As a Rockets fan, I clearly remember the Bulls struggling against the Rockets during that time. Mad Max always gave Jordan fits. And Olajuwon dominated in the post. However, we never got to see them in a series, so who know what Phil Jackson would have done. But in the regular season, the Rockets had the answer for the Bulls.

It definitely would have been a great matchup.

Stockton and Malone took their team to the finals twice to watch Michael Jordan hoist more trophies, and I know they went to at least several WCFs off the top of my head. It's not like they stunk up the joint for a couple decades. Three of their losses to the Bulls in the 1998 NBA Finals were settled by a combined grand total of 10 points, getting sunk by the famous (and infamous) Jordan-Russell pushoff.

They had decent role players. Hornacek was freakin deadly from long range, and Russell was a pretty good complimentary SF to go with Stockton & Malone. Ostertag was a big stiff, but he was nowhere near the bottom of the league in terms of Centers.

Stockton was amazing to watch. Truly one of the greatest all around point guards to ever play the game, even if you hated him (as I did).