Five years later, Eric Gordon reflects on Rockets’ near-miss in 2018 Western Conference finals
Sunday is May 28, which means it’s been exactly five years since the Houston Rockets were on the verge of glory and their first NBA Finals appearance since the 1995 championship run.
But it wasn’t to be. In a perfect storm of circumstances — Chris Paul’s ill-timed hamstring injury, a historic outlier of an 0-for-27 shooting stretch from 3-point range, and highly scrutinized officiating by a Scott Foster-led crew — the Rockets lost Game 7 of the Western Conference finals on May 28, 2018. Even with so many variables working against them, the final margin was still single digits.
After two more title-less seasons, James Harden forced his way out of town, and that led to the franchise rebuild that continues today.
Five years later, it remains the closest that most players on that 2017-18 group — which won 65 games in the regular season, most in franchise history — have come to winning a title. One of those players is veteran guard Eric Gordon, who now plays for the Los Angeles Clippers after finally being traded from Houston in February.
In a newly released episode of “The IkoSystem” podcast with The Athletic’s Kelly Iko, here’s what Gordon had to say regarding the missed opportunity in 2018 and how it could have changed history:
I think things would have been changed. I think the team would have been together. Definitely more years. I mean, winning a championship — that’s a big time thing. There’s no doubt the guys would have been together.
You only get so many chances to win a championship. And to have the chance to beat a team like that, I mean, you just never know. And sometimes when you win, you just don’t know how much that attracts other players around the league… because we had a good thing going.
While Houston wouldn’t have clinched the 2018 championship by winning that Game 7 at home — they would still have had to go through the Cavaliers, who won the East, in the NBA Finals — the Kevin Durant- and Steph Curry-led Warriors were the big hurdle.
At the time, Golden State was the defending champions and featured arguably the most talented roster in league history. Cleveland, on the other hand, went just 50-32 in a weaker East and had superstar forward LeBron James on the verge of leaving in free agency.
The winner of the 2018 West finals was always going to be an enormous favorite in the subsequent NBA Finals, which the Warriors ultimately won in a largely uncompetitive four-game sweep.
The real battle came in the previous round, and Houston pushed the defending champions to the brink before failing to get over the final hump. Five years later, it’s a missed opportunity that everyone involved with the organization at the time still laments.
Gordon’s complete podcast with Iko can be listened to below.
