How Long Have You Been, and What Made You Into a Rocket Fan?

It's simple for me.....my father got a job transfer from New Haven, Connecticut to Houston in 1979. I was 5. So really, Houston I consider to be my hometown. I really started watching the Rockets in 1981 against the Celtics in the playoffs and just got hooked.

That's it.

 

I can remember being a rockets fan since around 8th grade. I remember sitting up and watching all the rockets games at my grandmas house cheering for sleepy floyd, larry smith, and of course The Dream. Houston sports run deep in my blood, from the former oilers, rockets, astros and now texans. But first and foremost I will always be a hardcore rockets fan, bleeding red til I die.

 

Certainly not born into it, being from Wisconsin I was born into being a Packer fan and didn't really discover basketball until just before junior high. Of course at this time it was all Jordan but I couldn't get into his game. I didn't know much about the sport yet but I knew just starting I couldn't really connect with someone like Jordan when I was a short white kid with no shooting range. But as I got into junior high I just happened to turn on a game in which I got to watch a certain center play his game. I was astonished so I kept watching. I fell in love with the game the way Hakeem played it. So, just so happened that summer I grew about 4 inches and caught up to alot of people but I still didn't have the range. So I studied The Dream and started shooting fadeaways over everyone. Hakeem molded not only my love for the game of basketball but how I personally played the game. Been following the Rockets ever since.

 

I became a Rockets fan by going to my first game in 1977 Rudy T,Moses Malone,Calvin Murphy ,and the rest of the central division champions of that year made me a fan for life.

 

Ok this is kinda embarresing. I became a Rocket fan in 1996.
I grew up not knowing anything of Basketbal. I never played basketbal myself. But when i turned 14 i started playing basketbal on the playground of my school. I immediatly became a basketbal fan. I Loved how Hakeem played, i always tried to d his moves. My playstyle was very similar to hakeem's.
So i became a Rocket fan, After I started to cheer for the rockets i learned they won 2 championships. It is pretty dificult to follow basketbal in holland, but since internet is very popular and my parents got internet i started visiting this site. Meanwhile one channel in holland broadcasted Basketbal, so i watched that everytime.

So basically i became a rocketsfan in 1996 and i became a fan because i loved how Hakeem played the game.(altough i never saw him in his prime ).

 

I have been a Rockets fan since 1994, when I learned of the NBA while I was in Houston. I remember the OJ chase coming on during the basketball game and I was like, "It must be New York". I didn't become a hardcore fan until about 1997. But to this day, I love my Rockets. I always will.

 

When I was little my grandfather would follow the NBA and he happened to come to Houston around the time we were playing Boston for the ring around 86.. I would watch Rockets games off and on then when I got older I followed them like a cult and the 2 rings just cemented the foundation for being a diehard fan... The Rockets are the ONLY pro sports team I cheer for an I plan to keep it that way.. So I guess I've been a fan for 20 years next year, I am sad that I never found this place in the 90's

 

My dad would come home from work and follow the same routine, night after night during basketball season. He would turn the thermostat down to sub-arctic temperature, take off his clothes down to his underwear, put his beer in the fridge (the absolute cheapest beer he could find - usually Falstaff or Olympia). He would get his bag of fried pork skins ready, tune in the Rockets on the TV, turn down the volume of "those idiot announcers", and turn on his AM radio to listen to Gene Peterson. And I would watch with him.

Different people show their love in different ways, and he and I enjoyed the Rockets games together. Today, I don't drink the beer or eat the pork skins. I don't strip to my undies and make the room freezing. But I watch the Rockets, and I listen to Gene (I don't think the TV guys are that bad, but they ain't Gene). And I think of my dad (who is now miserable because, due to obvious health reasons, he is no longer able to drink his beer and eat the pork skins).

 

native Houstonian - always loved to play basketball as a kid, so my dad would get 2 for 1 tickets to see The Big WHopper, Calvin and Rudy T play on SUnday afternoons in the Summit

1986 - went to a playoff game against LA and watch Lou Lloyd go off on Magic and company

1994 - watched game seven in a bar in Wyoming (I was there for school)

1995 - watch game 4 and hit Rochmond with 2 million of my closest friends !

 

i grew up here...my dad loved sports. the end.

actually it really started for me in 1986...i loved that team. same year i fell in love big time with the Astros.

 

Moved to Houston 20 or so years ago, a Lakers fan. Rooted local v Lakes. Transitioned to the Rox. Transition complete by the time Sampson's shot fell through.

Remained a Lakes fan 2nd, always an MJ fan (that's Magic Johnson). By now -- nothing can alter my single-minded fanness of the Rox.

I follow lots of players and lots of teams, but devotionally ROF!

 

In 1986 my father took me to my first Rockets game. I was 9 years old. I asked him "Who's good?". He pointed out number 34 - Akeem Olajawon. He did not lie. Dream was amazing that night and I was completely in awe. I've been a Rockets fan ever since.

 

My earliest Rocket memory is when I was 7 years old and we were playing the Celtics in the finals (1986.) I think the Finals were played during the day back then, and I can remember our teachers bringing a tv into the classroom and letting us watch it. I must have been in 2nd grade or somewhere around there. I still remember proudly wearing my "Un-beat-able" shirt to school those days.

 

since-81

Murphy & Malone

 

90, 91 ish started playing, then watching, those first two seasons bein gousted by the lakers, sucked, but i have been hooked ever since. i bleed rocket red

 

Baseball was my first love but I wasn't good at it, Whereas I had a little game on the court and starting playing a lot in early 1992. My love for playing basketball at that time got me into watching the Rockets. The Rockets run for the playoffs in 1992 really got me hooked to the team, and even though the Rockets missed the playoffs after losing to Phoenix in the regular season finale, I was sold.

 

I was raised in Milwaukee as a Buck fan, but when I moved to Houston, where my mom's family is from, in 1985 it was root for Houston Teams or else. Most of my adolescent and early 20's were spent watching the Rockets.
Being a Houston sports fan and dealing with not only losing the big game but in losing in ways that can hurt (91 oilers,86 astros,83 coogs) you either quit or it makes that much more die hard. The moment that sticks out in my mind the most is game 3 of the 94 conference semi-finals against Phoenix. Friday the 13th. I made little brother stay up and watch that game and by the end of the night as the Rockets were pulling ahead, we going crazy.That's when I knew that instead of just being a Rocket fan, I would forever be a Rocket fanatic.

 

Grew up in Houston and always loved watching sports since I was a kid. I was hardcore from the moment I watched my first game. I used to fight with my parents when I was in little so that I could stay up and watch the west coast late games.

 

I apologize for English I from Russia. Was born in 1976. Always took a great interest in sports, basically football. In basketball played very seldom. In the end 80 at us on tv have started to show " the Best games of NBA ". Very often showed Portland. Clyde Drexler became my idol. Its game is easier miracle! When it has passed to Houston, I began to watch Rockets. And became their fan. But about 98 years of NBA have ceased to show on popular tv-channels. Watched games under newspapers and the Internet. In the past to year has put itself satellite TV (in Russia it very dearly). Also I can look now games of NBA every day. The truth of the Rocket seldom show: ((((. But I am happy when it happens. Houston Rockets - for ever!