my guess is that being laid back, not getting his stomach in knots is just clyde, not necessarily his retirement -- and that that must served him when he played, i.e. he didn't get locked up. probably helps you be better in the clutch. i've met him in person, our old house was close to where the rockets used to train, and he was just like he is on tv - an extremely upbeat happy guy. i remember thinking, this guy really appreciates where he is in life. i wonder if he was that happy before he made it big playing ball. not sure, but i suspect he wasn't that far off. be critical, sure, but some of you are ridiculous with the bashing. have a little respect.
We are all a bit spoiled by the Calvin/Bill years. I have to say that I miss Calvin a bunch, but when I really think about it, what is it that I miss? Did I care more about what he would say during the game that was crazy or more about the fact that he knows basketball and can convey that knowledge in a CC role? A little bit of both, I think. Do we think they were the greatest b/c they were around when we won back to back championships, kinda like you think that's the best meatloaf you ever had the day that you got your first car? "Damn, that's a good loaf!" The Glide's CC is hard to stomach somethimes, yes. BUT, he should also be near and dear to anyone's heart that is a true H-Town B-Ball fan. Hank McDowell said it best, "he's just a happy go lucky guy". We should be able to put up with him because of who he is and what he's done for H-Town and the Rockets. Granted, oft I want to pat him on his head and say, "that's right, Clyde, that's right", but I also am humbled by who he is and know that he deserves my respect. ....so I'll bite my tongue and wait for Bull's games.
Clyde Drexler needs to disappear into the sunset like Hakeem has done. Hakeem only shows his face every once in awhile and doesn't really say much so all we remember is his play and determination. All I remember about Clyde is that he called Juwan a gazelle and had Bill making fun of him the rest of the season for it.
my main problem with clyde is his complete lack of insight into the game. i can deal with the sophomoric humor and i can learn to tolerate his horrible delivery, as well. but if you don't have the ability to deconstruct the game, you have no reason being a CC. murphy and (to a lesser extent, imo) bill walton have a very particular sense of humor. it is definitely an acquired taste. that said, they both have an extremely high level of understanding of what is happening on the court; and if you can get past (or love) their idiosyncracies you'll find some genuine knowledge and insight being bandied about. not once have i found myself listening to clyde and thought "damn, i never thought about that" or "damn, i didn't know that". that's a shame, because clyde's entire body of work is centered around basketball. there's no way that he doesn't know the intricacies of the game. there's no way he doesn't know some of the things that go on outside of 7:30 tipoff. yet he never shares any of that knowledge on the air. maybe he lacks the ability to effectively communicate and impart his knowledge while on the air. maybe he feels like he is there strictly for entertainment purposes (ie: clown). either way, his color commentating does a HUGE disservice to houston basketball - not just the rockets, but the city as a whole, since he is on the Mt. Rushmore of Houston basketball legends. rather than live up to that lofty status, clyde either chooses (or is instructed) to be the uninspiring, unmotivated, slacking tourguide.
Generally decent post, but this bit was low, low, low, especially the bit about his kids. You should be ashamed of yourself. Anyway, Calvin will always be 100 times the basketball commentary man that Clyde will ever be. Nothing against Clyde, but Calvin is just that good. A lot of it stems from their roles as players - Clyde was a wing, a scorer, primarily an athlete who usually had a physical advantage over his opponents in speed and size. Calvin, though, was the opposite. A point guard, undersized, who had to be a floor general AND who had to get by on his superior wits and basketball IQ. He's a guy who HAD to be able to recognize and understand what both teams were doing at all times, to see both where his own team was under-performing as well as how to best attack the weaknesses of the opponents. Plus, unlike Clyde, who quit on the only coaching gig he ever had, Calvin has been teaching basketball fundamentals for two decades. For all his clowning, he KNOWS basketball better than just about anyone. And his enthusiasm and energy is off the charts. Even when the Rockets would have bad seasons, Calvin still made the games watchable and entertaining. Clyde is a nice guy, and a Houston legend and all, but he has all the excitement and charisma of a brand new pair of tube socks, and his 'insight' is insipid at best. And Bull is not appreciably better. And the best thing you could ever say about Cooper's work is that it is in the past. I would rather have Van back. He was a lot closer to Calvin's qualities than either Clyde or Bull. But hey, at least it could be worse. At least it's not McCoy McLemore with Bill, or Mike 'The Impediment' Newlin. Those were the Dark Times. Attention Mr. Les Alexander: GIVE OUR CALVIN BACK TO US!!!!!
NERO U ARE SO GAY. SERIOUSLY U SHOULD GET A RAINBOW TATTOO ON UR BUTT WITH A SIGN THAT SAYS MUST BE THIS TALL TO ENTER [______________________________________________________________] WHAT I WAS SAYING IS THAT CLYDE HAS A BORING VOICE BUT I STILL ENJOY HIS WORK. I NEVR SAID ANYTHING ABOUT HITTING MYSELF IN THE HEAD WITH A HAMMER. SO INSTEAD OF ALWAYS CRITICIZING POSTS AND CMMENTS GO READ THE BABYSITTERS CLUB.
I agree that he should have the insight that he so sorely lacks. It has to be because of a lack of communication skills. He has always been a shy-ish mumbler his whole career, for the most part, hasn't he? He has the Mt. Rushmore status in H-Town and has his own destiny in his hands to continue his legend past his playing days; He's doing himself a great disservice. Don't the Rockets have PR people that can give him some pointers? Is he restricted on what he can say/contribute? (It doesn't seem like it) He's like a war vet who can't tell you how a grenade works. I respect Clyde greatly and would like to see him use this opportunity to his advantage. He's not doing that now….
Decaf. Seriously. Plus, that little key on your keyboard thingy that says 'Caps Lock' - you should try pressing it. And lastly.. you know, I have noticed in your responses to various posters that you seem to be trying really really hard to view as many people as 'gay' as you possibly can. Is there something you would like to share with everyone? Is there anything you would like to step right out of that closet and say to the whole wide world? Don't hide - be proud of who you are.
Clyde's public mouth has been on autopilot since the 80's, and every one of us needs to surrender to it. The sooner the better. Only a genius could say those things on TV. Why don't you people admit you're jealous? Look in your heart and admit how jealous you are that he can hit the "Boggle" button on his brain, say whatever words are face up on his cognitive plane, say them into a microphone, and those words travel through the atmosphere into your television set. Then you listen to them and think about them. IT IS AWESOME. His mouth lives in a sixth dimension, one you can only hope to understand fourteen lives from now. ADMIT YOUR ENVY and you will feel better. We need to have some sort of Klyde's Korner where we can transcribe his best stuff each game and keep a massive scrapbook. Just a white page, or a thread, where can track it. Because this won't last forever. Clyde's verbal sixth dimension knows not time and space, at least not the way we understand it.
HEY CLUTCH U SHOULD HAVE AN AGE LIMIT ON THIS FORUM. THIS NERO GUY KEEPS ASKING ME TO BUY HIM CIGARETTES. THATS REALLY NOT COOL. I THINK HE IS 7 OR 8
(RANT) ugh... I've been here since, well, check the date under my moniker. I have thoroughly enjoyed what is, imo, the best website on the net. not just sports fansite, but the best website - bar none. for the past couple of years though, I have posted with far less frequency. reason numero uno is posters like javashot, yao-fan-2007, et al, whose contributions are none more than virtual coldsores on the face of this great bbs. a wonderful place where intelligent banter is fostered and cultures interact is being sullied by "YOUR (sic) GAY" and "you're a TOF" drivel. I know its a free site and about the 1st amendment and all, but some people here make reading an entire thread absolutely impossible. my suggestion to you people is to take all that personal bull and PM each other with it. save us the personal slapfights and headache, please! intelligent, insightful posters have dropped off in droves since (sorry) the drafting of yao ming and have been replaced by CAP WEILDING MORONS who can't just converse civilly. that or sophomoric infants who cannot let personal battles die. meet by the damn bike rack and slap it out if you have to, because I bet I speak for many participants and lurkers when I say that we are sick of your childish net-wars. ugh... (/rant)
Thank you for putting it so eloquently. Seriously. Your Dennis Miller-esque rant sums up the very reason that I was compelled to join last Friday. I've been reading this forum for several years now, but have noticed more and more stinkin' thinkin' and childish behavior. (...and I'm NOT just referring to the java guy) I always appreciated the fact that members could disagree and even poke at each other; heck even throw some blows, but did so while keeping the topic alive and real. "Fights" died off and you just knew that it was part of the interaction; even building respect in the community between the ones who had disagreed before . I felt like it was time to bring another real voice to the discussion; a real Rockets fan. I'm just a rookie by status. I wish I had more time to write, but as lots of us here do, I have a full-time job. I just wanted to point out that it's nice to hear someone bring it back down to earth and make some frickin' sense. SO......what were we saying about Clyde?
Dream-shake: i'll support my earlier post re: clyde just by saying that he is embarassing. that's not hyperbole, either. imagine if you had a friend you were trying to introduce to the rockets. a girlfriend, even. you turn to the game and are subjucted to C-level humor and high school level color commentating. what is there impression of our organization? I agree with the earlier poster who posited that the announcers are, essentially, employed to promote the team. I'm fine with that. what I'm not fine with is the rockets apparent perception of the intellect of their fans - diehard and casual alike. do they find it necessary to dumb down the broadcast to appeal to intellectual neophytes?? seriously, clyde is to rocket broadcasts as steve o is to jackass. I suppose there's a market, a target market, for that genre of broadcasting. but is that sector larger than the sector of houstonians that can actually comprehend basic - BASIC - color commenting? juxtapose clyde with jim deshaies for the stros. jim is colorful and fun but finds a way to attach intelligent insight to his comments. you've heard jim blurt out "back!" just before a pitcher throws over to first right? not always, but occassionally he will explain that when a catcher puts down 5 fingers or a fist, its pretty much a universal signal to pitch over or out. even the casual fan can grasp that but - more importantly - its something that most diehards may not have known. where is this insight with clyde? murph gave us that. he'd predict or call out plays before they developed. he'd explain the reasoning behind it after. that's the kind of info, imo, that fans need. not idiotic cliches, dead air, and tangential diatribes throughout the broadcast. I'm almost personally offended by it as a consumer because in the end this is a service industry. the rox are a business that (in order to generate income) need to please their fan base. this obviously is not the case though.
For someone who listened to some pretty respected radio announcers all through my growing up years. Marty and Joe for the Reds(Hall of Fame Baseball announcers) Caywood Ledford at UK until he retired, television announcers have always been a step behind. We would turn off the volume on the tv and listen to the radio, even though it was out of sync as a I was growing up. Especially with Dick Vitale (oh lord I can hear my father ranting about the man as we speak) So I think my standard for TV announcers is lower. Clyde Drexler is the only man next to Hakeem that played for the Rockets in the past that I had ever heard of before most recently becoming a fan. Regardless of the man's basketball IQ or ability to articulate, he is a face of the franchise. So when he uses horrible cliches, it doesn't bother me. When he says a comment that makes me wonder how he played basketball so long with that perspective, it doesn't bother me. And if he happens to say consummate at least 4 times per home game, I figure he really likes the word or figures its the only word of its size that he can use correctly. With his player history in the NBA I figure he has the right to say whatever he wants for his hometown team broadcasts.
look i really dont care about any of your opinions. Saying what you are saying is already contradicting the opinions you expressed in your reply. I never come here to get in an online fight , but when airheads disrespect me i get angry. u can disagree with me all you want but as soon as you say something out of line i will do it right back! everybody wants to give their opinion about my posts and i dont care but i expect you to not care when i do it back. so y does everybody on here say... i hate when people argue on her blah blah blah. THIS IS A FORUM it happens. if you dont like dont read it
