When did you start following the Rockets? Earliest memories?

I worked at the Summit during the championship days

 

Birth.

I was 9 when we won the first championship. I remember running to the backyard at halftime to shoot free throws.

I know I started watching them before then, but everything before last night is a little hazy... Everything before I was ten even moreso.

 

94 championship. Wasn't really watching NBA before that. But when Rockets won the championship that year, I started following the Rockets.

 

When VHS and Betamax fought for world dominance.
Who would've known that VHS would win thanks to porno tapes.
lol

 

NBA Live 97, was a lil kid and fell in love with the awesome logo and jerseys(not kiddin, still a die hard fan of that logo).

 

I became a fan back in like 97-98. Before that I was a Bulls fan, given that that was pretty much the only team they showed in my hometown (my favorite player was Kukoc though ). In 97-98 I learned about Dream and was converted. Not that I got to to watch much Rockets basketball then anyway.

I guess the first season I really followed the Rockets was 1999, when Pippen came on board and I really thought we had something special going. Instead, I ended up making Mobley my second Rockets jersey (after Barkley... which, again, was the only Rockets jersey you could get in my hometown). I really liked Dickerson and was sad to see him go, and so I was really not a fan of Francis's dribbling the clock out. He annoyed the hell out of me, but he did end up winning me over eventually.

Anyway, in short, I think I declared myself a fan in 1998, but only really started caring in 1999.

 

The 1976-77 Rockets, who lost to Philly if I remember correctly in the Conference finals. Malone, Murph, Lucas, Newlin, and Rudy stick out in my mind.

 

My first Rockets memory is at 5 years old, the excitement of everyone in my family watching the clock wind down on Game 4 of the '95 Finals.

Now, as a fan that actually knew what was going on, I guess Cuttino's rookie season was when I started really being more than just a kid going "ooh, dunks good!"

 

In the late eighties basketball coverage here in the UK was limited to the Bulls, Celtics and Lakers. I'd play in my backgarden pretending to be Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson....

I used to buy basketball VHS tapes with my pocket money whenever I could afford one, and I got one called Hakeem the Dream one day.

The rest is history.

 

I remember as a kid my dad taking me to my first NBA game. The Rockets vs. the Kareem and Magic Lakers in the early 1980's back at the old Summit. I don't even remember who won but the Rockets were terrible then so probably the Lakers. My dad was a basketball fan and wanted to see the Lakers but I became a Rockets' fan.

 

The championship years is when the Rockets first got on my radar. I was only 7 in 1994, so I wasn't exactly a huge fan. I just wanted them to win.

The 1999-2000 season was when I started to follow them very closely and become a devoted fan. That was such a terrible year, but for some reason that was the year where my interest spiked.

 

I was watching the Twin Towers Akeem and Sampson.

 

dream had goggles

 

1.) vague memories of twin towers when I was in elementary
2.) vague memories of drug issues or something on the Rockets
3.) some of the earliest names I remember: sleepy floyd, don chaney, robert reid, llewis lloyd

92-93 was the first season I was fully invested (about 13 yo), and I've barely missed a game since.

 

Yao era.

 

when i moved to houston in 1991. be following them every game since.

 

my god, I feel old.



two words.....Hofheinz Pavilion

and I patterned my game as a youth after Rudy T

 

Literally born and raised a Rocket fan. My dad LOVED basketball (played in high school and college) and was one of the first people to get season tickets when they moved here from San Diego.

He tells me he used to take me to games at the Astro Arena and Hofheinz Pavilion before they built the Summit, but I don't remember. But I DO remember going to games when they first built the Summit. I still remember the song from the video they used to play before games that showed pictures of all the events there. Still remember parking underground and that long walk through the tunnel to get to the escalators.

 

Basketball was the first sport I liked and followed. My earliest memories center around Clyde Drexler and the Portland Trail Blazers. Not sure why living in Michigan my whole life but I started rooting for Clyde and Portland. I barely remember the 90 NBA Finals they lost to Detroit but I was only 7 at the time. I remember the following season when they lost in the Western Conference Finals to the Lakers with Magic throwing the ball in the air to cement the victory.

Once Clyde was traded to the Rockets I was still young enough that I had no real allegance to Portland so I followed Clyde to Houston. My earliest memory is the near halfcourt shot he hit in one of his first games as a Rocket to win the game. I quickly shifted favorite players from Clyde to Hakeem and by the time Drexler retired I had enough invested in the Rockets that they remained my favorite team.

 

I was born in '89, my first Rockets memory was celebrating the first title and going to the championship parade. Moved to Ohio in 2000, and still watch about 75+ games a year and go to at least 2 a year. Olajuwon is a God to me.