http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...ouston-rockets
There's 3 parts. You get to know how the team was assembled, a bunch of perspectives (team members, coaches, opposing players, GMs, writers ect) on the team, the potential, the immediate impact on the league, the finals run, how the team disintegrated and a whole bunch of other interesting stuff.
As a side note, Bill Fitch pretty much shot down the rumor of there being a potential Sampson for #2 pick deal in the 1984 draft which would've most likely landed Olajuwon and Jordan on the same team. Hakeem was the one who had mentioned that deal was on the table in his autobiography but Fitch put an end to that and he did say he had control of player personnel decisions so if it would've came up, he would've known. This is mentioned in all those facts/trivia the on the side column.
I also didn't know LA was willing to trade Kareem in 1982 so they could've had the top 2 picks in the draft and try to build around a Magic/Sampson core. Would've drastically changed the landscape of 80s bball.
Learned quite a bit from this piece, definitely was a tremendous read.
Great read on the 1986 Houston Rockets
