Obviously on a basketball level, nobody outside of a Lebron hater would say they don't want him here. That's not what this thread is about. There is lots of talk about the whole mercenary angle, superfriends, ring chasing, etc. Whatever you want to call it. As a fan, how would you feel about that kind of talk if Lebron shocked the world, left Miami and joined Houston make a run a title. If the Rockets won a title (or multiple) with that core, would it feel tainted at all to you?
I'd want him here and I'd feel even better about winning because we would be one of the most impactful championship stories in history.
It's like having a Magic Johnson in his prime coming to join forces with a young Clyde Drexler and Hakeem without much of an offensive game. Yea I'd take that.
LeBron's decision as the best player in the world after coming off of four straight Finals appearances with Miami to jettison his talents to a new team and continues to win would be a story for the ages, and possibly set a new precedent for top class NBA players in similar situations in the future. In addition to that, we could be in the conversation for greatest team of all time.
I don't for one second believe that anyone here - who is an actual Rockets fan (you know who I'm talking about) - would be less than ecstatic if we won a championship with LeBron.
I'm a genuine Rockets fan and I'd feel a little less enthusiastic about it. I mean, I think I would. I don't really know right now.
I have no problem with LeBron at all. Would love him on the Rockets and yes would love to see the Rockets win the championship.
I don't think I would feel that tained because we worked hard to get in a position where we were able to trade for Harden and sign Dwight (who, at the time of his signing, didn't know Lebron would come 1 year later). If, on the other hand, we have an existing team of players that we "cleared out" so that Lebron, KD, and CP3 could use us as a landing spot for their coordinated FA signings, then yes, I would feel tainted. This is more akin to the Heat 2010 situation (albeit Wade was previously on that team).
I don't know you, but I think you'd get over your issues pretty quickly if confetti was falling from the ceiling of the Toyota Center and LeBron, Harden, and Howard were posing with the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
Who cares? A title is a title. 10 years down the line, the story line will be about the Houston Rockets 3 peat in2014/2015, 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 and not about anything else. The only other story would be that the Houston Rockets were home to the greatest ever center and greatest ever SF in their primes.
I will feel great if Lebron wants to join the rockets, but he is likely not going to join us. So let wait for Durant when he is available, or get Melo this year, I would be very happy for anyone of them to be the rockets.
I can see the tainted point of view if we had a Miami Heat situation where 3 stars planned to come together, but this would be different. Morey gave up the farm for Harden, and it panned out. He attracted Dwight, who came here as the first star to ever walk away from the Lakers. If Lebron came here and won multiple titles, it would all come back to Morey striking gold with OKC being cheap.
Would that be the story though? That's not the story on the Rockets repeat in the 90s. We hate it here, but most national people will continually point out that the Rockets won those titles "because Michael played baseball" or some other version of that line. It drives me nuts and I wish we could go back in time and let Michael's Bulls be one of the teams we beat. Would the story on a Lebron 3 peat be "Yeah, they won those titles, but only because Lebron was hopping from team to team to win a title with whoever was the best set of players when he was a free agent." How would we feel about it all if Lebron came here, won say two titles and then moved on to another team after 3 years and won a title there too.
If Morey got LeBron to come the Houston they could just go ahead and start construction on the Morey statue, or better yet, they could just rename the stadium the Daryl Morey center.