RedNation discusses who are the top 5 rival teams of the Rockets Can't find the link anywhere else except facebook, so here it is. https://www.facebook.com/houstonrockets/videos/10153883957447320/ 1. Utah Jazz 2. Dallas Mavs 3. San Antonio Spurs 4. LA Lakers 5. Sonics/Thunder
Well I mean...I respect them more than say, the Clippers. So my personal list would be the exact same just replace spurs with the clips. Don't know about about everybody else though! EDIT: spurs can be sixth on my list. Just because they are in Texas
This is something that can change over time. The Sloan-Malone-Stockton j*zz are #1, but Cuban and the Mavs are #1 now that those above guys are out of the league in every way. Cuban will stick around long after Dirk retires. The Mavs weren't even a concern back in the 90s as far as basketball. It was Jazz, Spurs, Sonics, Suns. I suppose the constant is the fans, but i hate fans of every team, hell, even a lot of Rockets fans make me cringe. I don't ever even think of the Jazz anymore ever since Sloan was done. Even if they become good again, it might be an entertaining team with respectful rivalry against us. Who knows? I personally never hated the Suns and Sonics, i enjoyed their teams and the rivalry. The Jazz were dirty. The Mavs and Spurs have the Texas rivalry but Cuban is a whiny, **** talking b****, so of course i hate the Mavs more than anything and Houston vs Dallas is bigger than just basketball where as San Antonio is nothing outside of the Spurs. Lakers i think we hate because we know most of their fans are fake and they are so cocky and talk non stop noise about their history which is mostly purchased and not earned. Thunder-Texas vs Oklahoma rivalry goes beyond basketball. For a minute there, i thought the Blazers would be our new rivals, but that is just how it goes with any battles in the post season. You hate the opponents fans first and then the players after they start throwing verbal jabs here and there.
Lakers/Clippers are just phony fans to me. It's the same thing. It's Los Angeles. It may be two different organizations, but they share fans. **** LA fans.
Spurs are not a rival anymore. They have surpassed our organization. We are back as the laughing stock of the NBA in Texas. Our rivals now are just the mediocre teams playoff teams. Utah could still be considered a rival because as terrible as they are we still have issues playing against them. Thanks Morey.
I hated Boozer, Okur, AK 47 and Deron j*zz more than Malone and Stockton. And I'm not sure why, but I always like the Dallas Pony. Yeah Cuban is a b**** and I still dislike JET even thou he is in our team now. But Dirk and Kidd are always class act for me.
Watching the OP's video now.... Rockets are undefeated vs the Spurs in the playoffs 3-0 Never knew that!! I already KNOW one series was without HCA ('95) and probably another one ('81). Undefeated.... new bullet when talking to SA fans _______________________ How long has this been your opinion, 99er? It's arguable the Spurs "surpassed" the Rockets in '03. They equaled Houstun's championship tally, plus SA has always boasted a muuuch better franchise winning%. Spurs have been up there with (maybe better than) the Lakers and Celtics (the Two Undisputed Greatest NBA Franchises) in franchise winning% for over a decade. Now, I'm not saying nor do I believe the Spurs "surpassed" the Rockets in '03 due to other factors -- just using this poster's logic on "surpassing" equaling "not a rival". How long have the Spurs not been a rival, sir?
I hate them all, but have a special place in the darkest reaches of my soul for Utah Jazz & more recently, the Mavs. The Spurs Rivalry goes way back 90's & has become a decent Rivarly. I hate Curry & GSW, for the same reason I couldn't stand Jordan...both masters of their art, but over saturated media hyped to nauseous level untouchables. Go Rockets.
I'm with you on gsw. I've hated them since they intentionally fouled us to prevent us from getting the 3pt record. While the spurs are a phenomenal organization, their implementation of hacking is bush league and complete cowardice. Just play the game, play basketball... If youre so good then let it show. It's cowardice, so yeah I don't like them anymore. For me, Mavs Gsw Spurs Thunder Lakers Jazz
For me, Spurs are not rivals. They are a tier above and we are no competition to them. Same with GSW. A nice little rivalry was developing when both teams had **** coaches in Mark Jackson (horrible) and Kevin McFail (worst) but then GSW just hired Kerr and pulled away. So Rockets rivals for me would be those on the same tier and same playing field. 1. Mavs - Cuban, Parsons, Captain Jackass, I-45, just the whole thing 2. Clippers - Cp3 and Blake have the potential to be the Stockton-Malone rivalry of the 90's 3. J!zz because of our history
That is exactly how I would have ranked them. The Clippers are beneath our notice, frankly. They're an easy team to hate but there's no history there and there's nothing that would hold the rivalry together once Paul and Griffin split up in a couple years.
I wonder where we rank on other teams lists... I know most Mavs fans hate SA more because of the early 2000's. Everyone calls the Lakers a rival, but not sure who the lakers would consider rivals (other than Boston). OKC probably still hates us over the harden deal, but that was a long time ago and tensions have sort of died down I think.
You kinda answered this yourself. They've been the better team and title contenders since 98/99 now, winning 5 championships during that time span, while Rockets have been in the mediocrity treadmill in all but last season and winning absolutely nothing. At one point during those years you clearly have to admit that they made a giant leap ahead of us and that we're not rivals anymore. Spurs at this point are what our front office can only dream of achieving.