I am a member of the public, not 'a nobody on an internet bbs', thank you very much. Yes I am quoting myself -- because Les started it. Les Alexander made his feelings public and then went back into his bunker, his appointed place. His being in the bunker is fine, I kind of like having the owner away from the public glare. BUT - he said he was evaluating everything and suggested some illumination would be forthcoming. THEREFORE - I believe it is fair to expect an announcement that the staff is being retained, altered, removed whatever. Do you actually believe the right to know does not exist in this case? DCkid What owner ever comes out and publicly divulges offseason plans? DCkid - when the owner says that the coach and everything else is under evaluation that owner comes out and publicly divulges whether or not the coach, at least, is retained.
Well, I'm sure he'll let everyone know when the time comes. You ever think that maybe he just hasn't made a decision yet? What's the hurry? I could maybe understand where you're coming from if this was October, but the first round of the playoffs isn't even over yet. Personally, I hope he takes the time to fully consider all possibilities, and I think it would bad practice to fire a coach when you haven't even yet identified a replacement. Maybe someone can help me out, but are teams even allowed to start interviewing coaches already? Additionally, Rudy is currently undergoing cancer treatment and will need to be further evaluated to get a better handle of his health before a decision is made. Your letter/request is just totally unreasonable. I doubt Les will rush into a decision just to appease a few impatient Rockets' fans.
Plus the fact that those jersey sales data was collected from a single NBA store in New York, thus this small sample does not accurately reflect the actual sales of the Jersey nation/world wide. And yes, the Rocket jersey aren't exactly good looking either... -G'day-
Ouch, nice insult... Let's move on. First off, yes Yao's a very very hot item with very high potential right now. But it you said it would be in Les's best economical interest to fire Rudy, what about Yao who said they need Rudy back. I don't know but I think there's some loyalty to Rudy from Yao for actually going there this summer and getting him out. I would even go on to say if Les fires Rudy and gets a coach not to Mings liking or causes disturbance within the club (not to mention with our other superstar) than I can definitely see a possible harsher backlash. Now let's look deeper into the economical side, if your proposed deal is about the local one with the Astros, then I think while Yao Ming will have a good influence to a certain extent, I still think its gonna be the local diehard fans that's going to decide how successful that network is, just like the attendance figures. If you are talking about a international one with China, I don't think NBA gives individual teams that right, everything will go through the NBA and the revenues will be distributed among all the teams. Not 100% sure on this but it was talked about back there. Now as far as merchandise selling in China, I'm a little worried about the bootlegging industry over there right now, I love it, I "stock up" on a wide load of stuff everytime i go back But how will it affect the sales of Rockets products over there? I think the new growing middle class wouldn't mind shelling out $85 for a jersey or $20 for a cap, but I also have a lot of relatives that makes any where from $100 to $300 a month and I don't see them blowing it on "officially licenced" product when u can buy bootleg at 1/10 of the price.
The silence, from the owner, is deafening. If Les waits til October, or even much longer, then makes a change he could just start making plans for the '04 Lotto. If Les waits til October, or even much longer, then makes a change he could just start making plans for lots of empty seats in his new crib.
i think you are a bit ahead of yourself there. Like someone else said....we arent even out of the first round of the playoffs.
The time cannot come until after the draft. Only after all the teams know their draft order will they be able to begin to think about trades and plan for the future. The second and perhaps more significant time frame will be in the days after the free agency signing gun goes off. For instance, we will know whether the Rockets and James Posey are going to get together on a deal or whether Gary Payton will be "gettable." Les, C.D. and Rudy can't show their cards yet -- heck, Rudy may not even have a playing card (although I believe he will be at the helm as always). All I know is that the Rockets, had they passed and played defense like they were capable, should have been a 55-game winner.
wizkid, thanks for being a good sport! you make some good counterpoints. I think the key to focus on with respect to Yao's economic impact on the franchise is the significant additional exposure the franchise is going to get, in a number of different ways. Some of that exposure will be difficult to capitalize on, and you're right, some of it will inure to the benefit of the league as a whole and not just the Rockets, but plenty of it will benefit Les, in particular corporate sponsorship and marketing. It will also place a premium on the franchise value if and when it is sold.
Oh no doubt, I definitely think Yao has huge marketbility potential compareable to that of MJ and Woods and my initial post wasn't to downgrade that at all. It was mostly just a counter argument to I was just responding to the fact that most of the public that seemed to be damned are the public who are really just bandwagoner jumping on the flava of the month and I don't think Les should be coerced especially he really haven't seen that much benefit from the bandwagoners that's all.
