How the heck is orlando ahead of us in this espn alltime best franchises? anyone? i know their history and ours and i dont see it.
'one' finals appearance? they didnt really show up against the rockets so if that was where you were coming from i can dig it, but technically they have gone twice.
Its espn, they always underestimate houston. They discredit the rockets championships, neglect the accomplishments of any houston team, and even consider us a small market even though we are the 4th largest city in the US
Orlando is actually #15. He corrected it after having Orlando originally slotted at #9(I think). http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playo...t=hollinger_john&page=FranchiseRankings-Intro check the side bar with the rankings...
Orlando was in the finals twice not once... Once against Houston and then against LA... Though that doesn't make a difference
I know huh? They even lost to us in the Finals. Never won anything. Have no history but losing to great teams. Not that popular globally. Even in a small market kind of. ESPN is really nuts. Heck we even beat Phoenix on the way to both of our titles and they are ranked ahead of us. Then the Jazz who havent won a title, Portland gets a nod for one title and Clyde Drexler but they complaetly disregard Clyde came here and won his title here after leaving them. Talk about historical players? Any of those teams have better players than Hakeem or Moses Malone? Come on we have had the best players at almost every position. Barry, Hayes, Hakeem, Malone, Drexler, Barkley from Phoenix!!!!, Pippen from the Bulls!!, Calvin Murphy, Rudy T, Tmac, Yao, the twin towers, Horry, Elie, Cassel, and Kenny Smith. These guys at ESPN are stupid biased against the Rockets or have no idea of NBA history. Not professionals in my book to overlook Rockets history like that.
Hollinger automatically deducts 100 points if a franchise relocates to another city. The Rockets moved from San Diego to Houston but it's still bs.
So they fixed Orlando... but Indiana? His argument is that even though they have not had star power, or won anything, Indiana is the home of basketball. Yeah so what? Don't think Cleveland would be #1 in the NFL because it's proximity to Canton. Suns should be top 10 but below the Rockets. Utah maybe rounds out the 10 for their fan base alone. But even with the suns, how many Hall of Famers have played there? Moses Malone, the Rudy T vs Kermit Wash. incident for better or worse, Phi Slama Jama, and 2 titles... all makes Houston number 10. Really???
His system is broken obviously. While he is correct that changing cities is the ultimate failure in sports...Winning a championship is the ultimate success and is worth 70 points less... Also what he has for Intangibles... So with this it is a complete opinion piece IMO. Also Rockets have the best intangibles player to EVER play the game and that should put us much higher...imo.
While I would have the Rockets higher myself, I don't see anything wrong with his Pacers ranking. They won 3 ABA championships and their worst season have not been as bad as th Rockets, while there best season have been better(this is based on regular season wins only.)
