http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/1192789 He hits the nail on the head about the Rockets. DaDakota
The Rockets know Kelvin Cato is not the answer at center and never will be. They just won't say that out loud, because it is considered a sign of weakness to ever admit that you made a mistake. A whopping big one at that. What kind of a stupid ass statement is this? Of course the Rockets aren't going to come out and say "Well, Kelvin Cato is a mistake. He is a worthless center and he has no future with us." This makes no sense. I am sure the Rockets know that Cato is not really the future at center. But at this point, what choice do they have? Willis can't handle the load, and Collier can't seem to stay healthy. Stating that Cato is not the answer at center would accomplish exactly what? All I can think of that it would serve is to cause Cato to retreat back into his shell of no-confidence and play even worse that we have known him to play. Fran needs to realize that the Rockets organization knows more than they are saying. Just because they haven't openly stated that Cato is not our future center does not mean they don't understand that. They know it is a mistake, and the fact that they haven't openly called Cato a mistake is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of intelligence that I am now convinced Fran does not have. Get a clue, Blineberry.
For the terminally lazy among us ... Rockets can't win for losing and losing By FRAN BLINEBURY Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle LOS ANGELES -- May auld acquaintance be forgot. The sooner the better, if you don't mind. There are worse things, of course, we know than to lose 15 in a row or 17 out of 19 games. But if you're the Rockets, always hopeful about a new tomorrow, what a new sunrise seems to bring is only another chance to get burned. "I cringe every time the phone rings," said coach Rudy Tomjanovich. This time the call came late in the afternoon and this time the word was that Steve Francis was suffering from flu-like symptoms and a reoccurrence of the migraine headaches that have plagued him. That's the Rockets' season in a nutshell. One game back from a spell on the injured list with ruptured tissue in his left foot and Stevie Franchise is back on the shelf, this time sitting hunched over like a ghost on the bench in a white hood. Kenny Thomas joins him with a hip pointer. Glen Rice already has a patellar strain in his right knee, Mo Taylor is gone for the season with a torn achilles Achilles' tendon and Dan Langhi has tendinitis. When do you say it can't get any worse? "I know it always can," Tomjanovich said. A wise man. Or at least one who knows there is always room for another bruise. No Shaq, no problem The Lakers were playing without Shaquille O'Neal, which might be like seeing the Grand Canyon without the big hole in the ground. But the Lakers of Kobe Bryant and the rest were still enough. Everybody is still enough for the Rockets these days. That's the problem. They're going to stop counting player-games missed and start counting player-months missed. If Nebraska, according to many, doesn't belong in the Rose Bowl playing for the national championship, why do the Rockets even belong on the same floor with the two-time NBA champion Lakers, pretending they play in the same league? "Because you have to look at it that way," Tomjanovich said. "You have to take your licks and look around you and see what you have and then just go to it." That's the way it is in professional sports. Nobody feels sorry for you. Even when you're limping. If there are silver linings to the dark cloud that has been following them around, it's that the Rockets have confirmed what they thought they were getting when they traded three first-round draft choices for Eddie Griffin. The Rockets also have learned Oscar Torres is a keeper. He may not know the language, but he knows he belongs as he puts up jumpers and takes the ball to the hole with a sense of knowing. They don't know yet about Terence Morris, who is 6-9 and intriguing. Does he have a firm offensive move he can use as a foundation? Does he have a stopper's mentality on defense? Against the Lakers on Sunday night, he frequently played as if the object of the game was to try not to make contact with another body on the floor. There were Laker Girls in spandex who were getting more physical. Desperate dribbling The Rockets know Kelvin Cato is not the answer at center and never will be. They just won't say that out loud, because it is considered a sign of weakness to ever admit that you made a mistake. A whopping big one at that. So they plug on dutifully, faithfully showing up for every game on the schedule and some of them, like Cuttino Mobley and Moochie Norris, play frantically and with a sense of desperation, pounding the ball into the hardwood as if they were being paid by the dribble. They are still 10 games from the halfway mark and the dream of the playoffs, of course, has long been torched in the minds of the fans who don't bother to show up at home games. Where we will find out the most about this bunch is in how they play through the second half of the season. This is Mobley's fourth year as a pro. It is the third for Francis. How many times do we turn over the page on the calendar and write off the indiscretions on the floor, their callow mistakes as merely the product of youth? Is it time to stop ignoring the Rockets and start demanding more of them? "I'm tired of talking about moral victories myself," Tomjanovich said. "I don't give a damn about coming close. We need to get tired of this and do something about it. Get to the next level." It is all part of the process. When the heat is turn up, winners are either forged of steel or losers melt into slag. "Maybe the new year will bring health and prosperity," said Rudy T. Or eye strain from too much looking into the future.
Damn...that's what I get for not reading the whole article. I guess I can't be on DaDakota's boat. Fran still sucks though.
Anybody else catch the poor grammar in this sentence? It is all part of the process. When the heat is turn up, winners are either forged of steel or losers melt into slag. I guess even seasoned writers can make mistakes. Raven,.......what, aren't you driving the boat.......oh no....ICEBERG dead ahead.... DaDakota
that is so true, Cato is never gonna do anything for our franchise except cost us a shot at signing other big names
"So they plug on dutifully, faithfully showing up for every game on the schedule and some of them, like Cuttino Mobley and Moochie Norris, play frantically and with a sense of desperation, pounding the ball into the hardwood as if they were being paid by the dribble. " I can't bear to subject myself to poring through the crap-heap of Blinebury articles to verify this, but hasn't he used that "paid by the dribble" line before in a previous tirade? If so, I guess we can add "un-original" to the list of Blinebury descriptors that already includes "untalented, uninspired, and unbearable".
Fran Sucks. And that suprisingly mediocre article we just got oata him is hardly upgrading my opinion of the slimy little chubby weasel.
