Yeah, watching all these Hakeem highlights videos in the GARM lately (a pleasant side effect of no current basketball) really makes me miss it. Defenders actually tried to directly stop the ball getting to the hoop. Now, it's more about manipulating the rules to negate the success of the ball handler. "Being smart" and "taking a charge" will never be as fun or as magical as erasing an actual shot like Dream and so many others did.
Also the uniforms were amazing. If you win two titles in a row, you shouldn't change the uniforms or team logo or team color @Air Yordan
I won't lie. The only basketball jersey I own is a blue Drexler jersey from right when they came out. I hit that brief phase of childhood where I thought it'd be cool to own a basketball jersey right after they won the championships. Also, the Aeros had just come (back) to Houston, and I fell in love with hockey instantly. So, I probably was more forgiving of the rocket with the teeth on it on the new Rockets jerseys. But looking back, nah, not a good look. The championship logos are clean, and they pop. Of course, the Astros also went to navy blue around the same time. I liked that open star logo, and I still do (I did not like the subsequent red iteration of it.) But going back to the original orange star REALLY shows how much color matters for identity and how simplicity is often better than complexity for logo design. So glad the Astros finally won under proper Astros orange. Really wish the Rockets would go back to ketchup and mustard. Leave the navy blues in the northeast. Psst, Texans: you have the same colors as the Patriots, and they're dull and boring to boot. Maybe, once you're done gutting the team with the BOB experiment over the next decade and have realized the futility of trying to be Patriots Lite, ditch their colors as well, and bring back some bright, distinct colors to Houston football.
I made some player comparisons to our team now: House is like our version of Elie now. Undrafted, feiry, slow release, athletic. Can be clutch sometimes. Covington is Horry, shoots threes, blocks shots, slashes. Westbrook is Drexler, athletic, can drive to the basket. Harden is kinda like our Hakeem now, incredible footwork and shotmaking, gets double teamed a lot.
Goodness, this tread is like doing the prom queen your junior and senior year in high school and still talking about 25 years later. Move on everything and everyone else has. Lots of life since.
Thanks for sharing. Great vids Amazing what it looks like when we play as a TEAM. Everyone knows their roles. Everyone hustles on D and plays off each other. no need for forced shots or 1 on 1 play. We mostly ran similar plays over and over and the Magic coudnt stop us
They all played well for their roles though Jones was an enforcer who came in and played good and got some rebounds It just shows you that team chemistry, right guys is more important than just raw talent
Dream at the peak of his powers was just phenomenal. A juggernaut that carried the heaviest load at both ends, in the brightest of lights and delivered. He appeared as soft-spoken and chill like Thomas the Tank Engine. Really he was an apex predator in a Rockets jersey.
Whoever the guy was in our analytic department that drew up a Robert Horry post play as the first play of OT was killed. I just want to reassure everyone of that. It set the analytic program back years. All that said, Robert Horry took like 80% of the OT shots, which is crazy.
