When the Rockets won their first NBA championship in 1994, their then-new owner told himself he needed to savor each moment as if it might never come his way again. Leslie Alexander had owned the Rockets for less than a year, but he knew such success was fleeting and that it might never be realized as rapidly and spectacularly again. But then it was, in ways unprecedented and unpredictable. "It has been a long time," Alexander said, looking back at the Rockets’ second of back-to-back championships and a playoff run like no other that began 15 years ago today. "I’m 66. I was 51 then, a different person." Long before Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich accepted the championship trophy with the joyful admonition, "Don’t ever underestimate the heart of a champion," the 1994-95 Rockets were reigning NBA champions not expected to repeat. Michael Jordan was back with the Chicago Bulls after a minor league baseball foray. The Rockets had slumped to the point that they made a Valentine’s Day trade for Clyde Drexler that involved Otis Thorpe, a starter on the championship team. And Vernon Maxwell had moved to coming off the bench — a role he could not accept and one that ended after a playoff loss at Utah. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6977107.html
