first off...Texas is the best country in the world. secondly, the title is kinda a joke based of the media's response to Les firing Calvin Murphy as first order of busines...I have nothing against Yankees...but, man...Les is a multi...multi millionairre....surely he can take a jab...like many of you gave Rudy this year. I'd like to say...if you personally or professionally attacked Rudy this year...will you please state that if you intend to defend Les The Yankee...and this includes Tim! <b>Main Question: Is Les Raping our Franchise Reputation that he was Lucky to Even Get</b> first off, Jim Jones bought a Cowboys team that really sucked. Les bought a very good team. Landry was a 65 yr old coach...Jones didn't think a rebuild could be done that way. Les gave the rebuild to Rudy. Rudy vs Landry...not to mention bball vs Football...is not a valid comparion. <b>So let's make a list of Les's brilliant Yankee Treatment of Houston</b> <ol><li> Les fires Calvin Murphry as first order of business. <li>Rudy, CD and Hakeem win two chips for Les the Yankee, so Les goes hands off <li>Les trades Chucky Brown. <li>Rockets have their worst year of attentance; Barkley is injured, and they fail to make the playoffs for the 1st yr under Les...so ... He raises ticket prices across the board....Let me repeat...Les raises ticket prices across the board on the first year we fail to make the playoff...his Marketing manager says..."We are raising ticket prices to offset lack of sales...." lol <li>Les threatens to move our beloved Rockets from Houston and despite Jeff's efforts, the fact still remains that Les threatened to move. <li>Hakeem starts falling off physically and Les goes player mgmt hands-on again with our Glorious Two Ring Legend that we will never, ever ...ever...ever...ever ...ever ..ever ...even if we thought ...ever will see again ...and Les just starts treating him like a something to profit off of in retirement....he says wants to do a last year Hakeem appreciation tour (for obvious profit reasons) which is totally against Hakeem's religious beliefs and Hakeem rejects it..to the point of insult <li>Hakeem has a problem in his last Houston year that Les portrayed as the "big tour" and takes it out on mgmt to include Rudy. <li>Les has a publicized talk with Hakeem...to take responsibilty. Hakeem rejects it...in the end..the media portrays it as a Rudy, Francis vs Hakeem thing, when we all know that Hakeem would never agree to a season long exit tour. <li>Hakeem is removed <li>Rudy is removed</ol> Anyone want to add sumpin to the Les is a lame ass Yankee owner??
11. Les acting as if it was Rudy's choice to leave. I would have much more respect for Les if he'd just admit that he thinks this team needs a kick in the ass and the swiftest and easiest kick to make is the removal of Rudy.
Sadly, there are too many fans who would be even MORE ballistic, if Les flat out admitted that. I agree that he should come clean, as it would save face for me. But there are too many Rudy-lovers who would cease their fandom with the Rockets. I love Rudy, but the Rockets always come before a player or coach.
12...Les being "unavailable for comment for the first press release. wrong forum! We are talking bball here....don't bother me..umkay.
Don't you think that most fans already feel that Rudy was forced out? I doubt many people actually believe he removed himself. I'm one of the fans that think this is a terrible decision, especially if we end up with a 2nd rate coach. I think all of the options presented (JVG, Brown, etc) are, at best, equal to Rudy. I bet a good portion of teams out there would be willing to trade their coach for Rudy in a heartbeat. I think this move sucks, but I do understand why it's been done. If Les actually came out and said the truth, I would respect him much more. It is very lame of him to be hiding out in Florida saying it was Rudy's choice. What the hell ever... I don't mind Rudy's press conference last night, but Les should be in town today explaining his move instead of hiding out in Florida.
Are you lost in another thread. This thread is about that the Rockets always come before a player, coach, <b>or OWNER</b> what? you didn't read the thread title. the issue is...do you like this owner's handling of the franchise. To me, the stability of the franchise is soley rested in Rudy, CD, and Hakeem...and maybe Calvin...and this owner has fired 3 out of the 4. what?
I think most of us here agree that a change had to be made. This essentially left Les with two choices given Rudy's condition. A) as soon as the playoff-less season ends, fire Rudy.. this would be the manly thing to do. It would take guts and have some backlash, but like taking off a bandade sp? it would only hurt for the moment. B) hope wait until Rudy's doctor evaluation came back and play it off as health related. this was the safe bet until the cav's won the lottery and their coaching position became enticing. So Les took a gamble w/Rudy much like he did w/Hakeem, and he lost. Much like with Hakeem. Still, Les is a smart man, so he cut his losses and let Rudy go quick enough to have the pick of coaching talent on the market. Now you must ask yourself what you would have done in his position. A) seems like the easy thing, but it does take a big set of balls to fire the only successful coach in the history of houston pro sport. MY guess is that most of us would have done b just like les.
If Im a big public figure like Rudy, and I was fired, I'd rather the public think I left on my own terms, especially if I wanted to coach again.. maybe they discussed that.. just a thought.
13) Les shows his contempt for a Houston legend by not even showing up for the press conference. (The man's been a part of the franchise for over 30 years. He's earned his respect.)
first off...Texas is the best country in the world. Admit it, it's a state, not a country. And it's been crap since the early 90s, when I lived there! Les fires Calvin Murphry as first order of business. Can someone tell me about this? Why was Calvin fired? Les trades Chucky Brown. Are you serious? A f***ing role player? Rockets have their worst year of attentance; Barkley is injured, and they fail to make the playoffs for the 1st yr under Les...so ... He raises ticket prices across the board....Let me repeat...Les raises ticket prices across the board on the first year we fail to make the playoff...his Marketing manager says..."We are raising ticket prices to offset lack of sales...." lol The game is a business. That is what teams do. Les threatens to move our beloved Rockets from Houston and despite Jeff's efforts, the fact still remains that Les threatened to move. As he should have. If the people of Houston didn't want to vote for the first arena, what was he supposed to do? The Rockets weren't so "beloved" when the referendum was voted down. Who gives a sh*t anyway, the Rockets are still in Houston. Hakeem starts falling off physically and Les goes player mgmt hands-on again with our Glorious Two Ring Legend that we will never, ever ...ever...ever...ever ...ever ..ever ...even if we thought...ever will see again Weren't you one of the biggest voices for getting rid of Hakeem? You and 80 percent of this board... But that was a piss-off. ...and Les just starts treating him like a something to profit off of in retirement....he says wants to do a last year Hakeem appreciation tour (for obvious profit reasons) which is totally against Hakeem's religious beliefs and Hakeem rejects it..to the point of insult Link? Hakeem has a problem in his last Houston year that Les portrayed as the "big tour" and takes it out on mgmt to include Rudy. Rudy's the one that played Hakeem behind Matt Bullard and Kenny Thomas in fourth quarters of that season, a playoff race. No one cares about that. Les has a publicized talk with Hakeem...to take responsibilty. Hakeem rejects it...in the end..the media portrays it as a Rudy, Francis vs Hakeem thing, when we all know that Hakeem would never agree to a season long exit tour. Can I have a link to a publication detailing this? Hakeem is removed A horrible day. Rudy is removed A bittersweet day. Yes, it is sad to see him go, but he hasn't done anything in four years. And I'd say the Rockets underachieved in 1999, the last playoff season. So that is five straight years of sh*tty play. Any other coach who had done so little would have been fired years ago. I would have liked to have seen Rudy coach the team next year for sentimental reasons, but that's it. From a purely basketball standpoint, I am thrilled that a new coach is coming.
From what I've read all day on news wires: 1) Rudy approached Les 2) Rudy STEPPED down (this is the headline everywhere) 3) It happened too soon for Les to make it to the conference, it could be a NUMBER of things. We're just taking teh WORST scenario, and using it to fill that void left by Rudy's departure. 4) I still don't forgive them for Hakeem, but it's not entirely Les's fault. The blame for Hakeem belongs to Rudy, CD, Les, and Hakeem. This had to be done. This is the way IT IS done. If, infact, things were done the way you guys are SPECULATING that it was done, then it's still fine with me. This is how legends go quietly. You don't create a media frenzy, you don't fire them, and you try to stay off the radar screen. Welcome to NBA Public Relations. The fact of the matter is, another coach was needed. Players were not intimidated by Rudy. Basically, they didn't respect him as a COACH. They saw him as more of a mentor/advisor. Players like Steve, they need a tough guy to really force the game through their thick heads. I'm glad it happened, and it couldn't have gone better if you ask me.
