Hey guys... I don't know about you but I'm having more fun watching Rockets games than I have in years. We aren't "expected" to win anymore, which takes a lot of pressure off. It's just fun watching these young guys play and learn. But one thing I noticed tonight is that all of a sudden I'm watching just a plain old team again, not the Charles Barkley show. Man, what a relief. Remember when the Rockets were just a team that went out and whooped butt night in and night out? No trash talking BS, no yelling and cussing all game long, no stupid technical fouls or insulting other teams, just all about the game? (OK, except for the occasional Maxwell meltdown). I didn't realize how much I missed those days until tonite. The circus atmosphere that Charles Barkley brought to the court won't be missed by me, even if I will miss a lot of other things about him. I don't know, it just was fun to watch, even though we lost. As much as I was sad to see Barkley go out the way he did, I'm looking forward to a season of wide-open basketball from the Rocks (even if a little out-of-control at times).
"No trash talking BS, no yelling and cussing all night long, no stupid Ts and insulting other teams." Those are the circus atmosphere Charles Barkley brought to the game. How about the definition of circus, boy scout!
I miss the hell out of CB. He made games more fun to watch, not less. The reason these Rockets are more fun to watch than last year's Rockets and the championship Rockets is that injuries have stripped Rudy of his "high-percentage" plays. Those post plays yielded marginal advantages on the stat sheets, but at the price of glacial predictability and boredom for spectators and viewers. Barkley's post plays were as boring as Olajuwon's, but at least Barkley made up for it with wit and cussing. How long will it be before Rudy develops Cato and Thomas into post-up threats and starts dumping it in to them? You Rudy haters have been making the wrong case for years. You've said Rudy is bad at winning games. The real problem with Rudy is that he's good at winning games by making them no fun to watch.
Circus or not, they probably would be a .500 ballclub by the first week of January if CB4 was still playing. Mango
Axeman, I agree with you. On the positive side, he's an entertaining player with incredible energy. On the nagative side, I always found it frustrating to watch a game of Barkley-ball.
Yeah I sure hate winning. I'd much rather watch Cat carry the ball a couple of times in crunch time and watch Bullard throw the ball to no one in particular. Ohh yeah and that backcourt violation at the end of the game was a classic. CB was our goto guy in the fourth because he knew what to do with the ball. Now everyone just stands around with their thumb up their butts and waits for someone to isolate and turn the ball over. Yeah, I dont miss Chuck or the circus atmosphere he brought to the game either.
Yeah...it's fun to watch our team play well for 3 and a 1/2 quarters only to play like they have never seen a basketball in the last 6 minutes of the game. I'm having a blast. I know which record to pull out in the last 6 minutes of every game we play...the broken one. I can't wait for a repeat next game. The first 3 and a 1/2 periods should just be skipped and they should make it a 6 minute game because no matter how well you play for 3 and a 1/2 periods, that last 1/2 period is the only part of the game that really counts. Rudy needs to start having practices like it's the last 6 minutes of everything...the game, their lives, the world. Crank up the speaker system with crowd noise and bring in the YMCA team with the pressure defense. How many times can we blow a game in the last 6 minutes? Is there an NBA record for blown games? I enjoy the first 3 and a 1/2 periods. If I want to get really pissed off, then I know the last 6 minutes will always do the trick. NBA...it's fantastic. Even a rebuild needs a win against a good team on the road every once in a while. I'm still waiting on ours. Will it ever come? I hope so. Surfguy
The spurs didn't seem to mind the "boring" play in the 4th when they were dumping it in to robinson and duncan. Having Barkley's inside scoring and rebounding presence could have only helped last night. Like anything else, it's only exciting if you're good at it. Perhaps the Rockets will get better at running in time, but I found "uglyball" in the '94 Finals much more exciting than last night's terrible performance.
Cheap shot on Barkley. Hit a man when he's down. Barkley fit in well with this young team and they were just about to turn the corner it looked like when he had the injury. Barkley didn't do that much cussing and "bad guy" stuff as a Rocket in my opinion, but he did do a lot of positive, sacrificing stuff. I miss him alot. I may have a selective memory on the positive side and yall Barkley detractors may have a selective memory on the negative side of him. ??? Thanks for the memories, CHuck!
the spurs post isn't boring. reason being that their other 4 players don't stand around with their thumbs up their asses. i guess rudy's philosophy was "if you aren't going to do something right, and you're just going to phu** up the play, then just stand still".
I don't understand this attitude at all. We're more fun to watch now that winning games is generally beyond our capabilities? Is it more fun to drive a rusted-out Pinto than a Ferrari, because you don't worry as much about crashing the Pinto? Sheesh. I know some of you guys-- Axeman primarily-- don't/didn't like Barkley... but this is just asinine. I just wonder if you realize that it's pretty contradictory to discredit Barkley's contributions on the one hand, and then admit that we're not "expected" to win now that he's gone. Seems to me that you're crediting him after all. Oops! ------------------ Nothing but NET-- http://www.clutchcity.NET Don't Fight the Future
You hit the nail on that one bballfanatic, if Barkley was playing we are already .500 by now without a doubt, when CB was here we beat the Suns twice in a roll, morally and literally, and last night we paid the price for inexperience and lack of leadership. Rather to see the team losing and going through painful learning than a better chance of winning is irrational and naive. It just shows the low class and deep hatred of the Barkley detractors who's sole life meaning is to attack Charles Barkley: get rid of him is good, even if it implies losing. No sympathy to Barkley's tragic ending, no knowledge of what is the real meaning of circus atmosphere. Their only trick is to mix competitiveness(cussing, trash talking, the things Francis is doing wihout being labelled as a clown) with the atmosphere of a clown. Shawn Marion brought circus atmosphere, Charles Barley brought a sense of competitiveness. Your moaning and groaning means squat if you can't even have a grip of the basic meaning of your core concept. Wake up people! I miss Chuck, basketball is not nearly as half fun as before without him. Anyone that doesn't miss the scenes of Chuck abusing Malik Rose, Jaren Jackson and other players like toys, in my opinion, did not really enjoy the Rockets basketball in the past few years.
I was never a believer in the Rockets/Barkley marriage - i am still not - but I do miss him. I thought he was fitting in better this year, as mentor and leader, than in previous years where he was supposed to carry a playoff team. I miss him. CBrownFanClub
Sorry Axe but I don't follow your thinking or logic (if there is any) at all. Why is it more fun now? When was the last time Mobley or Williams or Cato did something that made you smile during the game? CB would enetrtain us each and every night. Since when is losing entertaining. CB had charisma that was exuded through his play every game. This is a low blow, but its all good. I'm calling you out: have you enjoyed the last 5 games? Has it been more entertaining? Get used to it. ------------------ I'll miss you Charles.
Hey, all I'm saying is that with or without Barkley, this year we were not contenders. Now, Barkley's gone and with it all the BS that I hated about his game (i.e. the trash-talking, the cussing all the time, the stupid T's). I did say that I do miss his scoring and, don't get me wrong, I did like a lot of things about his game, but the times when he decided to just PLAY were usually not at the right times (see '93 Finals, see '97 WCF, see Michael Jordan saying that Barkley didn't have the focus necessary to win a championship). But, now we can just relax and enjoy the games a little bit. There's no more "drama" about winning one for Chuck or who's mad at who or who's got cell phones at practice. Remember the two championship years and the year after? How many controversies were there? The Rockets just showed up and played ball. I think we lost a lot of that when Barkley came. That's all I'm saying. Sure, I'd rather be winning and all that, but reality is, it's going to be a while before we make the playoffs again (with or WITHOUT Barkley this year, it wouldn't have made a difference). So, all I'm saying is, I'm glad that at least for the rest of this year we can just sit back and enjoy a little unpredictability in the games, but at the same time we also don't have to listen to Chuck talk BS all year long. And, would it be too much to ask to keep the responses above a second grade maturity level. Thanks.
My response will be on the same level as the topic. How is it that you are "just relaxing and enjoying the games now". I'm a die-hard fan and I'm watching every game and I'm not exactly pleased with what I see. I see us losing, making the same mistakes game after game, and lacking a go-to player. By the way, now that CB is gone, lets see how well all the young guys do when given free reign to do as they please. Barkley said things (cell phone comments) to get their attention and point out that they need to be more focused on the team. Are you going to miss that? Apparently not. Its no coincidence that we started playing better after Charles spoke out about some teammates and got them focused, is it? I'm in no way attacking you personally Axe, but I find myself utterly disgusted watching us blow 4th period leads, have 4 or 5 consecutive turnovers, and not be even close to executing, especially in the clutch. Before the injury, I found myself as happy as I have been in a long time because we were playing well and CB was grooming this team into a competitive group of young, athletic guys. Were Rockets games more attention grabbing2-3 weeks ago or now? Just look at how many fewer posts we see on a daily basis. ------------------ I'll miss you Charles. [This message has been edited by Primetime (edited December 16, 1999).]
I personally never have fun losing. I agree with CB we would be nearing .500, awaiting the return of Dream. Trying to get the team ready for the playoffs would be much better experience than telling Francis & company to go out there and play hard and learn. They may learn how to play this year, but they won't learn how to win? That doesn't sound like fun to me!
Ax, your statement about Barkley not playing well in big time series is ludicrus. In 93' he just about matched MJ game for game in performance and was clearly the 2nd best performer, way ahead of the third best player on the court (Pippen). He was also doing this against one of the best defensive 4's at the time in Grant. Phoenix lost because only Charles and Ainge showed up. KJ and Majerly went a-wall for the finals. Further, in our championship years (94-96), who was the toughest guy on our toughest opponent to beat (tight 7 game series that could go either way both times)? Answer, Barkley. Also, who was a best player in last years playoffs for us? I think you can answer this question yourself. You can criticize him for never being on a team to quite make it over the hump (this is also true for Malone, Stockton, Payton, Ewing, etc.), but saying he didn't play well in the big games and big series is just total bull. [This message has been edited by sir scarvajal (edited December 16, 1999).]
Thank you ROckethead 2....my thoughts exactly. Don't you just love watching a bunch of chickens with thier heads cut off run around the floor while the coach screams for someone, anyone, to A ) make a pass, B) make a play, C) make a foul shot ? Oh, that's right, now that Barkleys gone it's all Rudy's fault.
"Its no coincidence that we started playing better after Charles spoke out about some teammates and got them focused, is it?" Well, let's go down the list of teams we beat with Barkley (of course, I guess we haven't won yet without him, but the games aren't any more or less blowouts than they were before.. Does that tell you something???) The Grizzlies (twice) The Lakers (without Kobe and Shaq) The Mavericks The Warriors The Clippers The Suns (who aren't that good, which is why Ainge quit) Man, that's a team on the rise, let me tell you!!! I guess noone here but me understands that sometimes teams have down years and they're not going to win a lot of games. It's part of the process. Look at the Sixers, Bulls, Celtics, Lakers, Pistons, and now us (all the championship teams from the '80's and '90s combined except Spurs). All of them have had down years since winning titles. But the point is, those are bound to happen. Our first is going to be this year... So, I guess I'm making the point that it's a situation where you have to learn to enjoy the game not necessarily because you are winning, but because it is entertaining. My favorite moment from last nite is when Hambone just stuffed Malik Rose and practically put his ASS permanently in the floor. That was HILARIOUS 'cuz Hambone looked like he barely even exerted ANY effort. I was laughing at that one. And the alley-oops and the Francis Jordanesque move under the basket... Or Carlos Rogers flying thru the lane for a dunk. So what if they didn't win. They aren't going to anyway. So, what I'm saying is, ENJOY it a little... Geez, someone around here loosen up a little bit, will ya???!!!
