I was hangin' in the Village in NYC today and was watching some good bball at the West 4th Street Playground, aka THE CAGE. There were a bunch of people just hangin' out there talking hoops and I got into a conversation with a few of the locals. Without even telling them where I was from (Houston), or that I'm a Rockets fan, they ALL thought that the Rockets had an excellent chance of winning it all this year! They especially liked Bobby Sura's defense, and they kept praising our coach for some reason... . They also thought we had the best chance in the NBA of beating the Spurs! I guess it's natural to be overly critical of our hometown team, but it's nice to know how respected the Rockets are outside of Houston.
Anybody with some basketball knowledge and saw Rockets played should agreed that Houston Rockes are a contender to win it all this year.
It's also nice to know that some people think Sura is actually a good defender. Hope the Mavericks get that scouting report.
For some reason, few analysts seem to give us any respect. It was nice to see the Clippers announcer buck that trend last night. He was uncommonly up-to-date on what the Rockets have been doing ... as opposed to so many other 'professionals' that seem stuck in the first 20 games of the season (... how many times did you hear on League Pass that we can't score? )
that is becuase mainstream announcers like easy/safe picks (so they don't look foolish). Everyone was bashing the Sonics per-season, but once they locked into 3rd, all the annoucers piled on. They don't watch games, they watch highlights and look at the standings - they have no idea about how well the Rockets play night in and night out that being said... one criticism that stands out as correct is the inconsistency - the Spurs lose Duncan and still win, we lose Yao and can't beat the Hornets
so many analysts are nothing more than sheep all herding around the same popular oppinion not carring to have an origanal thought. They tend to like the comfort of sticking with the popular theory rather than making there own analys for fear that they might be the only ones to be wrong. It's obvious that the Rockets are not the same team that they were at the beginning of the season or even the last few years but many analysts still make the same old comments about the team with out acknowedging the type of team they are now.
Mainstream announcers like the mainstream. Not a surprise. Most of these guys like Chad Ford or Marc Stein even, like the teams that score, run up and down the court. Teams with "sizzle". The Rockets are more deliberate with their play. They are not a team full of stars but more are a team where the whole is greater than the individual parts. We have two stars and a bunch of gritty role players. But the media ususually doesnt take into account the gritty role players but rather just looks at how many scorers a team has, how many stars they have, how flashy they are, yadda, yadda, yadda.
