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

Ever since I came out of the womb.

 

1990....growing up in Austin...the spurs put me to sleep and some player named Hakeem something or other sparked my interest which now leads to checking this website 3 times a day

 

I've been a rockets fan for awhile... but yeah after 8th grade I stopped playing basketball for awhile. then 2 years later I got back into them.

 

Being a rockets fan was ingrained into me at an early age when I was about 3 watching the Rockets playing the Celtics with my mom while my dad was at work. I casually watched them as a kid but my interest didnt really take off until I watched a preseason game right before the 93 season started when I was in sixth grade. I remember telling a friend around the all star break the it was gonna be the Rockets and Knicks in the finals and the Rockets were gonna win it in seven. Lo and Behold I was right.

 

Being from Portland I was always a huge Trail Blazers fan because Clyde Drexler was my favorite and will always be. The day he he was traded to Houston was the day I became a Rockets fan FOR LIFE. I used to hate the Rockets because they were so good. The most unmemorable (at the time) but amazing at the same time was a game at the Summit in 94 where Rod Strickland came in for a Lay-up and Hakeem came out of no where and capped the **** out of him and then Drexler got the ball and he got rejected as well real bad. I actually wanted Ewing and the Knicks to beat us in 93-94. I can't believe I just said that
Looking back thank goodness for Dream blocking Starks.

 

EVer since we drafted Dream. I followed him in college and when we drafted him, I have been attached to this team since.

 

I used to listen to the games on 740 all the time, Jim Foley and Gene Peterson.

Then my dad took me to a game. I think they were playing Mark Eaton and the Utah Jazz. I got the media guide, at the time Hakeem had just changed his name from Akeem Olajuwon, and the Rockets had Buck Johnson and Vernon Maxwell and Sleepy Floyd and Carl Herrera and Kenny Smith and Larry Smith and Dave Jamerson (remember him? )

 

way to go ima_drummer2k...
i feel like such a dork now cus i actually have a tear in my eye from reading everyones' rockets stories....totally feelin the luv 4 the rocks and the phans.......okay...lurk (non-posting) mode back on for me now....

 

Ever since 86 and the shot heard round the world (Ralph Sampson's shot to knock the Lakers out of the playoffs and go to the finals)!

 

Can't believe anybody can vote less than 5 stars for a thread like this. What's to not like about it? How long people have been fans? "Oh my God, he's only been a fan for 8 years - this thread sucks!" Weird.

 

I'm 36, I've been a Rockets fan since I was 17 years old.

I remember the Finals against Boston, Dream and Sampson against Bird et al. That was painful.

Going to church next morning after a double or triple overtime loss to hear the preacher josh us about "staying up past midnight to watch a team lose."

Watching our guard tandem Lloyd and Wiggins go down in history the same day as cokeheads.

I missed a lot when I was in the military 89-93, as I was overseas, but I re-found the Rockets with a vengeance, especially in the championship years, when I got too wound up to watch the entire game. WAY TOO WOUND UP. I'd turn off the TV and go in the other room to read a book, except I wasn't reading at all, and I'd stalk back to the TV and turn it on, to see Mario Elie's kiss of death to Joe Kleine.

The memories will only accrue, my brethren. Young and old, Democrat or Republican, black or brown or white or f***ing blue, male or female....why I love coming to this web site; there are people out there who love the Rockets even more than I do. And I can't imagine such an obsession!

Long live the Rockets!!

 

Drex and Hakeem were my two favorite individual players. When Clyde got traded and won the title with Hakeem in Houston, that sorta sealed it.

 

Three words: The Big Three.

I became a "die-hard" Rockets fan in 1996 as a 13-year-old growing up in Canada. Living in Toronto, basketball had overtaken hockey to become my favorite sport, and the Rockets were one of my favorite teams during the championship years. Casual fandom turned into downright obsession, however, once the Rockets traded for Charles Barkley (my all-time favorite power forward) and put him alongside Dream (my all-time favorite center) and Clyde (my 2nd all-time favorite shooting guard, next to MJ).

My best memories from that time include stocking up on whatever Rockets trading cards I could get my hands on (luckily, all of my friends willingly traded anything Rockets-related my way, understanding my fixation), and I still should have a pair of cards that I'll never forget. One was of "The Big 3" (and had graphics that mesmerized this 13-year-old), and the other was some sort of a 'legends' series in which one all-time great talks on the back of the card about another contemporary all-time great. On this card, Dream was the subject, David Robinson the speaker. BTW, this was right after the back-to-backs (priceless).

I also remember not being able to even watch playoff games on the weekdays, since TNT/ESPN hadn't yet come to Canadian cable and NBC didn't play games on weekdays (at least in the early rounds). Instead, I would eagerly stay up to watch Sportsdesk on TSN every night for the clips (Canada's version of Sportscenter on ESPN), since we hadn't yet gotten the internet (when we did, the following year, it was AOL Canada btw - how funny is that? America Online Canada - couldn't think of a better name? ).

My best memory from that time period would have to be watching the playoffs on the weekends, though. I had so much faith in that team, I honestly thought they'd go all the way (and I really, really really wanted that MJ/Scottie/Rodman vs. Dream/Clyde/Chuck Finals - who the hell wouldn't?). The only games I'd get in Toronto would be the NBA on NBC weekends, during which I'd go back-and-forth between shooting hoops in my driveway and dashing back to the TV set. Except, of course, when the Rockets were on; then I'd just clutch my basketball and watch. I probably never have since, and never will again, have as much fun with basketball as I did then.

I told myself I'd probably stop cheering for Rox once the original three had left, but that's never come close to happening. Rudy grew on me; then the team in general; followed by Steve Francis; then Yao; and most recently T-Mac. Each year I've found that my fixation, if anything, has only grown, and I realized in 1999 that my obsession was going nowhere when I got NBA League pass as a Christmas present (after having moved to the States) so that I could watch and videotape every Rockets game from Francis' rookie year.

I did. It was fun.

Good times.

 

I was born & raised in Atlanta, but had familt out here, so I always kind of kept up with the sports teams from both cities. But became a Full-Time Rockets fan the day that idiot GM for the Hawks traded Dominique Wilkins for a rental of Danny Manning. This was back when the Hawks were good (believe it or not, it did happen!). They actually had the # 1 seen in the East that year. But the trade killed the team chemistry & they have never recovered. Now don't go calling me bandwagon because the Rockets won the title that year. The Rockets were always my #2 since I was a youngster. I just flipped them is all

 

Rockets fan since the day i came screaming into this world

 

my dad got me on the rockets. he's from San Jacinto City and when i was a kid we visited his parents a lot, about once a month or so. my dad and grandfather are HUGE sports nuts and if any houston sports are on tv, we're watching them. so i saw a lot of rockets games and hakeem just blew me away and instantly became one of my favorite players and i started to follow the rockets really close. when they won the back-to-back titles i interchanged wearing the championship shirts each week. i rubbed it in my friend's faces who were mostly bulls fans because they loved MJ sooooo much (as do i) and when he tried his baseball thing they were so mad. they always told me "if MJ where still playing you wouldn't have those shirts to wear". but i always said, but he isn't. he's batting .200 in birmingham...get over it.

awwwww, good memories.

 

<sniff> Tito get me a tissue.... j/k

That is so cool......if you two get married you have to do it a a Rockets half time now.

I became a Rockets fansome 21 years ago back in '84 when I moved here from Connecticut where I was a die hard Boston Celtics fan. Since the Rockets were the only local team I naturally migrated over. That was right about the time they got Dream in the draft. I must admit I was a little torn when the Rockets and Celtics played each other in the finals in '86 for obvious reasons. But I hung on through the dark times and vividly remember the first championship in '94 and still get goose bumps whenever I watch any video highlighting that. And remembering how Dream looked after he had won it, all punch drunk with joy. I think he was literally floating on a cloud at that point, especially when you add the MVP and Defensive player of the year honors to his Finals MVP. WOW!!! gettin' goose bumps just typing this now....

 

This is my favorite thread!! Someone should send it to the Rockets and the players and organization to let them know how much we love them and how much they mean to us!!! <sniff sniff>

 

Since the year of the Yao.