I remember watching the Rockets 20 years ago with my late father. He was talking about how Dream was one of the all time greats and how it was a privilege for him to get to watch him play. Not a great free throw shooter early on his career, that was something he improved to become respectable. Though by comparison to the Rocket's current big men, he was great from the line. He worked on his game even into his 30s adding offensive moves to become even more dominant. He didn't win the MVP in 1995, he just let his play do the talking by dominating the league MVP in the Western Conference finals. Also leading the Rockets to their 2nd straight championship. A team that featured the likes of Chucky Brown, Pete Chilcutt, and Charles Jones. 20 years on and the Rockets haven't found that special type of player. There have been contenders. Steve Francis, Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, James Harden, and Dwight Howard, but one of these players are in the same stratosphere as Dream. I had hoped that James Harden would take not winning the MVP personally and put together a great playoff performance. It hasn't happened though. I was bothered in the regular season by more MVP talk for James than winning a championship talk about the Rockets. I hope James does win his MVP for his sake. And I hope that I don't have to wait another 18 years for another Conference Finals appearance.
So the narrative you are trying to create here is that Harden was mad about not winning the MVP and there fore he had a bad playoffs? (which he didn't) Sorry, but that is pretty r****ded. Harden was 2 assists away from 2 triple doubles in the WCF. GTFO with that nonsense.
Hell, I miss watching a team that consistently plays smart basketball and hits their FTs. The 2008-09 team was infinitely less frustrating (and probably better, before Yao went down). At least then it was only one guy going rogue and playing like a dumbass (well, two if you count Wafer).
And that was still not enough to win. Depressed him and he quit tonight, or is hungover from partying with Drake, or both.
The narrative is that perhaps we've lowered our standard for greatness. There's no comparison to what Olajuwon did in the playoffs.
I guess you missed games 1 and 2? Dream had Kenny, Horry, Max, Clyde, Cassell, Bull all hitting big shots. Who does this current team have?
If this team was so bad apart from Harden, then why were people so excited about this team again? Something doesn't add up.
Could it be the Warriors are just that good? Rockets had the third best record and are in the final four. At least we aren't the Lakers. Build on this year and come back stronger next year.
Hakeem was a better player than Harden, he played both ends. And Harden needs to grow up a little bit - in his dedication and leadership. DD
Harden is 25. It would be something special if he won a championship at this age, a age some guys are playing their first NBA game. It's fine, it's alright. Lets hope he matures as a player and simply gets better.
MVP is a regular season award and despite great stats, Hakeem's team was nothing special during the 94-95 season. David Robinson deserved MVP. For that particular regular season. Hakeem is better though, obviously. I've followed the NBA for 25 years and over that time, I put Hakeem on my Mt Rushmore with Jordan, Duncan, and Shaq.
This is a good post. Look how long it took for Kidd and Dirk to win a championship. You gotta be patient with great players.
Harden isn't playing as well as 1994-95 Olajuwon i.e. one of the greatest individual playoff performances in NBA history. We're screwed!
At this point in Dream's career he was anchoring mediocre teams that got bounced in the first round. People have revisionist history when it comes to their hero worship, Dream had many a growing pain before he was ready to lead us to the promised land. Dreams narrative is complete, Harden's is just forming.
Exactly. We can't even beat these guys when both Harden and Howard are on top of their game (Game 2). Just an AWFUL matchup for us.
No disrespect to the Grandpas. They have tried as hard as they can and been valuable for us too, but Morey couldn't get a better backup than Prigioni. Jarrett Jack would have been better than him. It seems like Morey didn't know what to do once Goran refused to come back to Houston.
Harden has been absurdly good in these playoffs. Anybody thinking he hasn't had a great postseason is hopeless.
