What side would you have been on when Management accused Hakeem of Faking Injury

they did. and they won. the end.

 

we were talking about stretch between 87 and 92.

One playoff series won
Four eliminations in the first round
One lottery

Is it contending?

The end.

 

it's look like Vince Carter's stretch, not Hakeem's

 

Somebody forgot to tell this dude about Ralph Sampson, Lewis Lloyd and Mitch Wiggins and John Lucas.


Somebody also forgot to tell him that the same management rebuilt and won a championship.

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2006_4062974

"It was not just like many teams that you see today," Olajuwon wrote in an e-mail from Amman, Jordan. "The 1986 Rockets were a complete team, and we were not lacking at any position.

"What we might have lacked in experience, we made up for with enthusiasm and never backing down from any challenge. Nobody really thought we could beat the Lakers that year. But we did it convincingly. We knew what we had."

Big man hobbled

Sampson sat out for the first time in his career, missing three games and coming back with a limp. When he began to overcompensate for the pain in his hip, it led to the start of knee problems that would require three operations and cut short his career as an All-Star player. For the final six weeks of the regular season, Fitch closed practice to the media to keep a lid on the extent of the injury.

"It was hard thing to see," Fitch said. "A lot of days, he could barely run, and he couldn't do anything to stop Dream defensively."

"I was never the same from the time I went down in Boston," Sampson said. "It was like I couldn't play my game."

The Rockets started the next season 2-0 but then struggled. On the morning of Jan. 13, 1987 they were 15-18 when word came down that Lloyd and Wiggins had failed drug tests and been suspended by the league.

"I'll never forget. The night before that test, I was in the Summit and Wiggins was there shooting," Fitch said. "The news then was that Micheal Ray Richardson had flunked a drug test with a huge quantity in his system. Wig looked at me and said, `Don't worry about a thing, Coach. I'm clean.' The very next day he broke Micheal Ray's record. He was off the charts on the test."

The would-be dynasty was coming unglued.

"It's one thing to have injuries," said McCray. "But when guys have drug problems, there's a different kind of feeling. It's a personal letdown. You feel for them. You want them to recover. But you sit back and reflect and say, `Why did they have to do that?' "

Lack of focus

Olajuwon agreed with McCray.

"I believe we really had the potential to be a dynasty," he said. "There were a lot of championships there for us. But being a dynasty doesn't just come by accident. You have to stay focused on the goal, on and off the court."

On Feb. 3, while trying to make a cut against Bill Hanzlik of Denver, Sampson slipped on a wet spot at the Summit and tore ligaments in his left knee. The injury required surgery and forced him to miss 39 games.

The Rockets finished the regular season 42-40 and lost to Seattle in the second round of the playoffs, eliminated on a night when Olajuwon scored 49 points and grabbed 25 rebounds.

Seven months later, Sampson was traded to Golden State in a deal for Joe Barry Carroll and Sleepy Floyd.

 

Just in case you wonder who is reporting this post -- maybe several people, but I'm going to as soon as I finish typing this.

Yeah tinman (and lots of other posters) can be annoying, but I think you can at least be more creative than that if you're going to go ad hominem.

 

He's just doing in it in every thread, so he gets what he deserves.

It's just a part of his trolling job

When we were talking about the reasons why T-Mac and Yao failed to win a ring, we always admit CD, bunch of scrubs as a supporting cast and we saw how some stastical dude can reconstruct the team in a heartbeat with a trade for one player from Europe and with drafting two guys with a pretty low picks. So we saw how CD should work. He didn't work that way, he lost an opportunity

But if we are talking about Hakeem's missed opportunities, we can't blame management because when didn't work well because of... sympathy and sentimentals? Come on. Dude got to use some logic. But he's an annoying troll and he gets what he deserves

 

he done got told.

 

i'm posting facts and links to articles of when it happened.

what are you doing?

 

i'm sure he didn't read it. it's just important events in Rockets history.

 

Bravo, tinman...for all of your posts in this thread.

I thought we'd get silly responses when I saw the thread title...considering what year it is. And BAM, RMT proves me prophetic

 

steve patterson was better than carrol dawson as gm, that's why.

daryl morey is also better than carrol dawson as gm. that's why.

daryl morey better than steve patterson ??? i don't know yet, but i think morey has done a good job so far. carrol dawson sucked as gm, plain and simple.

 

I remember they were very close to trading him away, but the offers that were on the table were not very appealling. The Chronicle had a list of 7 trades and the one that I thought was the closest was w/ Seattle with G.Payton, McKey and Benjamin(i think) for Hakeem. The Rox wanted S. Kemp in any deal, but Seattle said no because they wanted a "Dream and Nightmare" combo...
I put the blame on Hakeem. The team was stuck in their first round rut and H(Akeem) was frustrated. I remember before the 92-93 season, Hakeem and Charlie Thomas shook hands at the 1st practice with the media and afterwards, just ripped on each other while the other was just a few steps away. But halfway through the season, Les took over and the rest as they say, was history...Bad moment in Rockets history that could have been worse...

 

I believe the Lakers were interested in trading for Hakeem. What if Divac had been included in that trade? In 1996, where would Kobe Bryant have gone? No telling how much NBA history "wasn't" changed by the trade that wasn't.

FYI : A few things about the Hakeem vs. management battle :

1) If I recall, I think I may have sided with management, but I have no idea why. Back then I don't believe Hakeem was the angelic figure he's considered today. The players sided with Hakeem, of course, so like I said, I have no idea why I may have sided with management.

2) A Hakeem quote that rarely gets repeated, and I'm paraphrasing : "Tell Steve he's stupid. I'll sue them for everything they got!" I swear I laughed so hard when hearing that from Hakeem's mouth. It sounded like something from a 1940's gangster movie when a guy named Bugsy hops out of a vehicle with a cigar in his mouth and starts screaming those words. Yeaaaah.... seeeee???

 

At that time, we knew Hakeem was faking it, but also knew he was worth the money for the team to shell out to keep him. So there was a real ambivalence for what side to be on. It was pretty ugly for a while and there was a real fear we would be losing him.

 

I remember the Rockets had a deal on the table to ship Hakeem to Miami for Rony Seikaly.. I wonder what would have happen if the Rockets pulled that trade...

 

That's the only time I've ever called into a radio station in my life. Patterson was on the air and a couple of times he mentioned Olajuwon not honoring his contract. I called in and made the point to Patterson that Olajuwon wanted an extention to his contract and that had nothing to do with honoring his current contract. I made the comparision to Ewing who had recently signed an extension in NY and asked Patterson if he felt that Ewing had not honoring his contract because he also desired an extension. Patterson talked around things and I got faded out and they went to the next call. Overall, a pretty useless experience on my part.

 

I didnt care back then and I dont care now. I always want the best players who are contributing and noninjured to play here. I want the injury prone and bad players gone. Always have. I have the backs of players that are useful to our team and winning. Thats the honest truth. Hakeem was already regarded as the best center in the league at the time or close to the top. Why would I ever have wanted such a great player gone for any reason?

 

Based on this boards history he would have got tmaced.

 

Tmac was nothing like Olajuwon. He was constantly injured and eventually worn down on his injuries. He was the picture of injured players weighing down franchises fortunes until Yao replaced his picture in that definition.

 

People wanted Yao to get more minutes during the Larry Smith-era because he had no signs of ill health at that time and was a talented young player. Later, people wanted him to play fewer minutes because he became injury prone by then and it was evident that his body couldn't take so many minutes at that point.