14 years ago at this day we started one of the biggest "what if" series in Rockets history

Man I can't believe that was a decade and a half ago... But yeah, that was damn painful. Proud of those dudes, though.

 

same here. Damn time flies.

that team had so much heart, man. Laid it all on the court. Then fishers dirty a** headbutt to Scola.

 

It was a weird time for sure. I don't hate him, but it was disappointing... You gotta kinda feel bad for the guy after all the crappy luck he had his whole career, and you can understand why that would mess with his head a bit. We think NBA players are all so lucky cuz they're rich and famous, and it's true to an extent, but that's not enough to be happy. You know all the hate for not getting out of the first round was getting to him, and it had to really suck when you consider how often it wasn't his fault (injuries to Yao, Grant Hill, and himself over and over and over again...).

Yes, sometimes he underperformed a bit in a big moment, but it's way overblown (similar to James Harden, although with Harden, the hate is even more disconnected from reality). His Houston career ended on a low note, but I still appreciate his time with us, and I just regret that we were robbed of witnessing what could have been one of the most potent duos ever because of the damn injury bug.

Man it's been rough being a Rockets fan since '95.

 

Bless your heart. I never for one second believed that team was a true contender despite my love for them.

 

I think we absolutely looked like we could be legitimately better than LA before Yao went down.

The other injury people are forgetting about is the Dikembe injury in the first round. We basically had no center left those playoffs, AND lost the guy who was our best player for the prior four years (McGrady).

If you don't think fixing some combination of the above would have gotten us one more win against the Lakers, then I don't know what to tell you. And after beating the Lakers, we would only have to beat the Nuggets and Dwight's lame ass (who Yao owned) in the finals. The Lakers ended up with what was possibly the easiest path to a title that the NBA has seen since I've been watching. (One of the many reasons for Kobe's currently heavily overrated status, but I digress)

 

We had the talent to win it all except >50% of our salary cap were collecting DNPs. Lakers that year were not winning anything without Kobe and one of Bynum/Gasol either. Shame our stars were made of glass.

 

The Lakers simply toyed with their food that series, didn't the Rockets lose game 7 by 40?

Yao doesn't save that.

 

Injuries weren’t a bug with those guys. They were a feature. Yao was done not long thereafter. I also watched that series and never felt for a moment that we’d win it. When they got serious that series they throttled us. Go rockets.

 

Toyed with us is exactly right. We said that then. When the lakers needed to focus they did. And then it wasn’t close. That happened in all 4 Laker wins including the last game.

 

Well we blew them out once for almost every time they blew us out. It's posslble they weren't taking us that seriously when they lost, sure, but that would be a pretty big stain on them as a team, too, especially in the second round of the playoffs. And especially given all the hype around Kobe's no-nonsense "killer instinct".

But I also want to be sure we're arguing about the same thing here. To be clear, I'm absolutely not suggesting the Rockets were real contenders after the Yao injury (AND the Deke injury AND the McGrady surgery). I'm saying I think they were the best team in the league when healthy (same thing in 2008).

You might be right about their injury patterns, though. So maybe it's not even fair to say "what if" about Yao and McGrady injuries. It's not like they had fluke injuries, but rather recurring injuries that cut short their careers. Doesn't make it any less painful when you saw what they were capable of before it all fell apart, though.

 

I hate this conversation because I love the Rockets. I loved that team but I never saw them as a real contender. They overachieved like crazy, and I loved them for that.

 

Miss Landry from that team. That elbow jumper was automatic

 

I had not been more proud of the Rockets since the championship years. That team has a special place in my heart.