Watched the Rockets win in 1995 on TV, but didn't really get into basketball until I saw the 2000 Dunk Contest. Steve Francis sucked me in, and he's been my favorite player since. Then when Yao came along, being Chinese, I had more reason to support the Rockets.
What if Hayes gets traded to another team this offseason? Will you stop being a Rockets fan? This same question also goes to Yao Ming and T-Mac fans. Anyway, born and raised in Houston. I remember watching some games during the championship years but I was too young to really understand the game. When I started playing basketball in middle school, I started watching NBA games (nationally televised games, we didn't have cable back then). I loved the playoffs in late 1990's. When we got the cable, that's when I started really watching the Rockets games more even though they sucked, Francis era. I didn't watch every game though...too busy with school and teen life! I think I started watching most of the regular season games when Yao got drafted. I'll always be a Rockets fan, no matter what. EDIT: OH yeah, I went crazy with the Comets when they first started. I followed them until the end of their championship era. After that, I stopped watching WNBA. NBA is just so much better.
When peeps say "HUH?" when I say "Derrick Chievous" when I shoot a free throw and I open my mouth or when I say "Purvis Short!" when someone shoots a RAINBOW, I laugh. I'm old, as well, sir.
Was born in Chicago, lived there for 2 years then family moved down to Baytown. Moved around various parts of Houston while staying there 15 years then moved back up to Chicago in 2001. Fell in love with the Rockets because they were my first love sport, first love sports team, and first addiction/obsession. I believe it was 91 or 92 (I was 5 or 6 at the time) and I remember the first game I ever watched was Rockets vs. Cavaliers. I remember runnin' into my parents room to tell them the Rockets game was on. After that point, I had to watch every game, replicate every play/move, do everything they did. At one point, I would eagerly await the Chronicle's printing of the NBA Rosters for all the teams at the start of the NBA season, which I would then clip out and paste on my garage wall inside my garage. Then I would follow game by game, watching it on the TV, listening on the radio (to games that were on channels I didn't have/we didnt have cable) and replicating moments in the game in my garage with a turned over shopping cart as my basket. I swear I memorized every player on every roster and had matchups going through my head every night, along with coachin strategies of how we could win. I'd even try to telepathically connect to Rudy T to pass him my ideas, or telepathically connect to a certain Rockets player who I was tryin to pass an idea. I played city league ball in 5th grade and tried to imitate Hakeem's moves, and when I got to Jr.High basketball team those moves came in handy as I was 5'7 and could play any position from PF-SF-SG because I had the height of a gaurd, with the strength and post moves of a Center/PF. I used to dream shake the **** outta kids. However when I got to be on my HS basketball team, thats when I stopped growing and yeah everyone else grew and I had to resort to stickin to just SG/SF. However, I do remember fondly my coach put me in at PF/C in two games with a few minutes left just so I could use my low post box out skills and quickness and help with the strategy in place. I was like a young, Indian Charles Barkley at the time. And that of course led me to lurk/stalk this BBS in 1998-1999 when I was 12-13 because I was ahead of other kids when it came to computer/internet business and I finally gave in and joined in Jun. 2000 at the young age of 14. Oh boy. Confessions 101. I miss those days.
Don't worry, I'm sure I'll say same thing when someone says "I was too young to really understand why fans got emotional over that Yao Ming's storied return to the Lakers game"!!
I moved to Houston (from Brownwood, TX) in 1977. A friend across the street started taking me to games. Fan for life...
Same here. I hated the Lakers. Those ******* bandwagoners didn't wear Nick Van Exel jerseys back in the mid 90s... Hell no, they had their MJ23s on. I start watching basketball in 1993 and I saw Hakeem and the Rockets play on TV one night. I just really dug them, so I cheered for them and they ended up winning it all. Been a humongous Rockets fan ever since. Moved to Houston 2 years ago and I do love getting to see them live after 13 years of only catching maybe 1-2 games a year on TV.
Was Yao really hurt on that play? I know that was a big moment for everybody and I was definitely happy to see him get back in the game...but i just kept thinking about Paul Pierce in the finals last year.
The 1986 NBA finals against Boston is what got me started when I was 7. Then I got hooked again in the early 90s when we couldn't beat Seattle in the playoffs. And the rest is history with the 94-95 championships!
My aunt's job got relocated to the Houston area around 1992. She took me to my first game a few years after that to see the Rockets play the newly formed Vancouver Grizzlies. I was hooked after that.
i never knew my birth parents. there was a car accident. my birth mother was incinerated, and i only survived because her smoking carcass had formed a protective cocoon of slaughtered human effluence. a belgian man and his fifteen year-old love slave were looting the accident scene, and came across a blood soaked baby, moi. they raised me to be a rockets fan. you know, that old chestnut.
I've been a fan relatively small amount of time. Heck, I don't even live in the States but still Houston Rockets are my favourite team and always will be. It's interesting that all the people I know that follow casual basketball always ask me about the Rockets. NBA isn't national no more, it's worldwide - it should change to WBA
I have that asked of me every so often. If Chuck is traded, yes, I will still be a Rockets fan. I never followed the NBA before... it was like cursing in our family because the NBA was all "Showboat". There's nothing about this Rockets team that showboats... and that's why when I first started watching to see how Chuck was doing I became hooked. I love Yao, I love Landry, I love Daryl and all the people he brings in. This is not a team like the Lakers, who are so easy to despise. This is no, Boston, where they basically buy their championship. This is a true team. According to the "fan rule #19" I am now forced to love the Rockets for the rest of time.. cause ain't no NBA franchise coming to Cincinnati... and I already followed my favorite college player
