Rockets squandered a lot of credibility by going nowhere in the playoffs for two decades. Why get hyped about a team that has no record of coming through in the clutch. When they earn it, the hype will come back.
Are you kidding me? The Rockets cemented buzz right out of the gate. After that thrilling loss to Seattle the year before, the town was already buzzing about them. Then they started the season 15-0, an NBA record. The entire city watched that 15th win vs the Knicks to set the record. Reinvent history much?
I think you can blame that on national media. Hakeem used to come out in commercials with shaq. He had his own line of shoes with commercials. This year it was curry plastered all over television. The media monopoly has basically dictated the buzz. It is more efficient and effective to root for the favorite.
If THIS team blew leads like that, there would be bad headlines as well. That doesn't necessarily = buzz. Again, they failed to sell out a PLAYOFF game... in the 2nd round... in a year where the team had the best start in nba history and at that point had HCA for the rest of the playoffs ( = they were the odd's on favorite to win it all).
Then tell me why they struggled to sell out regular season AND playoff games that year? For a team that had the BEST player in basketball, and got off to the best start in NBA history (several of those initial regular season games were non sellouts... like 9-10,000 people in attendance... pretty bad). Opening night attendance... 11,000. I'm not the one re-inventing history. I was totally into that team... but the rest of the city didn't catch on till much much later.
Lots of cities have that. I live in Phoenix and there was "buzz" around the Suns this year while they were in the playoff hunt this season, even though everyone knew they didn't have a shot. And this is a town that feels like 80% Canadians and midwesterners who typically sell out games for the NHL team wearing the away team's jerseys, which is always a bizarre sight. Imagine Toyota center having 80% Detroit fans or Pacers fans and colors in the stands. It's weird. I definitely think that's a factor but I think team work ethic/expectations also play a HUGE role.
I'm just speculating, but do you think having a huge player turnover from the last couple of years has anything to do with it? Us diehard fans will not sway at all, but for the casual fan it may be easier to have strong feelings towards a team when they feel they personally know the team. My wife is a casual fan and I can tell she gets more excited/into it when she knows the players better.
Really, both of you guys are right. There was a huge buzz amongst the natives especially those with the memory of '86 still on their minds. During the 15-0 start I watched the game against the Knicks in a bar at U of H and it was packed with loads of energy. The city as a whole though didn't seem to share the same enthusiasm. IMO this is largely due to the transplants that flooded into the city in the 80's which explains why you could walk up to the Summit ticket window the day before the game and purchase tickets with no problem...not even a line. Unfortunately it will probably take a Finals appearance to generate a city wide buzz. As a native Houstonian I really don't care if the transplants jump on the bandwagon or not.
This doesnt surpise me since every time you turn on the radio, everyone expects the rockets are losing and its not the 2 team are even and Clippers will just pull out, its the laugh....then "Rockets aren't winning this series"
1. Houston is first and foremost a FOOTBALL city, not basketball. 2. 20 years of zero success in the postseason takes the wind out of anyone's sails. 3. Fans complaining about this needs to realize the difference between a native Houstonian and someone just living in Houston. Houston has a lot of people that are not originally from Houston and do not identify themselves with Houston sports teams.
It definitely is probably part of it but they have had Harden for 3 seasons and Howard for 2. Those names are big enough. Part of the reason I have not been a big Astros fan is because the guys I watched growing up either retired or were traded and the team went to crap. I went to a game 2 years ago and recognized 3-4 names on the team. It kind of took something away, it was almost like watching strangers. It also didn't help that the team was dreadful but it was hard to root for them. Now the roster is improving and they have some more recognizable names and I am getting back into it.
You really think that if the Rockets had lost on Wednesday, ti would have been front page of the Chronicle yesterday? Highly unlikely, and even if it was, the Chronicle has probalby half or less the circulation it did then anyway.
Sports radio shouldn't matter. The buzz comes from the casual fans not the hardcore fans. Casual fans generally don't listen to sports radio so I don't think you can blame the local media. I think the US is more into football than basketball. A lot of people gripe that the NBA Playoffs is too long and that there are too many teams in it. People seem to be more loyal to their college teams now as well. I see more UT, A&M, and LSU flags than I've seen any pro team flag around town.
Houston is a football town. Personally, I think football is enjoyable but grossly overrated as far as excitement goes. There are exciting players but overall the game is more about hype of who a player was in college, the coach's "system" he's playing in, than who's really better than who. Basketball is more my speed because if one player is out of place then it directly affects the outcome of the game. We know regardless of the systems, that MJ was the GOAT. Who is the GOAT football player?
I think houston fans are just conditioned at this point to not get excited about anything sports related lol or it could be that houstonites are just terrible people
94 was also the last year of the Oilers being a contender... they bottom out the next year and then announce they're leaving town. The Rockets began owning the town after 1994... but even with the 15-0 start, Dream's MVP season, and coming off the hotly contested Sonics series the year before, they struggled to draw fans and make believers out of the casual residents that are relied upon to actually buy tickets and fill the arena. It all changed after the 1994 WCF (even though I think there was 1 or 2 non sellouts in 1995, they pretty much owned the city from that point on till 2000).
That's because football is largely a team sport... basketball is largely an individual sport. Just one player in basketball can turn a team from pretender to contender... whereas football typically takes a few years of building thru the draft and building up the lines. Houston is an OK sports town... not one of the best, but still a notch above Miami and Atlanta.
You "think"??? NFL Football is by far the most popular overall entertainment outlet in the US.... not just among sports but among all pop culture outlets. Its more popular than music, television shows, movies, concerts, city festivals, etc. etc. etc..
Yes I "think" based on the topic in this thread on why there is a lack of buzz for the Rockets in Houston. It's not just because Houston is a football town or that there are bunches of people moving into Houston. Its because everyone in the US prefers to listen about football news even if its just about OTAs.
