(City of Houston) Chronicle settles for mediocre "sportswriters"..

It's not the opinion, but the lack of reasoning behind the opinion and the tone which appears to be berating the audience that is most likely to be reading his article; Rocket's fans. There are very few who are really celebrating the 42-40 season based on the discussion here at clutchfans, so berating his audience for accepting that the Rockets made the best out of a bad situation was silly. Just because fans are not blasting management for underachieveing based on the circumstances surrounding this year doesn't mean we think 42-40 deserves a parade or that this record would have been acceptable if Yao and Tracy were healthy all year. Most of the fans are disappointed in the overall results over the past 10 years compared to the Mavs, and certainly the Spurs. But let's not act like we could have traded for Kobe, Lebron or Dwight Howard this year, but Les didn't want to pay them, or that we were favored to win the NBA finals when the year started, but only got to 42-40. Nationally we were expected to be the western conference version of the Nets.

I don't have a problem with Solomon being disappointed in the Rocket's season since he claims he predicted the Rockets would win more than 42 games going into the season, but how about offering some suggestions on how the season could have been improved if he is going to critcize them for under performing? Because it certainly wasn't just a case of low expectation Rockets fans being the only ones expecting them to have a down year and being ok with it. The Rockets out performed the majority of national predictions, as well as what Vegas expected their record to be. When Solomon was interviewed about the article and strongly implied that he has no clue at all that there are salary cap restrictions that prevent teams from just spending more money when ever they want then that is frustrating considering he is being paid to cover these sports. He basicly said the injuries to Tracy and Yao shouldn't have mattered because Les was not having to pay their salaries, and said Alexander's salary cap was self imposed. His claim that the season was one of the 10 worst ever has also been disproved by any measurable metric (ie number of wins compared to other seasons). Of course he back tracked and covered that with the "it's my opinion" excuse. But it's the berating style that comes across as saying that he thinks the season was one of the worst ever and if you don't your a sheep who doesn't expect enough from your team, with no other explanation as to why the team should have been better that has him so heavily criticized.

 

Ok first of all Solomon wasn't voicing an opinion, he was voicing **** which he thought were facts. When you think something is just your opinion you put qualifiers on it such as IMHO or the phrase "I think". Solomon's article contains none of those things, and for a reporter that's inexcusable especially considering how high and mighty he appeared. You on the other hand, seem to see nothing wrong with a media person inventing stuff up and getting away with it. I guess in your world if the media says something that agrees with your viewpoint they're 100% correct, and if the "facts" they present turn out to be false or made up then suddenly they're just voicing an opinion. Let me guess, your fav news channel is Fox right?

Secondly no one's suggesting that we throw a parade and celebrate a 42-40 season. Name me one poster who suggested we throw parties for our 42-40 season. Again you're assuming things that simply aren't there. Until you show these mythical posters who are jumping on rooftops because of our 42-40 season then I'm afraid you really don't have a leg to stand on.

On the other hand if you're looking for posters who see hope in our season record, and who are giddy with anticipation for the next one then you'll find them in droves. Only an idiot can't see how bright our future looks to be. Apparently Solomon is an idiot, because if he wasn't he wouldn't have wasted his energy writing crap like this.

 

I wouldn't hire Jerome Solomon or Richard Justice to write on my free blog if they paid me for the privilege.