How do you lose a game 7 at home to your rival Utah Jazz while having the league's top big man ( Yao ) a solid defense scheme ( Van Gundy/ Tom T.) and at the time an all star perimeter player in Tracy. A rebounding monster in Chuck Hayes and great glue guy in Shane B. It would ultimatley cost Van Gundy his job and mark the end of the Yao and Mc Grady show in Houston, proving it was their last real shot at it together being healthy and in their prime. Was Jerry Sloan's team really better thank us? I have a hard time believing this... I would like to read any other championship playoff runs that come to mind of the great, wise and powerful clutch fans.. Its always great to read from you guys!
Anybody want to talk about the culture of unrealistic expectations, and about players like Charles Barkley, Houston Rocket and Scottie Pippen, Houston Rocket? Yeah, me neither. Best to just pretend none of that ever happened. Or at least treat it as a cautionary tale that teams like the 2012-2013 Lakers could learn from.
I was at that game and we couldn't get a freakin' rebound to save our lives. '93 Semis against the Sonics come to mind with the BS call at the end. '05 Mavs with Barry getting stripped from someone (Finley?) standing from out of bounds in game 5. I was at that game and was screaming for that.
not our fault.. but the debacle that was the Rockets vs Mavericks and we were up 2-0 on the road iirc. If it wasn't for Donaghy/Stern, that team could've went far.
Don't forget Cuban's role in that debacle. He was really stricken with WBMS (Whiny b**** Man Syndrome).
When you can't win a first round series, you are not a contender. The only blown Championships were 81 and 86 cause we were 2 games away from the nba championship. not like 13-15 games away. You people need to learn math. Almost Not Even F KING CLOSE
You have to be favourites or ahead in the NBA Finals to blow a championship, we never came close in the T-Mac/Yao era.
van gundy deserved to lose his job, he traded gay for battier and he had no offense and no athletecism against what was basically a two man team. he blew tracy's one legit shot outside of tracy's first season here. and yes, tinman is correct although i have to go 93'. i was watching a replay of that game in 93 last year and didn't realize sleepy floyd was still a rocket
What people are getting confused with is Fantasy Basketball, yes Tracy and Yao were fantastic Fantasy players back in the day.
To me the whole Yao/Mcgrady era is more and more heartbreaking in hindsight. '05, '07, '09 all fell incredibly short of their potential and to think that we didn't even sniff a Finals appearance with arguably the top big man and top wing scorer in the league is tough. At the time of the '05 and '07 losses, we thought we still had a huge window ahead of us so it wasn't quite as devastating in the grand scheme of things (despite very tough game 7 losses). It would have been amazing to see what Morey could have put around those two if he had been here and in charge at the beginning.
That season had me on a roller coaster. That damn BS call vs San Antonio when Robinson tipped in the ball like 30 minutes after the game was over really really screwed us. We owned Seattle at the Summit.
The worst game 7s in Rockets history. game 7 vs the Mavericks, I thought we had the momentum after winning game 6. I though it would be a classic like Rockets/Suns in the 90s. No, we got ran over like a truck. I don't care about what the refs did before. We made it to game 7, we controlled our own destiny. game 7 vs Utah at home. This one disgusted me for about a week. How the hell did we lose at home? That was the series where I questioned if we could win with that team and coach. That loss sent the franchise backwards.
not sure if you can count 86 as "blown" since that was arguably the best Celtic team of all time. And if we want to get technical.. you can only count 81 and 86 since that's the only other times we made it and lost. So yeah I'll count the year the playoffs were rigged... who's to say what would have happened if it wasn't.
