To all of you who will attend today's game and have a chance to read this. I want to tell you about the greatest Rockets game I ever witnessed, one that left me numb but made me so proud to be a fan. It was not Game 5 vs the Lakers in 1986, nor any of the amazing games of 1994 or 1995. It was May 12th, 1996. Houston vs. the now non-existent Seattle Supersonics. We were down 3-0. The sonics were dominating us the whole series, giving us our worse playoff loss (pre-Dallas nightmare) and we were down 17 points heading into the 4th qtr in what looked like an obvious sweep. The Sonics had neutralized Hakeem much like teams nuetralize Yao today. Cassell and Drexler were playing hurt and were pretty much ineffective...and the team couldn't deal with Seattle's D. We had no chance in this series, and our dynasty was clearly about to end with a nasty splat on the wall. Then something happened. It was truly magical. During a timeout, the lights of the Summit dimmed. That's what it used to be called. It went dark, and there was a spotlight...and holding up a sign was the words, "I still believe" The crowd went crazy. They stood on our feet with our Rockets laying over and dying and did not boo, but CHEERED! They cheered! And the team responded by going on a run....to close within 9 points with 1:09 seconds left....and to tie the game on a 3 pointer by Sam Cassell to send the game into overtime. George Karl looked like he had seen a ghost as flashes of Clutch City coming back from a 3-0 deficit were clearly on his face. We all thought it was going to happen, not just the game, but the whole series. And if we had won that game, we would have come back to win the series. 10 straight games we had won when facing elimination, and the Sonics were the ones playing scared. Afterwards, Gary Payton said of these Rockets, "You can't just beat the Houston Rockets, you have to kill them" And it looked like we might win until Robert Horry - the guy instrumental in the comeback...fouled out. But to this day - it was the greatest game as a Rockets fan to watch. That was amazing. A crowd lifting a team from the doldrums back to fight one last stand. That's your job today.
my mom and i will be behind the rockets bench wearing our artest jerseys! we'll still be believing this game.
Great post Lou! I will still be cheering them on. I still wish I was in Houston for the game. I believe!
Cheer them on to the end my friend. Scream as loud as you can until you have no voice left. Don't stop, no matter what the score, no matter how bad it might look. When your voice is gone, bang on something. Clap. Make noise. Inspire those around you to make noise. Be the man today!
Thanks Hayesfan. I feel so awesome today as a Rockets fan, like I haven't felt in 12 years. I wish so badly I could be at the game. So bad!
i didnt come all this way from los angeles just to be a debbie downer today. as long as there are 5 guys on the floor wearing a jersey that says rockets i am going to be screaming my heart out
I remember that game and thats what I was thinking about when I heard of Yao's Injury. Will they win this series probably not we are down 3 key pieces and Lakers are fully healthy so its not even fair buttttttttt this team has played with tons of heart all year long. I thought at the beginning of this series this would be one of those "if we go down were taking ya'll down with us" kind of series and we can still do that imagine we extend this series and force them to put us away in 6 or 7 tough games with Denver resting...We would strike a huge blow to them and that would me make prouder then any team since the championship era!! GO ROCKETS 4 LIFE!!!
Unreal croud today, it was amzing. Thanks Toyota Center. And a BIG thanks for those of you who went to the game and cheered your asses off despite a trashy effort in Game 3.
