Where do you get that...what in the history of sports has being demolished by a team every been remembered? Never. Sweeps and blow-outs are forgotten fairly quickly. They never rank as memorable. Memorable are the games that are decided at the buzzard, in the bottom of the ninth, or with the clock ticking down. Memorable are the last second shots, John Elway heroics, games that were decided by inches, finger tips, or just a little extra will. People don't remember the Oilers game when they choaked up a 32 point lead. It's just a stat now that will get called up until there's a bigger choke to replace it. No one will remember this 40 point loss except for you, and a few Dallas hecklers. That's it....a year from now, no one will remember. If you disagree, I don't think you really understand sports.
(1) The Oilers organization never recovered from that Buffalo loss until they moved to Tennessee. (2) Other than a handful of moments, nobody remembers anything other than a play, or an image in sports. The "collective memory" is a series of fuzzy images. Michael Jordan was the tops, Kareem was the sky hook, and Wilt Chamberlain was a bull surrounded by cows. The Rockets championship is "Never Underestimate..." and Hakeem celebrating with Clyde. (3) If the Rockets lose in the first round next season, this series will be mentioned. Further, it WILL be recalled whenever a team looks like it might come back from 0-2. The blowout is just symptomatic of the collapse. With no such stigma (positive or negative), the second round Mavericks series will hit footnote status much more quickly outside of the metroplex.
EDC and New Yorker remind me of that character "DEbbie the Downer" from SNL. If you're trying to be optimistic about the rockets and show your enthusiasm, they come in and they crash the party.
from NewYorker: I respect your posts, but this part was really off the mark. That 32 point choke job cost Houstonians a pro football franchise. If something similar had occured before the (now) Toyota Center was approved we'd be probably be without the Rockets too. I agree with you overall though in regard to the 40 point blowout against the Mav's. It's kind of an inverse reaction to what most (I think) felt after we lost to the Laker's last year. We had great affection for SF and Cat, but watching that team was torture. This team "spurted", lost legs but reminded us of why we love basketball. And when we lost by 40 the answers were obvious and the second guessing was fairly pointless. But I've really loved JVG's comments since, it seems like most Rockets' fans are close to being on the same page with ourselves and what management's thinking. We'll disagree on the details, but the direction seems clearer now than it has in a long time.
You want positive? I think the Rockets have some good pieces. They need to be surrounded with good, YOUNG, quality players and a championship-caliber head coach. Make those moves, and they've got a good chance of competing in the West.
1) The Oilers were itching to leave for a long time. Moon was getting old, as a lot of other players. People forget they were a wild card team that year, not a division champ. And old bud had been trying to move the team for a decade...the 32 point loss hurt, but geez, no one ever remembers it. 2) What you are leaving out is that all those players won championships. That's my point, people remember champions, they forget the losses. That's why Karl Malone won't be remembered outside of Utah. There are exceptions, like Barkeley, if only because of their personality and the fact that they played on multiple teams. 3) It's just not that newsworthy. Who cares? I think you're making mountains out of ant hills.
Without the championships, one does have to wonder if the Rockets would have survived in Houston. Anyway, I agree, I like the direction this team is heading, it's been a long time - maybe too long, since it's been fun to be a Rockets fan again.
I will admit losing by 40 isn't the best way to ride off into the sunset but we did have our scrubs in for the better part of the second half...and Dallas kept their starters in for the whole game. By far the loss to Pheonix was worse by a long shot... And it couldn't have happened to a better team...
The only reason people remember the Oilers loss to Buffalo is because they gave up a 32 point lead. That would be the equivalent of a team in basketball being up by 50+ and losing the game, or being up 3-0 in a series and losing the series....those things rarely if ever happen. As far as the championship-caliber head coach goes.....we just gave him an extension in case you missed it....here is the link http://bbs2.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?threadid=96585 It will be interesting to see if Philip takes a coaching job next year and with whom.....
I am going to go with 40 as worse. Psychologically, if you lose by 4, you feel like you are almost as good a team, and that you just need a little more to get over the hump. When you lose by 40, you start to doubt the makeup of the team and start to think maybe some major changes are needed. If we had lost by 4, we'd be talking about how we could win it all with the same group of players. Since we lost by 40, we are scouring the free agent market for a stud who can take us over the top.
the mavs's loss was probably alot more painful, seeing as how we pretty much gave up by the 3rd quarter already with tmac sitting... but at least they dont have their name in the history books under worst playoff loss deficit...if the loss doesnt hurt, it will forever last...
No, I believe the Rockets gave Jeff Van Gundy a one year extension for some unfathomable reason. They fired their most recent championship-caliber head coach.
The contracts side-by-side are funny... Erick Dampier contract: Seven years and about $73 million. Steve Nash's contract: Five years and about $65 million with a team option for a sixth year. What about individual stats? Nash: 24PPG/11.7APG in 40.0 minutes. Shooting 52% in 2s. 42% in 3s. And 92% from the FT line. Dampier: 7PPG/7.5RPG in 23 minutes. Shooting 60% in 2s. 40% from the FT line.
Four is worse- it's easy to justify a four-point loss in your head, but a 40 point loss can only motivate next year in the playoffs. J
The Mavs obviously had reached their peak with Steve Nash. Maybe Nash is just a better player with the Suns. Dallas has no reason to lament him not being on their team. Now the Dampier contract, that's another story.
So Yao is now a scrub? I agree that Dallas left the starters in too long in Game 7. It was stupid by the end. I can't though honestly understand why Dallas losing makes any of you feel better. If they suck, we suck worse. We've got to find a couple more players for this team to get anywhere in the playoffs. The current scheme relies way too much on T-Mac. I love T-Mac, but he's going to have to get much better support from somebody on this team. For instance, Mac should not be wasting energy bringing up the ball and switched up to play the top offensive threat from the other team. And somebody other than Yao is going to have to learn how to set picks for our shooters. Sure, you could fix these things by imaging some great offseason acquisitions (Antonio Daniels, Strome Swift, etc), but, I'm not sure we'll get any of those guys. We didn't get AD last year. Dallas, on the other hand, needs only one or two tweeks and a full season under the General and they're within one tipped ball their way of a championship.
