[The Faster Times] LBJ, DW & CB; Changing What it Means to be an NBA fan

Nice Houston Rockets history...

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Are LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh changing what it means to be an NBA fan?

Last night on Pros vs. Joes, Hakeem Olajuwon showed that he still has it.

Dream proved he can still consistently hit his turn around jumper against some of the most elite athletes in the world as long as they are 6′3” or shorter. It looks like retirement is treating Dream well.

It hasn’t been so easy for the Houston Rockets.

They transitioned from Dream’s 1990’s championship and highly entertaining Barkley teams into the “Steve Franchise” era, which for some reason is a beloved period in many Houston fans’ memories. This era included big money signings of guys like Kelvin Cato, Moochie Norris and Mo Taylor. For a very reasonable price, Cuttino Mobely became the first player to hit the NBA fundamentally sound but somehow develop a street game while in the league.

The Steve Franchise era led to an ignominious end to Rudy Tomjanovich’s exalted run as the head coach of the Rockets and transitioned into the Jeff Van Slow Down. The Van Gundy Slow Down involved a careful mix of superstars and role playing sycophants lucky to be on an NBAroster. Van Gundy’s plodding style aside, the man also seems to like loading his roster with slow has-beens and fringe never-were’s. It’s easy to get a Ryan Bowen to buy into your system. What choice does he have? Van Gundy started Ryan Bowen, by the way.

Despite the hype of the JVG signing and the T-Mac coup he orchestrated, Van Gundy ultimately left Houston with a disappointing 182-146 record after four years. The Van Gundy Slow Down was definitely an improvement over the last years of Rudy Ball. And there can be no doubt that JVG slowed the bleeding in Houston. But that is about all he did.

Of course, the one constant in all this was former Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson, who for reasons unknown is lionized by the Houston press until this day. But for walking booty backwards into drafting Yao Ming with the number one pick in 2002, the Rockets were well on their way to becoming a Gulf Coast version of the LA Clippers under CD’s tenure.

The Rockets then made a very strange move. They brought in some nerd named Daryl Morey to shadow CD for a year in order to learn the ins and outs of running a basketball team. When CD finally got his initials retired at the Toyota Center for the part he played in turning the once championship organization into a regular lottery team, Morey took over.



And in the last few years, the nerd has managed to do what CD couldn’t do in nearly 15 years. He has built the Rockets back into a quality team that could go deep in the playoffs. Of course, Rockets fans have been hearing that every off season for years now.

This time I actually believe it. Yao Ming, Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, Aaron Brooks and Trevor Ariza make one hell of a starting line up. Brad Miller and Kyle Lowry off the bench with Chuck Hayes as a defensive stopper now and then sounds pretty good. Shane Battier camping out in the corner behind the three point line and reciting Voltaire is also an option when needed. And the Rockets even have a few intriguing young players who might add something to the mix.

But lets face it. Compared to the Threesome in Miami, there ain’t much sizzle to this steak. It makes me wonder: Have LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh changed what it means to be an NBA fan?

With Kobe Bryant certainly fuming at the nostrils and foaming at the mouth for the season to get under way so the Lakers can defend the NBA title, and the Threesome in Miami set to potentially dominate for years to come, will the average NBA fan start expecting less from their favorite teams?

If Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony team up with Amare Stoudemire in New York and form an Avengers to compete with Miami’s Justice League, will we be facing a league in which most of the teams are just a stop on the map for the real contenders during the regular season?

I really do think that if things break the Rockets’ way, and they almost never do, this is a team that could go to the Western Conference Finals. And after waiting all these years of waiting for a seriously good team in Houston, I am excited.

But I wonder about the long term. In the future, I wonder if a very large majority of NBA fans will drop the championship aspirations they have for their city altogether. If the league forms two or three super teams, how will Milwaukee compete? Will it matter if Kevin Durant becomes the best player in the league in OKC if players 2-10 are spread across only three other NBA rosters?

I am not saying it is panic time for NBA fans. Things will likely even out. Eventually. But I wonder if we are entering into a decade where only three or four NBA teams will even be able to pretend to matter. If CP3 is traded to the Knicks and Anthony joins him in 2011, we will be more than half way there.

We are seeing league with Kobe in LA, the Threesome in Miami and more superteams potentially on the way. Even the most cockeyed Steve Francis fan wouldn’t like their team’s chances against those odds.

Unless they live in Miami or New York.