I know a lot of you are agonizing over whether he signs with us or leaves. But in the long- and even medium-term view, he's gone. We need to face it and move on. We are not going to be title contenders in the next year or even the next two years, with or without Hakeem. By then, he'll be lucky to get off the pine here or anywhere else. He would have to play for a salary that's beneath his dignity and not worth his time. He'll retire. The bottom line is, he can't be in our plans for building a title contender. We're going to have to replace him. If it's too hard to accept this truth head-on, consider a couple of analogies. Grandpa is deep into Alzheimer's. You love him. He's still smiling and walking and drinking his tea. But he's gone. You and your girlfriend realize you're not right for each other in the long term. You know you have to end it. Part of you wants to drag it out. Maybe you can still sleep together now and then. But you're deluding yourself and her. She can't be to you what she was. She deserves a real boyfriend, and it's time for you to move on and find a real girlfriend. You know you should break up. I have no idea how much money and how long a contract the Rockets have offered Hakeem to stay. But if it costs us Mo Taylor, we're fools. We've gotten so clingy and emotional about old times that we're on the verge of going back to bed with the old girlfriend and losing the new one. If that happens, we're going to feel a rush of joy and relief when Hakeem says he's coming back to Houston. And we're going to regret it for the length of his contract.
Yes, but no matter what, Grandpa's still with you even if he's not with you the way he was in the past. And no matter what, some of us would like to see Hakeem retire a Rocket, no matter if Hakeem has the skills to provide us what he provided in the past. He is still family. As corny as this may sound, Hakeem isn't the girlfriend you're breaking up with, he's the wife you're about to lose. Seventeen years of marriage down the tubes, not 6 months of sex... you do whatever you can to save that relationship. If you feel the relationship with that wife is failing, you feel bad, but you still try. If it fails, it breaks your heart because you didn't just lose a girl, you lost THE girl. Full Disclosure : I chose to take the optimist/rabid fan approach in this response. ------------------ "I'll tell you this, the older I get, the less I trust people. It's true. It's damn true." -- gr8-1 going through some growing pains.
bye Dream. ------------------ Rarely is the question asked: Guns kill squirrels than REDRUM to fools across the nation?
While I don't agree with how Dream is going about negotiating a contract, that doesn't take away from what he has done for this organization. Like you said, the Rockets won't be winning a championship in the next couple of years, so what is wrong with signing Dream to a 2 year contract? Is there a better center we could sign or draft? Lets suppose we don't sign Dream. We have Cato and Collier at center. Are we a better team? Is Cato our future? Is Collier? Dream is as good as it gets right now. Sign him. Let him finish his career as a Rocket. 'nuff said ------------------ "For there is nothing either good or bad, thinking makes it so." - William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet
Ugh. We're not talking about offing the guy. We owe him two championships and years of civic pride. It's a very sad time. But we shouldn't let that cloud our judgment. He wants to play where he fits in, where he has a shot at getting to the finals, and where he'll be paid what he thinks he's worth. Let him.
as hard as it is to let Dream go, we must, if his decision is weighted that way...gawd I listening to Tool right now and feel real melancholy about all this.. ------------------ Rarely is the question asked: Guns kill squirrels than REDRUM to fools across the nation?
Dream is the source of all bball elation in Houston...no debate abt that...but let's not delude ourselves abt the guy. It has always been abt the bottomline w/ Dream. From the nasty negotiations w/ Charlie Thomas (see Summer '92) to the early 90's when he pitched Uncle Ben's rice proclaiming fast food was an evil the world could do w/o (and then proceeded to do Taco Bell commercials w/ Shaq in '95 and buy up KFC's and Denny's all over the city). Bottomline: it's all abt the bucks for this guy and that's why he's insisting on playing abt 3yrs past his prime, b/c he knows there is some team out there that will ante up. I still have respect for the guy, but it'd be so much easier if he would just retire and join the Rox in some coaching or PR capacity. Maybe if he hadn't gotten those 2 rings he would still have some respect for the game. ------------------
Alright, I've been searching for somewhere to say this, and I guess this is as good a place as any: DREAM DOESN'T WANT TO COME BACK There . . . All his actions, everything -- it all indicates that he's really not so keen on coming back to Houston. And it doesn't seem that it's anything the Rockets have done, or anything that we could do, it just appears to me that he's more interested in seeing what else is out there. The grass is always greener on the other side. It seems to me that he really just wants to try things somewhere else. --------OR----------- He's just pulling a C-Webb, he'll be back It could be that Dream is just playing around, enjoying his free agency, being wined and dined by all the teams, knowing that he's really going back to Houston anyways. ------------------ I'm looking for a job, so hire me "And I just have to smile and say 'well, I hope so' while I'm really thinking inside how I'd like to just strangle them and take their job."
Allow me to paraphrase a little Henny Youngman: Marrage is a funny thing. Take my wife..... No really take my wife. (It'd be much funnier if I could write with a Yiddish accent.) ------------------
I would have to agree with Vengeance, Dream does not care to come back. He doesn't care to end his career as a Rocket. Its not about the playing time or chance at a chmapionship, its simply the money. So let him go to the highest bidder. I had personally thought he was a different type of person and player. ------------------
I umderstand that Hakeem pretty much single-handedly won the Rockets and the city of Houston two championships. But the Rockets just finished paying Hakeem 16.5 million dollars over the last 5 seasons. He has been paid for everything he has done. Maybe its time for Hakeem to show some loyalty. I still say the moment that Hakeem signed on with Dan Fegan, he was no longer coming back, and its sad to say he isn't coming back. ------------------
Well put Will! The thing is Finn*, it's easy to say just sign him, but if he won't take the Rockets offer, and the only offer they can give would cost the Rockets their own free agents, then what? ------------------ "Instruments are like women: After a while, you want to make love to another." - Nicolas Godin of the musical duo Air
Actually, the facts say that if it's about playing time and winning, he's going somewhere else, if it's about the money he's staying here, because we have already offered him more than toronto and will most likely offer more than any other team also. I know something like that is hard to admit, since no one ever -stays- for the money (note sarcasm), but the Raptors and the Pacers both have a much stronger chance to go to the finals with hakeem than the rockets do, it sort of pains me to say this, but if it really is about winning, then Houston should say adios. ------------------ Anyone need a C/C++/Win32/HTML/PHP/SQL/Java/Perl/x86 coder?
I already said BYE this Spring vs Minnesota. If he leaves over $$$ I will boo his Nigerian A$$. "Won't someone think of the children????" ------------------ Reporter asks "How close were you to the victim?" Shorty says,"Real close until the roofies wore off. Then she woke up talking about pressing charges, so I took my tongue out of her ass and left." Shorty - Marlon Wayans "Scary Movie" Go Rockets!!! SS
That is something I have considered. Think about it. This is Hakeem's first time as a free agent. The rest of the year he has just signed extensions. He might simply be enjoying his free agency. But, the Turn in me tells me that he is as good as gone. ------------------ Protrolls.com! Keep the ???? alive! The ZRBucks!
What exactly does that mean? The guy has spent his entire college and pro career in Houston. Just because we have to part ways doesn't mean we have to trash his legacy or dismiss him as a foreigner. He's more of a Houstonian than you are or I am. That's why this is so sad.
Will, Got to agree with that statement, although not the Houstonian comment (I was born and raised here). My fondest memeory of Hakeem... The Spurs series, left baseline, Hakeem shows DR the ball to his left, spins right and slams it home! All DR is left with is... "Where did he goooooooooooo!!!!!!" -------------------- "I thought I was playing good defense???" David Robinson ------------------ [This message has been edited by ROCKET!!! (edited July 21, 2001).]
