That was Shaq's team, far and away. Just like Chicago was Jordan's team (not Jordan and Pippen), and Houston was Hakeem's team.
the face is Yao. but seriously i dont know another player who maintained fans and a following in a city after leaving it like francis did. (then again i havent put that much thought into it) give him a year - he might be the face again.
Gosh... with all due respect, this is one heck of a silly thread... the superstars are paid big money to win and win big, not to determine whether he will be the face of the team or whether the team should be built around him. And anyway, I think the real situation is this: T-Mac is the face of the Rockets in the US. Yao is the face of the Rockets internationally. Why do we have to have one person to be the face of the franchise? It is a team game man... a TEAM GAME! Not Yao's game or Tracy's game or Francis's game.
exactly. internationally, it's yao simply b/c yao is just HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE in china. but in america (or at least in the western hemisphere and europe), tmac is the face of the rockets. it depends on where each individual player is more popular. if u see whenever the team is on national TV, the commercials most often state tmac's rockets v. duncan's spurs or kobe's lakers and so on.... and it will stay that way until yao proves he can single-handedly lead this team to victories whenever tmac does not play. the reason those lakers were shaq's team was b/c they remained their .650 winning % w/o kobe when he didn't play. this team is like a .200 team w/o mcgrady. but we shouldn't care. tmac can't win jack w/o yao playing at his best. tmac knows that. and as fans, we shouldn't care either. but please, francis won't be the face of the franchise. maybe in houston to most of his fans.
Yao's the face because of the marketing perspective but T-Mac is #1 when it gets to the basketball court.
It really should be Yao. But because T-Mac cannot thrive, or does not know how to thrive, being the second option, hence it becomes T-mac's team. Even Kobe knew how to keep his intensity up when Shaq was the obvious 1st option, but Tmac just doesn't know how to. I think he was counted on to do too much in Orlando for too long, he never learned how to play with another superstar post player effectly in crucial developmental years. And I really hope he works on his jump shot this offseason. Also, Tmac has been the only playmaker on the team since he arrived, which puts him as our most important player on our team thus far. We'll see this year though, got MJ, and Francis now, things could change, Yao may have become our team's more irreplaceable part.
IMO, to label a team "X's team", X must be the best player on the team or have a good argument for it, and X must be the leader on the team. McGrady has a good claim to be the best player on the team. However, I believe the failure of the Rockets to beat the Jazz is a failure of McGrady's leadership ability, because he tried to carry the Rockets on the court/mentally ("It's on me"), and he failed. I'm not saying other players are blameless, the role players utterly failed, and Yao failed to dominate Okur, and these were important factors in the loss. But, leaders are judged by their results, and in this case the result was bad.
Really? Why is McGrady a better player than Yao? I made my case for the opposite earlier in this thread.
How were those Lakers Shaq's team? I don't understand. I live in L.A. and watched every game they played, including the playoffs, and without Kobe, I don't think they can win back to back to back. Hence, it does not belong to just Shaq. Don't get me wrong, I'm the tradition basketball fan that loves to watch slow and lots of contact basketball in the low post and wing players having to EARN a trip to the free throw line and I always argue that you never pass on a big man b/c wing players are interchangeable, but without Kobe, Shaq might win one title in that Laker uniform.
No sense arguing T-mac vs. yao. It is both, together. When people think of the Rockets they think T-mac and Yao. They go hand in hand. Maybe internationally it is Yao, but t-mac is also very opoular internationally as well.
have u seen our record w/o tmac? i can guarantee you that if tmac goes down this yr like in 05-06, even w/ francis, mike james, scola, we wouldn't make the playoffs.
I highly doubt that. 05-06 was...well just horrible. Did you see our record without T-mac in the 06-07 season? Not bad at all. Now we have even better players, so i highly doubt we'd be in that kind of situation. Also the question was who is the face of the franchise, and frankly T-mac isn't even guaranteed a starting role on the Allstar team this year with iverson in the west. You can't make the argument of "who's better", simply because the game today favors guards over centers. The team could have 5 guys around Yao and it would be perfectly legal.
Are you kidding me? Brooks are torching up NBDL scrubs in the summer league and you don't call him a franchise????
I think this year rox will have much better results if tmac misses some games, wells/james/francis can all help big men, including young shaq and duncan, can ca
