This is what I like to hear. What you must understand about the rockets is that we have won and won big and won honorably. Won through adversity, it was never easy. We have had some damn good teams winning the right way with passion and respect. Everyone still sucks olajuwons balls and for good reason. We were that good. You can feel proud knowing that the roots of your team, the Rockets are beautiful. Young guys who have never won anything dont understand that, and come into this board with a losers mentality. I hate it. It pollutes the well. I still believe now, and I was at the game we lost to go down 3-1 against phx. I remember hearing what the fans were saying as they were walking out of the summit 'f the rockets' then to see them win it all was the greatest sports moment of my life. Welcome here ,and remember when the haters and losers come out to fester around here that they don't know and are 'never weres'.. we have been in tough situations, and were once even known as 'choke city' only to redeem ourselves and become 'clutch city' THE HISTORY WILL GUIDE YOU CHILD you are either a winners mentality and 'with us' or you need to GTFO but know we have the pedigree and championship bloodlines. Step on our bandwagon and BELIEVE IT AGAIN !! GO ROCKETS haha /yao ming SAVIOR IN WAITING
The Oilers and the Astros were where the pain lied. The Rockets were never really good enough to wear the "choke" label. The only things about the Rockets back then was the Twin Towers dynasty that was to be.
These were the days when the Rocket fans didn't care so much about the media except when they purposely try to devalue our championships or players. Or not give a us a Sports Illustrated cover when they already had one ready for the Knicks if they won. No whining about when Barkley predicts us to lose in the playoffs (which he was right all the time). No jealousy for our best player. We never needed to say Olajuwon > Ewing. We all knew that, even the Knicks fans. Respected was earned. Kids were not hacking on first person shooters to win. Kids were playing an honorable game like Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition, where people can't cheat and skill was witnessed and people put their quarters up. You can read the ads at the summit. Hip Hop music was so much better.
Love this thread. Tinny, now post the one where we knotted the series up....get all 7 of the games in there. DD
If you look at that front page, you will see that Fran Blinebury uses the phrase. I mean it could have been a staff decision to use "Choke City" but I always assumed he was the one who started it. I know after the Rockets beat the Knicks, he took credit in the Chronicle (tongue in cheek) for the whole "Choke City" label. Spoiler
It says by eddie sefko. Choke implies we were winning then we lost. We are getting destroyed. But, tomorrow is a new game.
You could replace current players and coaches in that article and still get the same quotes today. The Rockets system got them 56 wins and a season split with the Clippers. This team has to start believing again in what got them this far and it's obvious they left their identity at the door in this series. All it takes is one game. Win game 5 and you can put pressure on the Clips to close out. The Blazers played much tighter at home in games 4 and 6 last year, winning more because of our own gaffes and not them making all the winning plays. If they start believing again and decide they don't want their season to end, they can make a series of this or they can eat a hot bowl of cream of quit at the first sign of trouble like they did last night.
This has nothing to do with "believing" or not. It has everything to do with the fact that one team has an offensive and defensive game plan in place and the other team doesn't.
Not really. The rockets were down blowing big leads in 94. They won game 3. They weren't getting blown out.
This Rockets team had double digits leads in games 1 and 2 and near a double digit lead in game 4. Yet everything they have done comes unglued at the first sign of trouble. They just need to go back to what got them here in the first place. You can't change your stripes midway through a series. You are who you are and you have to believe that will work. Right now, no one seems to believe in anything they can do. This isn't about scheme in so much as the Rockets from the coaching staff to the players has somehow gotten mind bleeped in just a couple of games. Just the simple basics of transition defense, defending pick and rolls, and executing them have gone away overnight in this series. McHale isn't a great coach but he doesn't tell his players to go suck and quit at the first sign of trouble. I would hope he gets fired just so he doesn't have to coach this merry band of mental midgets anymore. He would live a longer happier life being a commentator on broadcasts where he would be a joy to listen to. The Rockets letting Van Gundy go was the best thing ever for him. Other than there are only a limited amount of jobs, not sure why any good coach would want to coach this team with a GM whose as concerned with being right and his brand as he is actually building a team to flaky superstars to an owner who still hasn't spent whatever it takes to make a champion and who fired the best Twitter guy in the NBA. Maybe that's it, this whole organization essentially fell off the cliff after that firing. It's the curse of Chad.
The only thing in common with that team in 94 is that the team name is the Rockets. I still don't know what you're talking about. The Rockets changed their strategy in game 3 because they couldn't get the ball to Dream. That's when Maxwell decided to score 30 something points by driving to the hoop and jacking up 3s. The emergence of Sam Cassell as a threat. Also, that Rocket team was a solid defensive team with the best defensive player in the league.
