I actually like Jerome Solomon. I might not always agree with him but he's a likable guy. He's always on 97.5 and he was on there yesterday explaining his last article bout the Rox. Made sense to me...
I think it had less to with race or even writing skill and more to do with the fact that Blinbury was a beat writer for the rockets while Soloman covered all sports. They could get more ground covered this way. I also think that Soloman and Justice chose to (or maybe asked by the chronicle) to be controversal for the sake of better readership. Chronicle doesn't care whether you like them or not, as long as you hit the site, given them better numbers to market to advertisers. Feigen is on there because he's more of straight shooter, and attracts readers who look for that. It's pretty obvious why Anna-megan Raley is employed...if she is still employed there.
Blinebury was a 24/7/365 curmudgeon that wrote like he was bitter at the world anytime he fired up his laptop. I'll never miss him. I've read at least a couple worthwhile opinion columns from Solomon, so I don't mind having him over Blinebury. But that's like picking the strawberry with less mold on it.
You guys still miss the point. I don't think we should crap on the team for this year, nobody expected anything great this year. We had half of our payroll out with injuries, and yet we were .500. Not bad at all. But that doesn't mean Solomon's point isn't valid. We have grown to accept mediocrity from the team. In fact, we would all be happy for a 2nd round exit next year. The team isn't going anywhere with the conservative spending of Les Alexander. And while I love what Morey is trying to do here, I think he's VASTLY overrated by you guys. Getting Ariza, shipping away Carl, bringing in another injury prone "star" (who, by the way, I don't believe is a "star" per se). Those were all BAD MOVES. like, bad. The Kevin Martin trade made it THIS much harder for us to go after a big name star. Bad move. Team hasn't done **** in the past 15 years. We've gone from one bad "era" to another. We're held hostage by Yao's ability to make Mr. Alexander a crap load of $$$$$$$, and unfortunately we will be stuck in mediocrity until his time is up and we can finally have a team that's not "built around" a guy who breaks legs as frequently as I take pisses.
Blinebury was a curmudgeon but he had good lines. I always thought he did a good job of providing "color" commentary. Solomon isn't as good at turning a phrase. Like Lopez (who was much much worse), he just talks loud.
Bad writers are bad writers, no matter where they ply their trade. A lot of what passes for journalism is b.s. anyway, especially the op-ed stuff. It amounts to creative typing. Solomon is the voice of every Tmac apologist. With Tmac gone, he can't really drop the name anymore, but he'll give us the Tmac apologist's opinion, disgruntled that we're not riding high on the wave of an NBA superstar's coattails, wishing he were writing for the Mavs or Fakers and, poor him, stuck in Houston with a team spinning its wheels, hoping that Yao Glass-Foot comes back better than ever. It isn't that the dude is always wrong, it's the attitude that informs him. Which takes a "you know, I don't know how far we'll get, relying on Yao" type article into "Rockets fans are happy with mediocrity" (translation: that damned Morey, how dare he trade that quitter probably-depressive me-myself-and-I Tmac!) No, we're not happy with mediocrity. But we're not going to seek a divorce, either. It could all get better, yes, and we're erring on the side of "it will get better" rather than "well, I guess I should be as big a jerk as any dude who was ever inexplicably given a job as a sportswriter at the only major newspaper in America's 4th largest city".
Oh please.... I beg your pardon... The perception you are having is not my perception. If anything, I perceive that Rockets fans (including a substantial number on this board) tend to be too overcritical of the team. I mean, we constantly want to trade everyone on this team for someone. And then we still complain that we lacking component A or part B or that this team will never be good enough for a championship or that we have to fire coaches X, Y and Z because they can't lead the Rockets to some promised land. If we trade 1/3rd of our team for Bosh or Amare, we will then complain we have no defensive, rebounding, shot blocking, enforcing big..... and demand a trade for such a player with no trade chips.... We have no scorer at the shooting guard position, moan and groan 1/2 year long that we need a scorer, then trade for a scorer, and now b**** that we don't have enough defence in our backcourt... Some people are really too damn hard to please....... can't you guys just be more appreciative and count your damn blessings???
The majority of people here are not upset because he criticized the team, frankly I could care less. We're upset because it is obviously an ad hominem attack on Morey and the fans and the guy offers little to no substance in his criticism. Anyone with knowledge of the salary cap and the climate for trades during this season knows Morey did an outstanding job. It seems like his research was little more that looking at season records for each team for the last ten years. Besides, its almost like the Tea party people. The Yao/ Tamc experiment was not concocted on his watch, yet he gets all the criticism? My question to the people who liked the article (or to Solomon himself) is what would you have done different?
How many more of these threads are we gonna have? Soloman made some criticism, big deal, he did have a few valid points Since when did clutchfans became unwilling to take criticism?
Actually, as ridiculous as some of his claims are, I welcome his critiques It keeps Morey on top of his game To answers the last question, I would've traded Yao and T-Mac for a max player
since everyone decided to believe the marketing ploy of the Rockets... hah kidding... somewhat No really, I think the issue at hand is that people are judging this team like it is Chuck Hayes and not Yao. Solomon judged the team as he would against all the teams in the NBA and didn't take into account excuses. Excuses aside, this year sucked. I know I'm not having fun watching the Spurs and Mavs play while we go fishing.
That's because most fans think they know what's best for the team. The truth is that most fans are idiots when it comes to running a sports franchise. If handed you the championship Bulls, fans would have found a way to screw it up.
Why don't you help me count our "damn blessings"? what? first round exits year after year after year, then finally barely getting to the second round just to be sent home by the Lakers? or should I be thankful for being stuck with an injury prone big man who hasn't achieved **** in his career and can't put together ONE damn season without getting hurt? or is it waiting on the "Tmac experiment" to work just to have it bite us in the us and force us to trade him and a young asset for another injury prone SOFT scorer? Name 5 teams that have achieved less than the Rockets in the past 10 years. I can think of the clippers, Wizards, and Grizzlies, maybe Milwaukee, that's about it. The damn bobcats didn't even exist 10 years ago. Some of you guys need to get a clue. This team hasn't done crap for us in so long that we're numbed to the suckage that takes place every year. The disappointment year after year. The "next year will be great!" notions. The "we're missing one more piece!" crap. Give me a break.
I guess my question is what would you have Rocket's fans do? We're already 19th in the league in attendance. How do you want us to show our disapproval? Should we drop to last in the league in attendance, even though we're by far not the worst team? Should we just say "we suck" more? Should we picket the Toyota center? I am so confused by this "Rockets fans accept mediocrity" crap. WTF is the basis for this?
In terms of writing skills, I think Blinebury is better, or less bad. But Blinebury is much worse in terms of bitterness against anybody. 99% of his articles were negative complaints against something or somebody. I don't miss him at all.
To be fair, Fran has been a lot better in his articles for NBA.com. My memory (correct me if this is wrong) is that a lot of Fran's complaints were targeted at Tracy McGrady, about whom, in retrospect, maybe he's not so wrong.
This is what turned me from hating Fran to liking him. I realized he was almost always right, and then I was able to laugh with him and his Song Lyric Blog Post template that he used 90% of the time
How many Jonathon Feigan you guys need to kiss the organizations butt? Jerome works for Chronicle NOT for the Rockets. JF covers Chronicle on behalf of the Rockets organization. Criticism makes you better. "Embedded-Journalism" hurts in the long run.
damn THANK YOU!!!!! JF is not an objective source. He is horribly biased by who signs his check. He writes PR pieces that fluff up the Rockets success and failure. Fans who bring him to the arguments really annoy me.
it was the Tmac issues that got me to turn to respect him as well. He called him out long before most people were doing it.
