Doesn't work that way in the Basketball HOF. People go in. No affiliation necessary. ------------------
If Dream really is leaving to Toronto, I hope the Rockets get Keon Clark and another decent big man from Toronto, and use their exemption to get another quality big man. That would be nice! ------------------ "Instruments are like women: After a while, you want to make love to another." - Nicolas Godin of the musical duo Air
word, treeman. here's my list of bottom 5 places for hakeem to end up: 1) utah 2) new york 3) seattle 4) dallas 5) phoenix this whole situation BLOWS. hakeem is loving this. some people may say, "well, he deserves to enjoy his day in the sun, his time as a free agent." I say, "screw that." what hakeem has enjoyed has been 17 years of unadulterated love and affection from the city of houston. if he leaves us, I am prepared to consider all kinds of feelings toward him that, before now, I would have never thought possible. it's like a guy leaving his wife of 30 years but not for some young, new hottie that's going to be his new wife forever now that the other one has gotten old and fat. it's like he's leaving the first one to go have a 15-minute fling with a girl who's not even hot. SIGN THE DAMN HOUSTON CONTRACT, DREAM! once you go down this road you're flirting with, you can NEVER come back. ------------------ houston rockets = 2 utah jazz = 0
How about we let Dream go to Toronto, and whenever his contract expires (2-3 years) we resign him (for nothing to very little) and allow him to retire in a Rockets uniform? Sounds good to me. ------------------ 13-0
******Not even considering Houston****** PLEASE! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 20, 2001 Pacers, Raptors Top Dream's List By TRG The Indiana Pacers have joined the Hakeem Olajuwon Sweepstakes, offering a US location for Hakeem to display his skills. The Raptors, though, continue to up the ante and are now talking about a 4 or 5 year deal for Hakeem. There has been discussion of a sign and trade (see below), but the most consistent rumor around the league is that Hakeem would get Toronto's 4.5 million exception with maximum raises each year for 4 or 5 years. Here's the strange part. BskBALL reports that Hakeem is not considering Houston as an option, which is consistent with a statement I heard attributed to Dan Fegan. The Rockets were offering a little over 4 million at the end of the season and Hakeem said it was not nearly enough. They upped their offer a day or so ago and Hakeem still is not considering Houston? Something stinks about this whole thing. Does the rest of the league have amnesia, or is it me? We are talking about aging center Hakeem Olajuwon, right? To hear Hakeem or his agent talk you would think he was coming off another championship year with a fresh Finals MVP trophy on his shelf. I was under the impression we were talking about a guy who has limped through the last 4 seasons and looked like death warmed over much of the time. Granted, he finished the end of last season on a very positive note, but that is not something anyone believe he can do for 82 games next season. When you talk about Hakeem Olajuwon today, you're talking about 50 games, 20 minutes per game, 9 points, 6 rebounds, and maybe a block. If you're lucky, you get a Dream Shake every other game. Has this league gotten so out of control with salaries that THAT is now worth $10 million a year? If so, I hope it is worth it to Toronto. The Rockets have made Hakeem a more than generous offer and he can take it or leave it. I think they offered him too much, to be honest. Hakeem is a good player, but this is Steve's team now and we can only afford to coddle Hakeem for so long. Greed has gotten way out of hand in Hakeem's camp (Thanks, Dan Fegan), and it looks like time for him to move on. SIDE NOTE: It has been suggested to me by a fan from Toronto that the news up there is discussing Keon Clark. The Raptors do not feel they can re-sign him next summer (probably because Hakeem will have all their money), and that he might be part of a sign-and trade. ------------------ Keep Mo Ta & now we have Ta Mo [This message has been edited by r-fan-since-81 (edited July 20, 2001).]
I've got a sign & trade idea. It involves us forcing Cato on the Raptors. Houston sends: Dream @ $10 mill per year & Cato's $6 mill Toronto sends: Chris Childs: $5.2 mill(expiring contract) Dell Curry: $2.1 mill (expiring contract) Eric Montross: $2.48 mill Keon Clark: $1,971,116 We'd be sending out $16 mill & receiving back $11,751,116. We could renounce Childs & let him go back to Toronto or trade him to someone else. Curry would make a nice backup SG. He shot 43% from 3 point range. We'd have Montross & Clark at center to go along with Collier. This whole transaction would only use up about $5.75 mill of our available cap space if we were to just outright renounce Dream, which would leave us with about $10-11 mill to resign MO, Moochie, Bull, & Shandon. Next year, we would have Walt/Curry/Child's salaries dropping off at approximately $14 mill, less the acquired contracts of Montross/Clark at $5,446,118, for a total available cap space of approximately $8.5 mill. This doesn't take into account the increase in salaries from MO/Moochie/Shandon/Griffin/T-Mo. With this trade we'd have a lineup of: C: Montross/Clark/Collier PF: MO/KT/Griffin SF: Griffin/Langhi/T-Mo/Walt SG: Mobley/Curry/Shandon PG: Francis/Moochie I'd even consider letting Shandon go, instead of resigning him, to help out next year's cap situation. Any thoughts? ------------------ A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.
Here's a thought. Eric Montrous is possibly the absolute worst 7 footer to ever get drafted in the first round outside of Yinka Dar (sp?). With that line up I think Montrous would be third on the Depth chart. ------------------
I am amazed at TRG. Why are you so taken aback with the attention that the Dream is getting? I mean if you do not want the man on your team again that is one thing but to grudge the Dream for all the attention is amazing to me. Just this week Todd Mac, a classic unproven, slow, white boy got $5m per year. That is what it is all about - market value. You do not know what you have until you lose it and quite frankly a lot of Rocket fans have been spoilt. Have you seen the magnitude of the attention that came out of the woodwork once the rest of the league realized the Rockets were forming the royal donkey? Believe me, none of those folks are under the influence of drugs; they simple know what it is like to come close and have to loose because you do not have a centre. Toronto, Indiana, and Utah know this only too well. In fact, had the Rockets not low-balled the Dream all this attention would not have surfaced. But having lowered that bar it essentially invited all these other people to join the jackpot. Who can blame Toronto for not seeing the Dream as an unbelievable addition to go with their talent? This is a team that believes it is close. The Rockets should feel that way and must understand that they cannot replace the Dream this year, no matter how much of a magician CD is. There is no justification for the low offer. Apparently they are trying to get cap space to sign Anderson. Unless Anderson is Les' grandson or something, he has no place on the team. He certainly have no place being part of a stumbling block for the signing of Akeem. This is a grave error in jugdement on the rockets part. How much is having Akeem retire a rocket valued. What premium should be placed on that? Are we to take something like that casually or are we supposed to bend over backwards to make it happen. Should that be worth $1m or $2m? And what about the premium for the glory days? $1m. These premiums in addition to the fact that he is still a very productive center should forbide the Rockets from making such a ridiculous offer. I am really saddened to hear that the Rockets are not on the top of Dream's list. That says alot because it means he concluded that they were not serious. This is really a dark day. ------------------
It will be worse for Hakeem if he leaves Houston. If he plays for Toronto, he should be booed when he returns to Houston for that 1 game. When he goes into the Hall, he will go as a Rocket, no questions asked. The way i figure it is we tell thousands of people in Houston this: If and when anyone sees him, make him feel guilty if he leaves Hou. Why not put a little kid in that picture crying non stop until Dream commits to Houston. He's not going to win a championship in Toronto. I feel this is the Rockets year. They have been plagued with injuries year after year since the championship seasons. This is the year I feel the ROckets can pull together and go all the way. ------------------
