Brief excerpt: In his own job interview, Morey was reassured by Alexander’s social fearlessness, and the spirit in which he operated. “He asked me, ‘What religion are you?’ I remember thinking, I don’t think you’re supposed to ask me that. I answered it vaguely, and I think I was saying my family were Episcopalians and Lutherans when he stops me and says, ‘Just tell me you don’t believe any of that s***.’” Les is my hero!
'I'm not in charge, but I have the ear of the guy that's in charge. I kind of hope that continues?' It sounds like he's been humbled, but hasn't stopped doing his job. This whole season screams 'This is my team'. -signed Les Alexander Les isn't stupid enough to think that you don't need a GM that gets good deals, but he's also not stupid enough to think that purely good deals win championships. That's why we went and got Harden's deal secured, why MDmA is our coach, and why DMo isn't locked into his deal yet. Les is shrewd and spending HIS money on what wins games in a shrewd Houston style way. It's not about being the most well liked organization in sports. We're Houston, not some naturally well liked institution by Hollywood or NY. We're like the Longhorns, we win it all when we deserve it and we'll never win when it's actually disputed. (And never ever think our championships are disputed because Jordan retired. He was in the league in 95 and the Bulls always had trouble handling our Rockets, only Seattle had our number and they were out of the playoffs early both times we won.)
Great read, thanks. But I'm pretty sure I read most of it a while back. Can it be a recycled article?
Yeah, it was published on December 6th by Slate and SamFisher posted it on a separate thread, but that thread was drowned in the sea of DMo nothingness that this board has become...
No, I was talking months back, even a year. At least Morey's stuff about draft interviews. Anyway it's a great read and worth a thread
Rockets certainly aren't that. Every chip comes with a caveat, the Rockets/Jordan angle is a sure sign of a lazy or casual fan. The hatred, the unmitigated bashing of the last few years...I get it, we were the black flag team with harden, Howard, smith, etc...but I really honestly think it hit a tipping point where they were literally labeled as villains and everybody kinda took a deep breath and said you know what? They're just basketball players. Harden gets fouled. Yes, he baits players into it but that just doesn't mean it's not a foul. All the players throwing fits about his arm under move lol....Jesus Christ! Play defense with your hands up like you're supposed to. Haven't you heard about James' craftiness? If you are constantly hand checking him he's getting 3 free throws out of it. The irony of it too, with how much crap Harden catches for not playing defense....but if you don't play technically sound defense against him he makes you pay. Either by scoring or drawing fouls. With this new look, Harden going bananas and the full on embrace of the layups/3s philosophy...I really do believe we're getting another chip soon. It's only a matter of time to me before the on court brilliance and the analytics hit just right. And all the main cogs kinda have the same story...doing what they do, even under scrutiny. Les, Morey, MDA, Harden....
It's all from Michael Lewis' (Liars' poker, Moneyball, Big Short etc) latest book on behavioural economics. He's been doing the rounds for the last half year or so.
