i had just finished high school in 1991. Like many aussies, as soon as i saved enough money i went backpacking around the world for a while (better known as until i ran out of money). while in the usa, i decided to visit as much of my family i could. they're spread all over the place, so it was a cool & safe way to see lots of the states and save money at the same time. while staying with my relatives in houston, my cousin (~28 at that time i think) took me to a rockets games at THE SUMMIT (i hate(d) the name compaq centre). We bought some tickets in the nose bleed sections & strolled down to about 10 rows from the court. fell in love with the game of basketball & the been a huge rox fan since. i still have all the newspapers/posters they mailed me after each of the championships as well as the t-shirts from the title years (which unfortunetly are now looking a little threadbare & have a few holes ). on my holiday i also went to a NFL game. saw the NO Saints v Mia Dolphins (Dan Marino in his prime) at the NO superdome. an awesome venue, but the game didn't grab me anywhere near as much as bball. might have somehting to do with the "boot scooting" they were doing ouside the dome as we entered; perhaps it could've been that it took over 3 hours of real time to play 1 hour of football. thank god neither of those things happened at the summit or i wouldn't be a bball fan nor play in a few local leagues now.
I lived in Houston for a while just after we won the 2nd championship.I was so proud of the Rockets. Hakeem was my favorite but I would have loved them just as much even if he wasn't on the team. I hope and pray that someday the Houston Rockets will return to the glory days and win another championship.
Autralian. Hakeem came down to Australia back in the early 90's and he seemed like a great guy/ good role model. We used to get 1 NBA game a week down here and NBA Action. I saw a few rockets highlights and liked the mix of players. Rockets later went on to win the next two finals the following year. Was a good time to be a Rox supporter.
I'm not really "foreign", but I am from out of town (Cleveland) I've always been a HUGE Pippen fan (which is why i stand up for him so much when you all roast him). So when he came to Houston I started liking the Rockets of course. Well around when he got traded, the Rockets got Steve Francis, and he quickly became my favorite player. So to sum it up, the reason I like the Rockets is "The Reason", Steve Francis!
Before we had cable in Brazil, all I could watch was the finals. It was in the finals that I saw Drexler and liked him. Next time around, it was Barkley against Jordan, and I loved the guy, he was incredibly intense back then. Funny thing is, I never disliked Jordan but was always rooting against him. Then in '94 I saw the Rockets and Hakeem... Little did I know that my 3 favorite players of all-time would later be on the same team. In the end I became a Rocket for life, no matter who wears Rockets red these days. And Yao, of course just became the fourth player on the above list.
That's just amazing to me ... how many from around the world could become Rockets fans, many practically 10 years ago. In the States we are just now beginning to see some foreign sports, mostly soccer on Fox Sports World, but not much.
Been a Rockets fan since the early 90's. 92 or so, I think. I remember watching Hakeem play, and I fell in love with the Rockets and basketball since then. The championships were the icing on the cake. I have Rockets blood running through my veins and arteries.
A long time Bulls fan since 88'. Became a huge Dream's fan after watch the Rockets vs the Bulls in the 90s', then became a semi-fan when Pippen was traded here. Now a full time fan with Yao's arrival! So I giuess I'm a Yao fan. --daoshi
Nice thread. Became a Rocket fan in the late 1980s because of Hakeem (because he was my country man). But was unable to watch many games - just news paper reports. Interestingly I was a HOUSTON fan - anything Houston because of Hakeem. Wanted to buy his shoe in the early 1990s but could not afford it so I settled for the cheaper Patrick Ewing's shoe. Had an opportunity to move to the US in 1996 - I had a choice of living with either my relative in Atlanta or the one in Houston. It was a no brainer. I moved to Houston simply because of Hakeem and my love fore Houston. Other than my city of origin, Houston still remains my home away from home - I love everything Houston (and Hakeem leaving did not deminish my feelings for this city). I subsequently became a diehard supporter of the Astros, Comets, Rice, U of H etc. I did not have any connection to the oilers because of the circumstances that surrounded their exit which coincided with my arrival. I was elated when we drafted Francis, traded for Eddie and stole Mobley (who was coincidentally my favorite college player in his final seasonat RI). But my love for them warned a bit with recent developements but my love for Yao knows no bounds. He has rejuvenated my positive feelings for our beloved team. Go Houston!!! (even though we lost an opportunity to host the 2012 Olympics, we still have a chance to host many SuperBowls, NCAA tourneys and many more special events).
I live in Hong Kong. Before Yao coming to Houston, my favorite team was Lakers because of Shaq and Kobe. I always cheered for them and was so excited that they won 3 championships in a row. At that time, I only knew very little about the Rockets because they were a losing team that couldn¡¦t make playoff for 3 years. Of course I knew who were Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley. They are a great combo but they are too small (in size) to lead Rockets to championship. I just think that they will never won championship again unless they acquire another great player/big man like Hakeem. But something changed my mind in June 2002. I remember that I heard somebody named Yao Ming on TV news. Hey! Who is Yao Ming? I never heard this player before! Although I live in Hong Kong, I know very little about Chinese Player except Wang Zhi Zhi who was playing in Dalla Mavericks. From the TV news, I knew that Yao was being chosen as the first overall pick by Houston Rockets and he was the first international player to gain this honour. The first impression he gave me was very tall and thin, I thought that he may be another Shawn Bradley in NBA. In the 2002 summer, I still didn¡¦t follow any news about Yao Ming and Rockets but Lakers. I don¡¦t think Yao Ming will have any impact in NBA. In the first 7 Rockets regular season games, Yao played very bad and I thought that he will not have the chance to turn it around. But on 17 Nov 2002, I was checking the Lakers¡¦ boxscore as usual. I couldn¡¦t believe that my beloved Lakers lose to Rockets! And the guy who beat us was Yao Ming! He scored 20 points on a 9-9 shooting. I really couldn¡¦t believe my eyes. http://www.nba.com/games/20021117/HOULAL/boxscore.html I read the recap and the first line is ¡§Yao Ming has a date with Charles Barkley¡¨. http://www.nba.com/games/20021117/HOULAL/recap.html I had no idea what it was talking about until I finished reading the recap. A few days later, I saw Charles Barkley kissing a donkey ass on my TV. At that time, I began to love Yao and felt proud of him. Thereafter, I began to follow the Rockets game and found Yao was getting better and better each game. On 21 Nov 2002, he torched the Dallas by 30 points and 16 rebounds and made Shawn Bradley looked like a chopstick. http://www.nba.com/games/20021121/HOUDAL/boxscore.html On 3 Dec 2002, he beat the Twin Towers of San Antonio by scoring 27 points and grabbing 18 rebounds. http://www.nba.com/games/20021203/SASHOU/boxscore.html This was totally UNBELIEVABLE!!! I was totally crazy about Yao! Because of Yao, I was then very eager to know about his teammates, coach and the organization itself. I searched all the Rockets news on web and bookmarked all of them. As a result, I became a member of Clutchcity.com on Dec 2002 and kept visiting it every day until now. Now I'm no longer a Lakers Fan. I sincerely hope that Rockets can beat Lakers every time! Go ROCKETS!
it's going back to like 95-96. I saw a documentary on Hakeem on the TV. Soon after that my friend bougth the first playstation and also an NBA game. I started to play with the rockets and became a dominant force. Kindy silly to become a rox fan that way, but I had no other choice since nothing is on TV here (except some recaps from time to time). But they better make the playoffs this year or I may switch.
Been a while since I last posted, but I do follow this board. I've been a Rockets fan since 1984, when Hakeem was drafted. That's understandable, because I'm Nigerian, and I grew up in Hakeems neigbourhood in Mushin, Lagos State. I used to live in Germany, but I'm back in Nigeria now. It now doesn't matter to me that there's no Nigerian on the roster anymore (although I was hoping Gabe Muoneke would get a slot). I'm a fan for life now.
I've been a fan of the Rockets since 94'.I was a big fan of the Bulls when they won their first 3 championship but after that I lost interst in the game until I saw the Dream dominating the whole 93/94 season and in the playoffs, thats when i became a big fan. Since, i am from africa ( Ethiopia to be exact ), it was kind of unusal to be fan of the Rockets ,unlike Bulls or Lakers due to team recognition. But now more than ever I am big time Rockets fan.
Easy answer. Lived there for 4 yrs from 95-98, Dream was my idol. i still have a seven foot poster of him and a poster of the Rox from 96 (?) with drexler, hakeem, barkley, horry, maloney and others, got it from the chron back then. it's still up in my room now. fan since 95.
