice), Barcelona (3 times) and Internazionale Milano.
The idea that people of the same sex could get married, and receive all the rights and benefits of couples in "traditional marriage," was considered ridiculous. But then, so was the idea that corporations were "people," and entitled to the rights and protections thereof. There were 3 Justices on the Supreme Court then who are still on it now: Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
Bill Clinton was in his 1st term as President. George W. Bush had just been inaugurated as Governor of Texas. George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and their wives, and Lady Bird Johnson were all still alive. (Reagan, Mrs. Johnson, and Mr. and Mrs. Ford have since died.) Barack Obama was teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago, and Mitt Romney had just lost his first race for public office, for the U.S. Senate seat of Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.
The Governor of Texas was George W. Bush, and the Mayor of Houston was Bob Lanier -- not the player of the same name in the Basketball Hall of Fame. The Governor of New York was George Pataki. The Mayor of New York City was Rudy Giuliani, and the Governor of New Jersey was Christine Todd Whitman.
As for the current holders of those posts, respectively: Greg Abbott was on the Texas Supreme Court, Sylvester Turner was in the Texas House of Representatives, Andrew Cuomo was Assistant Secretary of Housing & Urban Development, Bill de Blasio was an aide to Congressman Charles Rangel, and Phil Murphy was running the European office of Goldman Sachs out of Frankfurt, Germany.
The holders of the Nobel Peace Prize were Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat -- and now we know how that worked out. The Pope was John Paul II. The current Pope, Francis, then Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was the Bishop of Auca in his native Argentina.
The Prime Minister of Canada was Jean Chretien, and of Britain John Major. The monarch was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed. Blackburn Rovers had just won an improbable Premier League title, and Everton had just won the FA Cup. There have since been 4 Presidents of the United States, 5 Prime Ministers of Britain and 3 Popes.
Major novels of 1995 included The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans, Independence Day by Richard Ford, The Rainmaker by John Grisham, High Fidelity by Nick Hornby and Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. Timothy Findley published a novel titled The Piano Man's Daughter. It was not about Alexa Ray Joel.
None of the Harry Potter, A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones, Bridget Jones, Twilight or
Hunger Games novels had yet been published. And no one had yet heard of Robert Langdon or Lisbeth Salander.
Major films of the late Spring and early Summer of 1995 included New Jersey Drive (about carjacking, not the Devils' drive for the Stanley Cup), Die Hard with a Vengeance, Forget Paris (starring Billy Crystal as a basketball referee and Debra Winger as his wife, with several NBA cameos), The Bridges of Madison County, the Scottish pseudo-historical epic Braveheart, Disney's pseudo-historical cartoon version of Pocahontas, and Apollo 13.
Wrapping up filming was The American President, starring 51-year-old Michael Douglas, playing a widowed President dating an environmental activist played by 37-year-old Annette Bening, who was married to 58-year-old Warren Beatty. Douglas was not yet married to Catherine Zeta-Jones, who was then 25 and starring in Catherine the Great. Not an autobiography.
Pierce Brosnan's 1st outing as James Bond, Goldeneye, would premiere the following November. Dean Cain was playing Superman on TV, but Val Kilmer's turn as Batman on film had just proven to be a pathetic mess. And Sylvester McCoy was still the last man to play The Doctor.
Television shows that were about to air their final first-run episodes were Empty Nest, Blossom, Full House, Matlock and Northern Exposure. Newly-debuted were NewsRadio, Sliders and the entire WB and UPN networks (eventually to merge), including Star Trek: Voyager. Soon to debut were Ned & Stacey (the 1st series to star Debra Messing), Caroline in the City, JAG, MADtv, The Drew Carey Show, and a show only slightly more cartoonish than that one, Pinky and the Brain. And yet, it was the Yankees who ended up taking over the world.
The Number 1 song in America was "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" by Bryan Adams. The surviving members of the Beatles were finishing The Beatles Anthology. Michael Jackson released HIStory. Tupac Shakur got married... in prison.
Kourtney Kardashian and Pink were 16. Michelle Williams (both of them), Ben Savage, Kim Kardahsian, Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, Kelly Rowland, Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba were 14. Natalie Portman, Beyonce Knowles, Britney Spears, Sienna Miller and Kirsten Dunst were 13. Prince William, Matt Smith and Anne Hathaway were 12. Prince Harry and Khloe Kardashian were 10.
Lady Gaga was 9, Rob Kardashian Jr. 8, Kevin Jonas and Rihanna 7, 7, Joe Jonas 5, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson 4. So was Sarah Hyland, and the rest of the Modern Family kids had not yet been born. Nor had Kendall and Kylie Jenner. Louis Tomlinson was 3. Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas, Miley Cyrus and Zayn Malik were 2. The other One Direction singers, Liam Payne, Nial Horan and Harry Styles, had yet to reach a 2nd birthday. Justin Bieber had just had his 1st, so he wasn't a "Boyfriend," he was a "Baby." Halsey was 8 months old.
Inflation has been such that what $1.00 bought then, $1.68 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp was 32 cents. A New York Subway token was $1.25. The average price of a gallon of gas was $1.20, a cup of coffee $1.74, a McDonald's meal $5.29, a movie ticket $4.35, a new car $17,900, and a new house $158,900. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed that day at 4,491.08.
The tallest building in the world was the Sears Tower in Chicago. The Internet was still new to most of us. Most of us had never heard of Microsoft or Netscape or America Online. There was no Facebook, no YouTube, no Twitter, no Instagram and no Pinterest. VHS videotapes were still the dominant way of recording and playing back movies and TV shows. Mobile phones were still roughly the size of the communicators on Star Trek. There were birth control pills, but no Viagra.
In the late Spring of 1995, the federal building in Oklahoma City was destroyed. Singer Selena was shot and killed. Actor Christopher Reeve was paralyzed in a horse-riding competition. Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady was shot down over Bosnia, and rescued 6 days later. And British troops were pulled off the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland for the 1st time in 26 years.
Harold Wilson, and Jonas Salk, and English soccer legend Ted Drake died. Gigi Hadid, and Missy Franklin, and Nicolas Pépé were born.
June 14, 1995. The Houston Rockets won their 2nd straight NBA Championship. They have never won another.
Will they do it this time? We can't be sure how any of the 22 teams still officially eligible for the 2020 NBA Championship will come back from the Coronavirus-induced layoff. But the Rockets are one of the 16 teams that will be in it, so they have a chance. Stay tuned.
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