2 rings, Charles 2 rings. Everytime I look at that Krispy Kreme gut of yours, I am reminded how many YOU'VE won.
Not at all. The bench was a *huge* part of those two rings. We traded that bench away, forfeiting Cassell in his prime, for Sir ******. He had good numbers with the Rox, but the Rox never did jack in the playoffs. The offense was horribly predictable, and the bench was not deep. I'm not bitter--Charles is hilarious and he was a great player, but that was a bad trade. A horrible trade. Water under the bridge. We got T-Mac and Yao now.
Let me start off by totally agreeing with your last comment. I don't want to have an ongoing arguement. But, I'll still say that I think the Rockets were better after the trade. It took being CHEATED SDKJDNDVNVNDSV#!)*%#&@(^!* (words can't express my feelings) by Karla in the Rockets-j*zz series for the Rockets to lose. '97, that was the year. What happens, though, is that piece of **** had Drexler in a bear hug (worst non-call ever) so that he couldn't guard his man in Flopton. That team was in the WCF; I don't think the team would have done as good without the trade. Cassell ain't that great. Horry always had some stupid injury and I didn't like his attitude. Chucky Brown, please. Mark Bryant, you couldn't even remember him. So, basically it was 2 average to a little-above-average players and 2 throw-ins for a future Hall of Famer and former MVP who could still play. I'd make that trade 1,000,000 more times out of a 1,000,000. I better be hearing Chuck respect the Rockets when they are kicking butt in this year's playoffs.
Cool. I hear where you're coming from, I just don't agree. The first year they were at the WCF, but it was downhill from there. Of course none of the players were on CB's level, but the point was the Rox traded away all their bench depth. A non-superstar, hardworking 4 to compliment Dream, which have cost us maybe a couple of draft picks or just one or two of the bench, would have been better IMO. I do that trade 0 out of 1,000,000 times, but maybe I'm just an idiot.
OH, and... I know you're absolutely right about his scrub status, but the aforementioned Barkley slam of Sir Chucky back in '95 stirs up fond memories for me. 'Twas most likely Chucky's only career highlight--being called out in advance by Sir ****** and then proceeding to suffocate the Hall of Famer defensively for an entire series! Let's hear it for the underdog!
Cassell and Horry were both looking for deals in the neighborhood of atleast $7mill/yr. An overlooked aspect of the deal is that they just couldn't/didn't want to pay both of those guys the coin they wanted. The Barkley trade was one that you make 10 times out of 10. Just like the Randy Johnson trade, even thought it depleted our farm system and we knew we couldn't keep him. Just like the Beltran trade, even though we knew we couldn't keep him. When you have a team with aging stars, you either tear it all down and start over or you put all your eggs in the basket and go for it. That was Hakeem and Clyde's last chance. The future be damned, Charles Barkley was on the block. You have to bring those guys together for a shot at a title, and had Clyde taken off for the basket one second later, they would have been playing Michael for it.
I didn't realize those two wanted deals like that. That makes the trade all the better. The strategy to go for it all was the right one; they just got bs'd by the j*zz and Karla's dirty, cheating ways.
Barkley is like Shaq in that they are very insecure and need to grab public attention in order to feel good about themselves. Barkley was a great player and he played with us at the very beginning of his decline. But do not forget that we sent his ass packing home two straight times in the playoffs. Rockets fans hate the Jazz. Don't you think Suns fans (and former players) have beef with the Rockets?
Another thing, I'm not sure who it was in this thread that insinuated that Charles didn't pull his weight (pun intended) during his tenure with us. Are you kidding me? The Barkley trade was made for one reason and one reason alone: to get past Seattle. Had Rudy Tomjanovich agreed to sign Kevin Johnson we would have been in the Finals that year. We were 21-2 at one point. That first half of the regular season was the most exciting in franchise history. The magazine covers, the expectations, the energy. Charles brought all of that. The next year we were a torn triceps muscle away from knocking off the Utah Jazz in the first round. And you know the reason why? CB4. The year after that, do you remember who was the only one to do a damn thing against the Lakers? Was it Michael Dickerson and Cuttino Mobley who had to both be benched in favor of Brent Price and Sam freaking Mack? Was it Hakeem whom Shaq used to wipe the floor with? Or was it Scottie who, aside from that 37-15 explosion, spent his time during that series taking it up the @$$ from a young Kobe Bryant? If you guessed, "None of the Above", you're correct! Look, Charles had his vices. He was lazy and probably would have won a championship were it not for this. He was the cause of his own undoing. And his last year with Francis was pretty embarassing to say the least. But to say Barkley was nothing but a fat man during his tenure with the Rockets is simply factually incorrect.
This season he was only playing 33 min/game, and IIRC coming off the bench behind Kevin Willis. I sure wish we could have a late ninties Barkley at the four for us now.
Man, you really hate Rudy. Rudy went to Hakeem, Barkley, and Drexler in '97 and asked them straight up if they wanted to pick up KJ. They said they wanted to stick with the guys they had. I wanted him too, but he wouldn't have improved their defense, which is the real reason they didn't get past Utah. That and the fact that Malone OWNED Barkley, yet Barkley kept insisting on trying to post Malone up. It was pathetic- he couldn't score on Malone to save his life. Utah was just a better team that year, period. To say that Barkley was the 'reason' the Rockets almost knocked off Utah in '98 is hilarious, considering he was coming off the bench at the time. They actually had a better shot against Utah with Willis starting and Barkley coming OFF THE BENCH. Again, Malone owned him then. As far as '99 against LA, I believe Barkley was going against that monster JR Reid.
*watches tonight's game against the Suns* Who's soft NOW Chuckie? Someone go get another donkey for Chuck to kiss. You'd think he'd get tired of being wrong about the Rockets all the time.
Hopefully Charles "Miss Cleo" Barkley will predict next that there's no way the Rockets will win it all this season...
