As a lifelong Houstonian, I've seen owners in all sports come and go over the tears....freudian slip there. (years) Anyway, now that we've reached critical mass, I thought a thread for your thoughts on Les would be appropriate. So much blame is affixed to Morey and Lurch ....It's misdirected as far as I'm concerned. Yes, the Rockets were under his stewardship when we finally won our two titles. I give him obligatory kudos for inheriting a helluva team...then greenlighting the tweaking. Unfortunately, Alexander's modus operandi was revealed in those early years......all about the $$$..... Just one example is the way he held Rockets fans hostage during the last third of Yao's career....while establishing and taking in the dollars from business contacts in China......He left this franchise stagnant while he laid the foundation for MORE $$$$$$$...ignored the product, because he could get away with it....plausible deniability. Les Alexander just wants to put fannies in the seats ...and it's become clear over time that he has more in common with Drayton than I would have ever imagined so long ago. As Uncle had Gerry, Les has Morey ...and without these brilliant GM's, these owners wouldn't have been able to get away with all the shenanigans. That's not even my 2 cents, but I'll leave the rest to you all.
I think at least half of the league's owners are clearly worse and you can make a case Les is in the top 1/3 of the owners. Les is seriously underrated as an owner around here. Starts looking around the league and you'll see what I'm talking about.
He's been out of the first round of the playoffs once in like 15 years. That pretty much sucks and that's his record. So yeah, he talks a good game, his people talk a good game but the bottom line is this franchise has sucked for a long ass time. It's called reality.
I respect him for sticking to his ethics and not tanking .... But I think he's crazy for not realizing and taking advantage of the fact that the rules reward poor business decisions and operation , unlike any other form of business. Ethically , Im against tanking .... But Its difficult not to take advantage of the opportunity.
Despite any feelings you may have for the hiring of Morey, or the job Morey has done, I don't think any case can be made that it was not a risky move that was motivated by the desire to compete and the desire to be innovative. From what I understand, Les has also spent a lot on staff and technology to support Morey and the advancement of technology in basketball... Most recently with the cameras at the Toyota Center that track player movement. People make mistakes, and you can argue the strategy over the past three years was a mistake. That doesn't mean it wasn't a bold move with noble intentions. JVG just mentioned in a recent article how proud he was of this organization for refusing to tank. If anything, the Rockets should keep this plan and the NBA should change. In the end, tanking sucks and hurts the NBA.
Leslie is like most owners and unfortunately has never in his tenure as owner let the Rockets properly rebuild. It was always making the big splash when Olajuwon & then Drexler were here. We were lucky Rudy was our coach in 2000-2002 and we had iso ball to give us Yao. Although he is willing to pay, it seems during the Yao & Tracy years he was cheap and not willing to get a proper team around them. The biggest mistake he made was milk Yao for all he was worth! He just stubbornly refused to let go of the fact Yao was never going to be the franchise player after 2009 playoffs. Now he's desperately for another guy to bring in revenue, instead of trying to have the best team possible on the court. Having CD & Morey as general managers didn't help much either so can't totally blame Leslie. I will take the previous owner and Patterson as a GM anyday of the week over the midget devil and his wizard.
Furthermore.... Why the F have I not heard even a fraction of the b****ing about NBA rules and policy??? Everyone blames Les for refusing to suck??? The NBA needs to fix this problem, not us.
I think Les Alexander wants to win at the gate, but wants to make money more than he wants to win, and as such all of his decisions are based upon the bottom line first and talent 2nd. Therefore, I don't think we will ever win another championship until he sells the team.
The rules are the rules. Don't give me this honor in losing BS. If you don't like the rules then try to change them or sell the damn team. This team hasn't made the playoffs in 3 years. That is the definition of sucking. Half the damn league makes the playoffs. All we hear are excuses, if we were an Eastern Conference team, if our 7'5" center didn't have foot problems (like nobody saw that coming), if our mentally and physically fragile superstar TMac hadn't gotten hurt (like nobody saw that coming), then we'd be champs. Whatever.
cheap owner who only cares about $$$ over winning. would rather his team struggle to make the playoffs with above average role players to keep fans in the stands and follow some bull**** ethics code rather than do the logical thing and tank.
Man that really pissed me off when he got drexler. After that his string of lame ass acquisitions like barkley,glen rice,pippen,mutombo,francis,mcgrady, artest,kmart.. those guys were/are bums. He never really wants to go for it. Also hate le$ for breaking yaos foot and mcgradys knee. Some teams are fortunate to get players that play many years like kobe or camby or garnett.. in our case it was completely le$ fault and even though mcgrady is just now 33 in 2012 and yao is just now 31 it is completely le$ fault.
