Clutch City is a nickname given to the city of Houston, Texas after the city's National Basketball Association (NBA) club, the Houston Rockets.
Background
"Choke City" was a Houston Chronicle front-page headline in 1994, given to the city of Houston after the Houston Rockets blew two consecutive commanding fourth-quarter leads at The Summit in the first two games of their Western Conference semifinals match-up versus the Phoenix Suns in the 1994 NBA Playoffs. This in effect took the series to Phoenix, Arizona down 0-2 in the best-of-seven series. It was feared at the time that the Rockets would follow the same fate as the city's National Football League (NFL) club at the time, the Houston Oilers; the Oilers blew a 32-point lead during a January 3, 1993 NFL playoff game versus the Buffalo Bills; the Bills won the game 41-38 in overtime. The following year, the Oilers took an 11-game winning streak into the postseason. After a first-round bye, they drew the Kansas City Chiefs at home. After leading for much of the game, the Oilers would ultimately squander a 10-point lead at home to Joe Montana and the Chiefs, leading to a 28-20 upset. The Houston Astros had similar playoff heartbreaks: in the decisive Game 5 of the 1980 National League Championship Series, the Astros had a 5-2 lead going into the 8th inning over the Philadelphia Phillies at the Astrodome, six outs away from making their first World Series. The Phillies however would score 5 runs in the 8th and win 8-7 in extra innings. In the Game 6 of the 1986 National League Championship Series against the New York Mets, the Mets held a 3-2 series lead while the Astros looked to send it to a Game 7 with Cy Young pitcher Mike Scott waiting in the wings. Houston led by three for most of the game, until New York scored three runs of their own to tie it in the top of the 9th and sent the game to extra innings, eventually prevailing 7-6 in 16 innings at the Astrodome. During this era, no Houston-based professional sports team from an existing sports league (the NFL, NBA, or Major League Baseball) had won a championship.
1993–1994 season
In Rudy Tomjanovich's second full season as head coach, the Rockets began the 1993–94 season by tying an NBA record with start of 15–0. Led by Hakeem Olajuwon, who was named the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year, the Rockets won a franchise-record 58 games. The Rockets in the second round of the playoffs recovered from losing the first two games at home to the Phoenix Suns in the second round of the playoffs after blowing multiple big leads in the first two games, eventually winning in seven games to advance to the NBA Finals. This series is widely regarded as the birth of the term nickname "Clutch City". Houston once again went down by three games to two to the New York Knicks, but managed to win the last two games on their home court, and claim their first championship in franchise history, of which at the end of Game 6 Olajuwon blocked a championship-winning 3-point field goal attempt by John Starks, forcing a Game 7. Olajuwon was awarded the Finals MVP, after averaging 27 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots per game.