you're right. if the heat offered wade to us right now for yao straight up, les would hang up the phone without hesitation. BUT i don't think yao has that much influence on adelman's coaching or what moves we make. let's be glad about that b/c if it was any other player in yao's position, they might abuse their power and control the team. yao doesn't do that. he does a great job of fitting in. you gotta admire that about him.
First season as the team's best player and seven games in the second round. I guess that is not that bad. I know of a player who is worshipped here as a "superstar' who has never won a playoff series in his more than 10 years in the NBA. You go Yao!
No doubt about it... Yao does have the ability to fire anyone not name Alexander, but would he do it? No... Adelman is still the coach and he runs the show. Plus, Adelman is smart enough to not cross the line about Yao and Yao is respectful enough to listen to the coach.
Read my response to tmac1. I wasn't refuting that. It's an absolutely sad truth but it is the truth. I was talking about who dictates how we play. Even if Yao were to use his weight to get Rick sent packing, the next coach would still be calling the shots, even if it was more to Yao's likings. The bottom line is Yao has a few years left, assuming he doesn't fall apart before then. Once he's gone, this cash cow crap will be gone for good. No player has ever had such a disproportional influence on an owner's decison-making above and beyond their actual basketball skills. Yao is very good but he ain't that good. I could care less about this cash cow crap. My extent of concern over the financials of this team is that they remain reasonably profitable so they stay in Houston. You don't need Yao to be profitable. Dallas has almost identical revenues as us and they aren't tied to any one player for any reason other than how they perform.
There are 5 teams worth more than the Rockets. You don't need Yao to be a profitable and valuable NBA franchise. The Rockets will survive post-Yao. Maybe we'll even win another championship or two like we did pre-Yao.
What do you think Les cares more about....the money he makes from the Rockets or their winningness as a franchise? We fans care about the winningness. Les cares about the money, and a Rockets franchise with Yao is far more lucrative than one without Yao. It's basic business. There's really nothing to argue about.
So who is the cash cow for the pistons? Detroit is the first u.s. city to decrease once they have 1 mil people, yet the pistons are a more valuable franchise. Who is the cash cow for the knicks and bulls? Don't get me started.
Not sure about the Pistons, but I'd guess that the value of the Knicks and Bulls is due mostly to the equity they've built up over the years.
Les cares about money but I think he cares about winning championships more than you think. He's a sports fanatic. He could have made more money in other areas if that was all he cared about. That's why you see him sitting center court at 95% of our home games. That's why he thought about bringing an NHL team to Houston even thought it was an illogical investment. He loves competition and the pride of winning championships. He's tasted it and wants more. If all he cared about was profit, he would have never gotten into this industry.
I don't have any actually evidence, but from what I read and heard. Yao is being a cash cow to Leslie's own pocket much more so than the Rox franchise... So from a pure Rox perspective, losing Yao is not that big of a problem. But if you look at it from Leslie's perspective, losing Yao means losing a lot of money..
It has nothing to do with equity built up as much as the arena,local cable and radio,luxury suites and concessions. Before Cuban and the AA arena, the Mavs were terrible financially. Cuban came in and began to market the team bigtime all the way to the 75 mile radius. If les knew wasn't just riding the yao train, he would have a choke hole on the entire valley and into mexico. The fact that the Toyota center is downtown vs the summit was on the southwest side tripled the value alone.
Maybe Les can adopt Yao in order to keep those non-basketball relationships going and refocus his efforts on building the best possible basketball team with no favoritism toward players for reasons other than how they contribute on the court.
He may want to win, but money is still the main factor in his decision making; otherwise, he'd be willing to go deep into the luxury tax.
