Page 2 By Scoop Jackson Page 2 109-75. Let's not go there. ***** The banners are up. Everywhere. The minute you land in the city, you know the business. That annual feeling. The All-Star Game is in town. H-town. For the first time since '89. Les Alexander is sitting somewhere, proud. Basketballs in the shape of states. Nike's alphabet campaign all along I-610. Building-size images of Tracy McGrady on the front of the Toyota Center. It's been a tough season for T-Mac and Yao Ming. When I asked a brotha in a T-Mac jersey at the airport what the feeling about the Rockets is in the city, his one-word answer was: "Whatever." Could it have gotten to that already? This soon? Only four months after talking about balling for the Western Conference crown? Less than three weeks ago the Rockets had the worst record in the Western Conference. With Yao (foot), Tracy (back) and Rafer (leg) missing almost an entire half-season due to injuries, the prediction that the Rockets would make a serious run at dethroning the Spurs seems now, as one gentleman in Houston said to me, "dumber than a house plant." But in the last two weeks, ever since Yao and T-Mac have been on the floor together, Alexander's squad has won seven out of eight. Including a beatdown of the team that has benefitted the most from the Rockets' downfall: the Clippers. All-Star Weekend • Neel: The day the dunk was born • Video: All-time slam dunks • Complete All-Star Weekend coverage Then Phoenix embarrasses them 109-75. And all over the city people feel like it's all over. A wrap. Fin. The love is gone like a Rick James classic. The All-Star Game was supposed to come to Houston in the middle of a season the Rockets hadn't seen since Dream was wearing pinstriped uniforms. The addition of Stromile (Swift) and Skip … a year past T-Mac and Yao's learning to play with each other … a year past Jeff Van Gundy's finding his coaching comfort zone … Basically, the Rockets were supposed to be the Mavericks right now. This was supposed to be their time to shine. Instead, in this city, the Texans are getting the above-the-fold-line love. ***** At George Bush Intercontinental, skycap Utopia Lastrap, a "born here, gonna die here" Houston native who at one time had the mayor speak at his wedding, gives a synopsis of the feeling around the city about the Rockets. "There's no excitement here. The fans are somewhere between being blaze-blah and being mad. Is it the players or is it the coach? That's the vibe. It's like that comment Tracy McGrady made last year about [Van Gundy's] coaching the team that he has and catering to their talents as opposed to coaching them to what he thinks they should be doing." Jeff Van Gundy hasn't been able to work his magic ... yet. Inside the Red Cat Jazz Cafe, Julius Erving and Clyde Drexler are in the back in lounge mode, while Frankie Beverly's "Joy and Pain" gets a live impromptu solo from saxophonist Mike Phillips. When asked about the Rockets, one patron drinking Patron screams out, "The Rockets are a sorry-ass team!" But Nicole Thomas, massage therapist, a Lafayette, La., native but Houston resident for 10 years and former Rockets employee, clears up the general feeling. "We're happy the NBA is here for the All-Star Game, but in Houston fans are frustrated. probably as frustrated as the players. We understand the injuries, but coming into the season there were expectations. They only love you unless you're losing. Yeah, the Rockets are on a winning streak right now, but can they salvage the season? Because if you're not talking playoffs in Houston, then what are you saying?" Closer to the Galleria, at Smith and Wollensky, CitiGroup investment banker Andy Bynam, a Houstonian and die-hard Rockets fan, sings the same chorus as it seems everyone else in the 713 seems to be Luther'ing. "If you aren't winning in Houston the city doesn't give a [expletive]," he says. But … "There's a lot of skepticism about the Rockets, they're only four games behind the Lakers, but they can't afford any games lost to injuries or long losing streaks. And a lot of people here are down on Yao, but without him they don't win." Ah, the Yao factor. The dilemma. The drama. It seems all over Houston the center is at the center of everything. And that ain't cool. Regardless of whether the team wins or loses games, the fate of Yao is … is … well, it's somewhere in between what Ralph Sampson did while he was here and what Olajuwon did. It's somewhere the city has been before. And that ain't cool. Inside County Hospital, emergency room services employee Vance Kendall, a Houston resident for over 10 years, spits the Yao truth: "Yao is on the bubble," he says. "The city is over him right now." Do they need Yao to dominate, I ask? "Yes," Kendall responds. Can he dominate, I ask him? "He never has. And his body language and mentality tells me that he probably never will." He holds his breath. "He's too mechanical." Then he furthers the Houston paradox. "It's very hard to get behind this team, they're asking Tracy [McGrady] to provide too much at too many positions. You are looking at a team that at best is a 7-8 spot team in the playoffs with their major weakness being defense. And they'll have to get by either S-A, Dallas or Phoenix? Everyone in Houston knows that's not going to happen." Inside the lobby of the JW Marriott, Terrance Harris of the Houston Chronicle verbalizes the sum of all fears. "At the beginning of the year everyone had high expectations of what the Rockets were going to do … now, everyone is like, 'whatever.' The people here are over it, they're through. I'm not saying that they've given up [on the Rockets' season] but for them to think this team is going to get past San Antonio, they know better." And that ain't cool. At all. ***** I made a prediction in ESPN The Magazine at the beginning of the season. I said that if the Rockets were ballin' solid by April 22, 2006, they would be the team that nobody wants to see. Especially not in the first round. Yao could use some support from H-town. I said Dallas would not be a problem. I said Phoenix wouldn't have an Amare or a prayer against them. I came close to saying that this year the Rockets would shake up the world and screw up the West like the clique inside the city they dwell. That island is empty now. And I'm Richard Hatch. Now is not the time to give up on Yao, Van Gundy, this team. Now is the time for the city to rediscover the love for a team that it hoped was going to rekindle memories of '94-95. A team that the city was ready to wrap its arms around. And now it can't. Or it won't. But I don't live here. I'm not stuck inside the fifth-largest city in the country supporting a basketball team that -- with the help of God's sick sense of humor with injuries -- has turned a potential season of heaven into a perpetual season from hell. Hell, I've had to live with loving the Cubs for a lifetime. Empathy doesn't live here. But after being here for two days before the All-Star jump-off, I have learned one thing: The biggest concern in Houston right now is not -- as Mr. Lastrap said at the airport -- whether the Rockets make the playoffs or ever live up to their potential. It's whether the Texans are going to draft Vince Young. Scoop Jackson is an award-winning journalist who has covered sports and culture for more than 15 years. He is a former editor of Slam, XXL, Hoop and Inside Stuff magazines and the author of "Battlegrounds: America's Street Poets Called Ballers" and "LeBron James: the Chambers of Fear." He resides in Chicago with his wife and two kids. You can e-mail Scoop here. Sound off to Page 2 here. OUCH!!! I still believe Scoop! Lock if already posted...I didn't see it. And thanks Carlos if you're reading.
"If you aren't winning in Houston the city doesn't give a [expletive]," he says. Boy, you said it Andy.
Wow. Exactly who took over the 4th largest city spot? It certainly didn't happen in the last two census.
I am kind of surprised by the low support. People only start to care when you are winning? I don't know how much support Lakers get from the fans when they are not winning. I am wondering whether Boston fans still support the Celtics, because they haven't been winning for so long, given their glorious history. After 6 championships, Bulls were crap team for quite a while, and just started to turn to be more respectable. I don't know whether they had supports in previous couple of years. Houston fans enjoyed much less past success, but won't give a damn if you aren't winning? Not cool.
you can tell the people he interviewed watch very little if any of the houston rockets and particularly yao ming.
Over-all, I liked the article, but no, we're not the fifth-largest city in the country. We're definitely the fourth, and while Chicago is actually getting smaller we're still on the list of fastest growing cities.
With only Sura out with injury, and with only 29 games left to play, the Rockets are out of excuses for losing. And the fans have every right to be pessimistic about them (though I'm not). You see, all season long we've held our breath while our players have healed. We've been telling ourselves, "Yeah! When we're healthy, we're gonna be that team that can beat anybody and challenge SA for the championship." And then T-Mac and Yao came back. And lost their first game together. Okay... a little wind out of the sails... but they're rusty and haven't gel'ed together, right? well.. yeah... so... after a few games together, our team is better. But it's a far cray from where it should be. That's what Phoenix showed us. And now we don't know what the solution is. Our players are healthy (except for Sura). Our team has talent. We're now looking for directions to point the finger. "We have no leader"... "Our coach isn't good enough"... "T-Mac has personal issues"... Either that, or we just give up. And many of us have. I feel that we should get behind the Rockets, because, even though we're not that team yet, we still have the potential to be that team and we still can make the playoffs. But I understand the motivation behind those who have given up. When the author of that article said, "Now is not the time to give up on Yao, Van Gundy, this team." I have to repsond by saying that this team has given its fans a whole lot of reasons to give up. Even though I haven't given up, I understand why others would.
sorry, but you find these types of fans in every city. there are some of us out there who are diehards, but a lot are just casual fans. casual means, when the team is winning you are all over them. you love them, you have loved them your entire life, you're excited. it also means when they are down you don't care about them because they aren't peaking your interest, because you aren't really attached to the team. austin and san marcos are the same way. there were a TON of astros fans during the world series. not many wearing hats and shirts, talking about them when they were 15-30. hell i bet most of the fans in san marcos and austin don't even know they were 15-30 at one point this season. there are also a lot of spurs and mavs fans recently. no one was wearing spurs and mavs stuff when they sucked. most wouldn't even know who rolando blackman and george gervin are. most austin mavs fans don't even know that they have never made it to the nba finals. some kid at school made a comment to me during the playoffs last year because i was wearing my rockets stuff and he said stuff doubting that i was a real rockets fan. i said okay. tell me something about the mavs then? i said who would you consider the best player in team history? he said dirk. i said what about rolando blackman or michael finley? he said who is blackman? i just laughed at him. and i asked how many finals have your mavs been to. he didn't know. he asked me the same questions. answered all of them, and he just walked off. that is the typical central texas mavs fan and spurs fan.
Hey man, don't hate on all San Martians. I was there for both championship clinching games. Been going to Astros, Rockets, Oilers, Texans, even freakin Texas Terror games for about 20 years (only bond with my dad is sports and he's had season tickets since late 70s). Houston sports is my life. I wish i could just find some way to translate my soon to be psych degree into a career dealing with sports without grad school. Still a very proud Houstonian full of optimism. Heartache always follows us, but at least our teams are always composed of great, loyal men.
As a hardcore Rocket fan, I always feel like a minority in Houston (the main reason I love this bbs so much). If you stop the average guy on the street and ask him about the Rockets, you probably won't get much. If you ask him if we should take Young or Bush, different story. Except for the championship years when everyone jumped on the bandwagon (then soon jumped right back off again), basketball has always been 3rd fiddle in this city. That's just the way it is and will always be until we break through and make a deep playoff run.
i'm not hating on all of san marcos. i'm just telling people who don't live here the state of the area. i know there are good loyal fans here, and i'm glad you are one. but this area, like everywhere else is FULL of bandwagon, casual fans. it's just the truth. i was so happy with the astros success, but it was also sad to see all the people jumping on the bandwagon acting like real fans and weren't. those people ALWAYS take away some of the fun and happiness, because they try to get in on it while everything is going good but aren't there when you are getting your heart ripped out when the astros were losing other WS opportunities.
Houston has always had one of the most fair-weathered fans in the nation, it's always been that way. This ain't Philly or NYC or Chi-town, where the fans are there through the thick and thin, they might complain and b**** and boo but at least they're there to let the teams know "We give a ****". Anyways, Houston is what it is, we have always been lucky enough to have good teams throughout the decades, so may be fans are spoiled that way and have high expectations. I don't know, it's just what it is.
I don't blame the fans. This team is lucky to have fans. When you lose most of your home games. When you typically play horribly on your home court, win or lose. When you take a game off every few games. When you are incredibly inconsistent. When you look like you barely care. When your offense is like constipation. When you can't make a jumper, a lay up, or a dunk. When you quit in the middle of games. When your coach looks like he is clinically depressed. When..... Like I said, the Rockets are lucky to have fans. Who wants suffering for entertainment!? Only the hardcore, because we are certifiably crazy and are addicted to this board. If we had any sense we wouldn't be here. We would be empty seats.
i just read that and it's sad...a writer for espn actually seems to have more faith than the houstonians, who are arguably the most fair-weather fans around. just ask the astros. i still believe they will make the playoffs. people should leave t-mac alone. just because he's a millionaire and a star athelete does not mean he's not human. nobody knows for sure, and it's really nobody's business. there are actually t-mac bashers on this forum now...one thread is titled "t-mac sucks"...few weeks ago, his significance ranked only second the The Almighty...people who bash atheletes should get on that reality show "pros vs. joes."
I met Scoop this weekend on Dallas St. leaving the GRBCC from the Jam Session...he stopped and took a picture with me and my friend. I will upload my All-Star pics later...However, they would not let me take my camera inside of Club Derrty @ Hush!!!
