Wizards coach Scott Brooks, with the morning shootaround complete, took a moment to enjoy a look at the 1993-94 championship banner he helped the Rockets win, and then at the banners of retired numbers hanging from the Toyota Center rafters.
That was enough to inspire the familiar memories and opinions still fresh, even if they were from a time more than 20 years ago when he was a Rockets point guard and to think of the work of his coach in Houston, Rudy Tomjanovich.
"Every morning I thank (Hakeem) Olajuwon," Brooks said. "He gave me the ability to say 'I'm a champion in '94.