You Hakeem-bashers are mean-spirited people and hypocrites (long)!

Nice post. From what I hear there are interviews with people on TV explaing how Hakeen sucks, etc. Hakeem will help the Raptors and the Rockets will be better if in the long run (a few years of mediocrity are better than one decent year and a bunch of crappy ones). It's probably better for both parties, yet it still feels sad.

 

My postion on this is simple. I think the world of Hakeem as a basketball player. I think less of him as a man of character. While I don't think he is anywhere near the level of Quitten there are some similarities to their exit and that is precisely why Hakeem has dropped a level in my estimation.

In the case of Quitten he whined about the system, his teamates and generally everything else. The Rockets made a commitment to change the offense to suit Quitten. They made the deal for Francis and persuaded Anderson to sign all for the express purpose of building a team and using a system where Quitten could be comfortable. Quitten, for whatever reason he had in his twisted little brain, worked to sabotage all of that effort so he could go to Portland.

In the case of Hakeem, he had previously said he would retire at the end of the season. Last year was to be his final season, not just as a Rocket but in the league. He then changed his mind. No shame in that and I have no problem with it. He played poorly throughout the year and had injury and medical problems. Toward the end of the year when he got those problems corrected he became an effective player again. He openly lobbied for a trade mid-season because he was dissatisfied. Again I have no problem with that. Then he and the team supposedly cleared the air and got on the same page. The result was great. The Rockets closed out the season playing well. The fans and the team were all excited about the coming year. Hakeem openly lobbied in the media at the end of the year to keep the team together. The Rockets had to weigh that option against the option of trying to sign Webber. After they were able to trade up for Griffin in the draft, they decided to pursue the course Hakeem had lobbied for.

Now my problem with Hakeem is this. He lobbied to keep last year's roster intact and then made a contract demand that would prevent what he supposedly wanted. It's a fact that the Rockets could not pay what he wanted and do what he asked. When no other team offered him what he thought he was worth he simply looked for the max he could get. I have no problem with that but I do have a problem with him blowing smoke about wanting to keep last year's team together, then complaining about a "lack of respect" when the Rockets try to do what he says he wants. He should have simply told the Rockets up front he was going with the highest bidder. I don't think anyone would have blamed him or have been upset with him.

The only similarity between Olajuwon and Quitten is that they both asked the franchise to accomodate a supposed desire and they both bailed out on what they said they wanted after the team complied with the requests. Other than that, no similarity at all.

Hakeem is to this point the greatest Rocket ever in terms of what he brought to the team on the court, bar none. Before this last month I would have called him the greatest person to play for the Rockets period, in terms of both skill and character. Now I can't say that. I'll always be a fan of his game but my admiration for him stops there.

 

Great Post Sailor. I agree with at least 90% of what you said. I've been defending Hakeem from the one-sided arguments people make against him without looking at his side etc.

But I do have a couple slight disagreements with you on Hakeem being totally blameless.

Hakeem's initial salary demand was unreasonable. Hakeem isn't greedy per se, but he does seem to equate money with how much the team wanted him. I think somewhere his pride or ego got in the way.

The main thing that bothers me is that he stopped the Rockets from making any further offers. The Rockets were definitely cheap skates early on, but had the process gone on, something very respectable might have been offered.

I don't think either side is blameless.

But the bias against Hakeem is unfair, disgusting, and wrong. I hope it's only people's emotions, and that things will eventually calm down.

 

For a healthy Hakeem, yes -- 6-7 million is very reasonable.

However, the Rockets were looking at an old, often injured player. With poor payroll decisions from before (Matt Maloney, Cato) still hanging around their necks, they couldn't afford to take the chance that Hakeem might get hurt.

It's not like we had a backup even of Loren Woods' caliber or potential...we have Cato, Collier, and possibly Axel Dench at this point. The management would have been irresponsible in their duty to the fans if they took a flyer on Hakeem staying healthy in this situation.

 

and if we knew Hakeem wanted out, I bet CD would of taken a look at Lorren Woods instead of T. Morris in the 2nd round, to fill the hole at center. Even last week, Orlando basically gave away Brendan Hawood for nothing. hakeem was about a month to late, anouncing his plans.

 

sailor: With all due respect "You Rocket-bashers are mean-spirited people and hypocrites".

Hakeem is no more or less to blame than the Rockets. The Rockets did what they could and Dream did what he thought was best. End of story.

To blame one side or the other is pointless.

 

Jeff: I'm not sure sailor was taking one side or another. I think his argument lays out why those Dream-haters should wake up. I agree with you that no one wins or loses in this situation, but I don't think he was Rocket-bashing either.

 

Although I love the Dream (hence my name), I would have to say that Dream did do a few things to hurt the Rockets. First, by signing a three year contract with the Raptors he is implying we do not have the pieces in place to contend within that time. He is flat out saying they are better than us. This has got to affect our players confidence. Second, with Dan Fegan as his agent also representing Moochie and Shandon, what kind of impression does this leave on them? Instead of focusing on the Team concept, he is saying get as much money as you can. This will definately effect our negotiations with our own players. A characteristic of a great team is shown when players take less money for the good of the team, especially someone as well off as Hakeem. Of course we could have given Hakeem more money, but then we would not even be able to bring back the same team as the year before. That is not moving forward it is moving backwards. Third, I dont want to hear anyone say we are better off without him because as of right now we have no starting center. Kelvin Cato is not ready!! Any of the centers on the market right now would not compensate for our loss of Hakeem. Therefore this was not a mutual benefiting seperation. This was good for Hakeem and bad for the Rockets. He has left our team in disarray. Im sure we will probably be alright, but this is no behavior from a leader, the greatest leader this team has ever known.

 

I'm not arguing with you about what Olajuwon meant to the Rockets and he will always go down (whether he likes it or not) as the greatest Rocket player ever. However, for someone who is supposed to be so classy, he flat-out showed his true colors. He makes the comment that the Rockets shouldn't try to go after Webber and keep last year's team together. I think he even said that the Rockets could go deep in the playoffs and make the finals. Then he does this number. He knew all along he wasn't coming back and he just wanted to screw the Rockets. Olajuwon was never happy when the torch passed from him to Steve Francis--he reluctantly passed that torch. If the man could have played a full season just once and produced in the last couple of seasons, then maybe he would have gotten his money. (however, an injured, even dead Olajuwon, is better than Cato.) For him to think that he could get the money he was making before, then he is definitely living in a dream world. No wonder they call him the Dream!!

 

Beautiful and truthful post Sailor.

Come on Jeff- The Rockets could have given Hakeem more than 5 million. They did NOT do all they could.

 

ZRB,

If the Rockets had gone by, and they did, Hakeem's master plan of bringing back all the team's free agents, since "the team they have can compete now", then no, they couldn't have offered him more money.

Sure, maybe they could have offered him a measly, in Hakeem's and Fegan's eyes, 900K more or so, but I doubt it would have made a difference.

He sees Macullough and others getting ridiculous amounts of money, and Fegan creates a perception in his mind of disrespect on the part of the Rockets with regards to their contract offers compared to other lucrative deals being thrown around this summer to big men of similar or lesser talent than he.

In the end, it was Hakeem's ignorance of the salary cap and hiring someone like Fegan that led to Dream's departure from Houston.

One can only wonder if his mind was made up a long time ago, and hiring an agent that would force the Rocket's to let him go was planned, to make the transition to another team smoother, with no one left pointing fingers at one another in the end.

 

I'm a meanie!!

 

I love the way that Hakeem "supporters" are allowed to use pejoratives, generally act insulting, and make "one-sided" arguments while still accusing people who support the Rockets as an organization of simply being "emotional."

If nothing else, why not trust Jeff's assertion that Dream really was delusional about his role? He's in a position to know, at least, and not many of us are.

In fact, don't you find it the slightest bit suspicious that all of the guys on clutchcity.net who are in a position to know inside information say that Hakeem was't a saint, or even correct, in this dispute?

Strange that Doc Rocket has been so emphatically unavailable...

 

ZRB: Reconcile for me why it is that Hakeem was adamant about bringing back this group of players but, at the same time, made it clear that it had to happen under his terms of being paid X amount. How is the team creating the problem if they are doing essentially what Dream wanted but are unable to fulfill those wishes because his salary demands run counter to his original statement?

I'm not blaming Dream either. The guy wants to play for another contender before he retires and the Rockets are a couple of years off. The two share the responsibility for his going to Toronto.

 

It's amazing how people rip into Rockets management and then praise Dream when they did THE SAME THING! It's crazy, when people question Dream become come to his defense and say "Well he is just trying to get the best deal, he is a business man", but can't you say the same thing about the Rockets? Aren't they just business people looking for the best deal? And this is going to get so old, we're going to hear people complain about this all year, especially when the Rockets lose a game. And it's going to get worse when the Rockets play teams with big men. As much as people want to solely blame Rockets management, or Rudy T, or Mo, or Shandon, or Francis, or Mobley, or who else people are going to want to blame, it's possible that Dream takes some of the blame. If you want to talk about <b>hypocrite</b> ask why Dream wanted to keep the team together, and then asked for so much money they would have probably had to lose Shandon and potentially our starting PF in Mo just to keep him!

 

That's not true, your first paragraph in the post BLAMED the Rockets:


<b>1. The Rockets did everything they could to keep Hakeem.

This is absolutely false. Remember, the Rockets initially offered him 4.1 mil for a year. This is an insult in today's NBA market for a guy like Hakeem, that is less than the exception, and likely less than what they will be willing to pay Shandon Anderson and Mo Taylor. Then they reluctantly upped their offer to 10.2 mil for two years, and eventually 13 mil over three years. But as you can see here, average per year salary has not increased much (actually decreased), how can they say they are " desperate to keep Hakeem" with a straight face? I have read the Chronicle articles too, and they are telling us that the Rockets tried to do everything they could to try to keep Hakeem in town. But I seriously suspect that these writers (Feigen, Lopez) are bought out by the Rockets, or they are afraid of offending the Rockets so they won't get their scoops in the future. Do not judge people by what they say, judge them by what they do. The truth is, the Rockets are unwilling to pay the fair market value to keep Hakeem, and they were already committed to keeping Mo Taylor, Shandon Anderson and Moochie Norris going into the negotiation. They had the money, remember, they just didn't want to use it on Dream. The last offer they made, basically it's like "take it or leave it".
</b>

Maybe they DID give him fair market value, nobody else offered that much money, Toronto really only slightly more, and if Houston had offered a little bit more it would have cost us several starters. Other then Toronto, who else offered Dream huge dollars?

 

If Hakeem was how he was 7 years ago he'd be a 20 million dollar player. He'd be every bit as good and better then players like Malone, KG, Shaq and Duncan.

Have any of you really seen the Rockets without Dream? Rockets are Hakeem's team and Hakeem is the Rockets. I never saw a Rocket team which didn't have Hakeem on the roster. I don't wanna watch this 'flashy, new, young and exciting' team. Not if I see Hakeem playing against them.

 

Then we can assume you are not a Rockets fan but rather a Hakeem fan, correct? There's nothing wrong with that, but it would be inconsistent to describe yourself as a fan of a <i>team</i> but reverse your loyalty when a player leaves.