It's been more than seven years since the Rockets edged the New York Knicks 4-3 in the 1994 NBA Finals to bring the first major world championship to the Bayou City. Tonight the Rockets host the Knicks at Compaq Center with little more at stake than the hope of someday returning to prominence.

Both teams have fallen from the ranks of the NBA elite and are wallowing closer to the bottom of the standings in their respective divisions.

Hakeem Olajuwon, a Rockets icon for 17 years whose block of a shot by John Starks helped seal the Knicks' fate in 1994, now plays for the Toronto Raptors.