ESPN [Rockets won't predict, but this will be their season]

link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/081024&sportCat=nba

We will own the NBA this season!

 

HOUSTON -- The past three years, my on-the-record, visit Vegas, religiously staunch answer to who's going to win the NBA championship has been, "Them Suns."

I believed. I knew they couldn't stop Brevin Knight from scoring 30, but I didn't care. I convinced myself the Nash/Stoudemire/D'Antoni trio was eventually going to be drenched in confetti and Korbel. Larry O'Brien trophy lifted. Queen blasting in the background.

But it never happened. Now I know it won't happen. Not this year, probably never. I've finally reached a point where I can no longer suspend reality from being real. The Suns are over.

During that same three-year period I've always said in my non-out-loud voice, "If the Rockets are healthy ..." or "If the Rockets are on the same page ..." or "If the Rockets are winning in April ..." all Tim Donaghys were off. I'd always maintain that going into the playoffs, the Rockets would be everything from "the team no one wanted to face" to "the team that could win it all." That has been my post-All-Star Game stump speech for three seasons.

Now I'm jumping on a potential bandwagon. Like the Gap T-shirt campaign, I've been inspi(red). The Houston Rockets will win the whole damn thing this season.

Sorry, Shaq. I just figured it was time to jinx someone else.

Get Red.
That's the new motto floating around Houston to get the fans to believe. Treasu(red) is what the team has been over the last few years, even as the cloud of demise has found an eerily coincidental way of finding its way back to them every April. (Red)efined are what the Rockets are trying to become this season, to avoid the same fate that haunted them with first-round eliminations four of the past five seasons.

This year is different. They are deep, they are complete. There are no gaping holes, no signs of weakness, nothing to hold against them except their past. The addition of Ron Artest makes their trio of McGrady, Yao and Artest more diverse and possibly more dangerous than the trio in Boston. Their non-superstar/superstar role players (Shane Battier, Luis Scola, Luther Head, Brent Barry, Carl Landry) are actually more seasoned and deeper than the crew that got the Lakers to the Finals last season.

In watching them, you can sense a poised anxiety that hasn't been there, not even during last season's 22-game winning streak. They are ready for this season to open, they are ready to write the final act to this sordid play that has been their requiem in three parts. They recognize that something special exists in them. This season could change their lives. Alston even admits, "It feels different this year."

To a man, the Rockets understand that what they have going into this season is different than anything that's been here since Dream and Drexler were stacking chips.

To a man they also understand that nothing will be taken for granted and nothing will be said about a ring or championship until they win one seven-game series, then another one, then another one. In other words, no one on this year's future championship squad is honoring my prediction. This team doesn't want to hear any of my championship talk. They're more "one day at a time" than Schneider. Their philosophy is counterintuitive: a controlled destiny. And just the thought of thinking about June in October to any of them ...

Like I said, the Rockets ain't trying to hear it.

"Man, we're trying to sneak up on people, don't put that out there," Battier said.

"On paper we are one of the better teams," coach Rick Adelman said. "But 'on paper' doesn't count. It's not going to happen all at once. I've seen the problem areas that we have with people (getting injured) and I don't look ahead. I don't look at things like, 'This is where we should be.' I look at where we are right now. Take it one day at a time and worry about April in April."

Alston said, "Yeah, we got a shot but everything around here is based on health. I'm not going to say anything to jinx us, but we got a shot."

Yao stressed the same. "It's too early to say that right now," he said. "The NBA championship is not tomorrow, you know. First, we have to get past the first round, then the second round, then the conference finals and then we have to win a seven-game series in the Finals, but before that we have to get through the regular season. Brent Barry and Ron Artest give us a better chance in that challenge for the championship, but still, it happens by us doing every day. Putting in hard work, taking it one day at a time."

Tracy McGrady just let out a loud laugh when he heard what this was column was about. "You are doing what? Damn, way to come at us straight!"

It's McGrady who has the most to lose. For just about everyone else on this team, this will be a make-or-break season; for McGrady this is a guillotine season. His head is on the chopping block with no excuses left. The only thing left to save him from attaining an A-Rod-like postseason label is if after this season he catches a similar fate to Kevin Garnett. But luck (gifts, trades, whatever you want to call it) like that doesn't happen twice in sports, so Tracy may have to get his ring in Houston.

"I'm not going to agree with you," he said. "That's what we wish, that's what we're shooting for, but ..."

Let me rephrase, as to not force an answer out of him that Ernie, Kenny and Charles will be talking about on Tuesday.

"Do you like your chances with what you see right now better than you have before at any point since you've been here?"

"Oh, absolutely. There's no hesitation," McGrady said. "What we had before adding Ron and Brent, we already had a solid team. It's not like we'd go into the playoffs and teams would put us out in four games. No. We'd give teams a run for their money, we were always right there. You add Ron and Brent to our core group and we're just as talented as any of the top teams in this league right now.

"But our health. ... I don't know if it's been some kind of hex on this organization, but Rafer being injured, myself, Yao and Shane all being injured (all in April), that's just crazy. As long as we have a healthy season, that's our key. That's really what's been holding us back. Man, if we have a healthy season, a healthy team going into the playoffs ..."

The prophecy would come true, the Rockets would hold up franchise championship trophy No. 3, and I'd probably get a sports psychic show on the Oxygen Network with Ric Bucher.

But as much as the Rockets are trying to avoid this obviousness, it's obvious that in the backs of their minds they know I'm right. (Luther Head came the closest, saying, "You a smart man, a smart man.")

They know the black cloud of injury will disappear, they know the biggest mistake in the offseason was the Lakers not dealing for Artest, they know the only true weakness they have may be at backup point guard, they know (without anyone saying a word) the Nov. 4 meeting against the Celtics is more than an early "statement" game, it will be a litmus test to what could (will!) be their future in eight months.

They know ... but they refuse to admit they do. They know this season will be the season that they will be ... fea(red).