Nothing personal though. I wish him the best and hope he can recover from his illness. God bless him.
I'm a fan of the Rockets as long as they're a class organization that treats legends and champions with respect. Like I said, I'm waiting for more facts to come out.
now after that sappy post, what to do now. first, mourn a little. for as long as i've known the rockets, there's been rudy T. anyone who is actually happy to see it end is wrong. i see larry brown as the best coach available but am not sure he's the right guy simply b/c he's getting older and wants to retire seemingly every year. not sure how good it would be if we're here 3 years from now again wondering who our coach is going to be. plus he's too trade happy. van gundy. good at D, didn't have an O in ny. where's the improvement? still i probably take him 2nd anyways if for some reason he doesn't end up in cleveland. silas. just doesn't inspire me for some reason. cleamons. i've said before on here i'd like us to run the triangle (with more shooters on board obviously). i'm assuming cleamons knows it well after being around it for a decade or so. could be a good sleeper choice. me agreeing with leebigez on a basketball issue, man. i guess there's hope i'll agree with DavidS one day. is there anybody else? more thoughts: don't trade francis or cat! although if i had to choose between steve and cat i'm not sure who i'd trade. cuttino brings D and i'm not sure how much less he would produce offensively if given steve's freedom. cuttino is the most underrated player on this board and one of the most underrated in the league. the fact he has a lower than market value contract is amazing (simon honeybone, maybe you should just stick to talking football at LFZ if you think cuttino has a bad contract). don't cut tino. i really don't want any major overhauls in this team unless they bring in 3 point shooters (which isn't really major but i think is key) or elton brand. man this is sad and shocking. it's actually all over. the championship years are now dead. only happened 10 years ago, yet it seems like another lifetime. hopefully this new coach brings back the glory days and hopefully rudy never leaves this team and is here to enjoy it all too. thanks for everything rudy.
Rox needs a new coach, but more importantly, some good knowledgeable assistant coaches!!! Larry Smith's short tenure proves it!
The Sixers won 31 games in Brown's first (Iverson's 2nd) year. What 'immediate turnaround'? By Iverson's 4th year, Brown had them at 49 wins (in the East, mind you). The Rockets won 45 games in Francis' second year. What's the big deal here? Philly won 56 in Iverson's 5th year, but Rudy isn't getting a 5th year w/Francis, not to mention that Iverson's a better player. The 'turnaround' of the Clippers? They won 41 games! Come on. Danny Manning was a borderline great player (23 pts a game). Loy Vaught was practically a 20-10 guy! Ron Harper was a 20-pts-a-game scorer! Mark Jackson was their point guard! This was a YOUNG Mark Jackson. 41 wins with that team is flat-out underachievement. I'm a little hazy on the Pacer stuff, but all I know is he won 47 games in his first year there. When he left he won 39 games. Rookie coach Larry Bird took an inferior Pacer team to the Finals. Again, what's so impressive here?
Now that Rudy is stepping down. It should also be time to revamp that coaching staff. They need veteran coaches. Please no new coaches. Silas would be ok. Fratello would be good. Van Gundy would be better. L. Brown would be excellent.
I think anyone who remembers Rudy from his playing days will see this as a very sad day. I will continue support the Rockets as I have for the past 30+ years, but it just won't be the same.
BILL WALTON! BILL WALTON! ROCKETS NEXT COACH! BILLY THE KID, COULD LEAD US TO A CHAMPIONSHIP its a sad day to see rudy go, however this is the right move for the organization. Rudy has everyone's respect on the team and in the league, however he was not able to motivate the players and get the best outta them. I would like a ex-player to take over, like byran scott and doc rivers, whose careers have not been that long, however been successful. Every where you look the ex-players are turning out to be good coaches. I dunno who would such a candidate be, any suggestions???
I'm going to miss Rudy - I was always a big fan of his. Hopefully, Les will make him co-GM, or something like that. I always thought he was a good evaluator of talent. He was also a good recruiter; free agents wanted to pay for him. And he worked his arse off sealing the Yao deal last summer. Maybe the silver lining is that Rudy's good health is in the bag. Otherwise, you would wonder why Les would take the chance of letting him go if he still had cancer.
You're the last person in the entire universe who should talk about underachievement. For the past few months your argument has gone: "The Rockets didn't underacheive bcl a coach is only as good as his players, the rockets didn't make the playoffs because their players aren't good enough yet, not Rudy's fault, either change the players or hope they get better!." So why can't Brown use this excuse too? The Philly Sixer version of the Freak would say something like " when Brown won 56 games with the sixers, he was OVERACHEIVING, therefore you set the bar too high" like that magical 45 win season the Rockets had a few years ago. As for the Clippers, wow, I didn't know that scoring 23 ppg in the early 90's makes one a borderline great player. I guess that means steve is one too, and Cuttino is close.
Is that a cheap shot at Rudy's drinking problem a while back. If so that is sad but it is kind of funny in a very evil way. Blatz
This just plain sucks. I hope everyone who wanted this to happen is happy. Les better have a big ass rabbi to pull from his hat because he'll need all the magic he can produce to convince this city that dunping Rudy is a good thing. Not exactly the kind of pub you want when you need to fill the seats of a new arena. Van Gundy is not the answer. What has he proven? What makes people think that he can be better than Rudy? Brown, maybe. Maybe even Silas. I just don't know. I just found out about this so I'm still rather pissed. Shame on you Les. Shame on you!
I have to admit to being more than a little shocked by this news. I'd rather not say anything more, than to register my surprise, un til the news conference is over. David.
