I haven’t watched a Rockets’ playoff game live in 4 years. If we win, I watch. If we lose, I don’t. Because refs. Anyone who questions my passion for this team doesn’t know me. Anyone who doesn’t understand why I do it the way I do it, I question their rationality. **** the NBA.
refs / silver / and nba twitter hate the rockets because it's too many darkskin black men on the team. need more white guys that the nba fan can relate to and more lightskin players that are not as threatening as the darkskin players.
Do the elevator test: if a twelve-year-old white boy would be afraid to be in an elevator alone with the player, don't hire him. Also, if your white wife wonders what it's like to be with that big beast, don't hire him.
Privilege is real and Golden State sure gets a lot of it... and they sure are of lighter complexion overall than our squad... hmmm
Sadly, this is true. SpaceMoth made the same point 2 years ago, when the Cavs managed to come back and beat a clearly better GS team in the finals. It was b/c the league realized it wouldn't look good to reward GS after Green punched and kicked every opponents' nuts off the floor. Paul can be a role model, but Harden so far has been too aloof for the league. Apologies for this analogy, but Harden has been a little like 90s Karl Malone. His personality still isn't selling. When the Jazz played Jordan, was there even a sliver of doubt that Jordan would win?
Very well said my Rockets brethren. I will never look at the nba the same way. I emailed my NBA league pass subscription cancellation last night after the game. Very proud of how our team fought, but with the referees against us it was too much to overcome!
I tried to do this too. But it didn't work. When I saw my kids crying this morning it reminded me of the way I was when I was their age. 81/86 Rockets, 83 cougars. Heartbroken rather than angry. A little bit of joy exited the world last night, at least my world. As you get older you realize how ephemeral this stuff is.
But Kerr said we would be done in 5 if he had Iggy healthy.... and Kerr is the greatest coach ever...
I don't think it's completely "scripted". I believe the players on every team are trying to win, and it's impossible to completely script things unless the players and coaches are in on it too. That's just logistically impossible. A secret of that magnitude wouldn't be kept for this long. What I definitely believe is that the league nudges refs to favor one team that they want to win in certain situations. Basically they instruct the refs to give a team as many calls or no-calls as they can possibly get away with... most of all to extend a popular series to more games, for more TV revenue. So I think the fix is in, but in theory it would be possible for a team to overcome that obstacle through sheer force of will. Our Rockets, and the Kings, both came reasonably close to doing that, but neither could quite overcome playing 5 vs 8. EDIT: Oh, and as I've said in another thread, for better or wrose, I'm not that broken up about this. Mostly because previous scandals have already left me mostly not caring about the NBA. I still love this team, and this forum. But I can't seem to get that worked up over the fact that we lost a rigged game. And it sounds like a few other folks in this thread will be joining me in that thinking. Welcome to the "the refs ruined the league for me" club.
yes, Fck the nba, it's just a r****ded business. No point in watching this pos really. I am not going to watch 1 game of the finals.
I was only 9 in 1993... and there was no Internet... so what happened in that Sonics series? I just remember that Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton owned us.
5 vs 8 Fran Fraschilla @franfraschilla Nope, once the refs got up double figures, Rockets couldn't make a shot. Can't beat 4 superstars and 3 refs
My brother does the same thing, can't take the stress if watching NBA games so he'll watch a replay if they win
We won our division that year and was given the #2 seed but the Sonics had the same record as us and won the tiebreaker by beating us 3 games to 1 in the regular season. So despite them being the #3 seed (Phoenix with Barkley was the #1 seed), they had the HC advantage if we played in the 2nd round which we did. This was back in the day when you could not play zone but George Karl and the Sonics led by Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton (both obnoxious to the nth degree) played this swarming defense that really looked like a zone type defense (or matchup zone) but they did such a good job of "disguising' it, that they rarely got called for it. However, it gave us fits because as great as Olajuwon was, he had no one who could help him score in the low block when they swarmed him. There was a period of time where the Sonics were just a matchup nightmare for our guys. Any way, in that series, the home team won every game as Seattle's HC advantage was very strong. So going into Game 7, we had to beat them at their place and they beat us in frigging overtime! Everybody pretty much felt that if the Rockets had won just one more game and had the HC advantage, we would have gotten the chance to play the Suns in the WCF. We were helped by the 8 seeded Nuggets in the next season when they knocked off the Sonics in the first round. With them out of the way, there was no one that could really stop us from making the finals. In '95, the Sonics were there but they were in a different bracket as they had injuries and we once again were able to avoid them. However in '96, after we beat the Lakers and ended Magic Johnson's comeback in the first round, we were swept in the 2nd round by the Sonics. This was the reason why we went after Barkley - he was our Sonics killer. Granted, it cost us Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, and several other guys but I remembered being so happy that we got Barkley because he could give Hakeem that 2nd guy in the low block to score when the Sonics double and triple teamed him in the post. Sure enough, we had to play the Sonics in the 2nd round in '97 and finally beat them thanks to Barkley. Of course that year ended with the game 6 of the WCF fiasco where Malone bearhugged Drexler and Stockton hit that damn 3 (but that is a story for another time). By 1998, both of the main players for both franchises were getting older and not as effective and that would be the last year that the Sonics ever won more than 50 games. They became mediocre as did we (*shiver*...the Steve Francis years...*shiver*) and then of course they moved out of Seattle to OKC after the '08 season. But yea, old timers will tell you that the Sonics were the Rockets' achilles heel for many seasons - well before the Jazz or Warriors.
