Do Something, Les
The "Basketball for Thought" is a commentary by Kris Gardner.December 23, 2004
The Houston Rockets became a permanent footnote in the history of the Charlotte Bobcats Wednesday night. The Bobcats defeated the Rockets 90 to 87 in front of a disappointed and pissed off group of Rockets fans. Charlotte's win was the first road win in the brief history of the expansion Bobcats. Plus, the win gave the Bobcats a two-game regular season sweep of the Rockets which earns the Bobcats the distinction of becoming the first NBA expansion team to sweep the season series versus the Rockets. Fourteen previous expansion teams were unsuccessful in sweeping the Rockets. As the boos showered down on the Rockets in the fourth quarter, Les Alexander, Houston Rockets team owner, sat in his courtside seat absorbing the boos and his team's poor performance one more time.
Les is not a dumb man; and, he loves to win championships. His track record shows he is not afraid to agree to a big deal or player signing if he's convinced the team moves closer to his goal of winning a title.
Here's a memo to Mr. Alexander: Do something, Les! Make a move; agree to a trade; get a new coach; cut an underachieving player. Make a move to show the Rockets' fans and the players you're not going to accept this mediocre brand of basketball!
First and foremost, I know trades are extremely difficult to complete in pro sports because you need at least one other team willing to make a deal with you. Plus, the Rockets do not possess many, if any, players other NBA teams would want to acquire either because of bad contracts or, to be blunt, bad players.
I know many Rockets' fans are begging and pleading for Les to fire Jeff Van Gundy as head coach; but, while I have no doubts Jeff is culpable for the team's sorry record, I truly doubt, Les will fire Jeff after one plus season and still pay Jeff's huge salary as well as the salary for the new coach. However, if the Rockets continue to reach new rock bottoms with each loss, Les may be forced to fire Van Gundy.
The Rockets have too many power forwards (4) and too many point guards (4); so, get rid of the glut at each position. Sure it's easy to say "get rid of the glut" and much harder to do; but, giving minutes to players who do not produce and sitting down players who do produce is a big mistake. Therefore, if the Rockets have to cut a player and "eat a salary" in order to remove some "dead weight", then do it. The NBA is a business; and, tough personnel decisions are made everyday. If the Rockets continue floundering in the sea of mediocrity, the fans will stop coming to Toyota Center which will impact the bottom line from a long list of people from Les down to the concessionaires.
The 2004 - 2005 season is not over. The Rockets have only played 26 games of the 82 game schedule. What needs to be over are the excuses. The Rockets are losing games the same way time and time again. Post-game interviews are filled with "We're making the same mistakes over and over."; "We're not playing with effort for 48 minutes."; "We have talent, we're just not showing it."; "We got outworked by our opponent again."
Blah. Blah. Blah.
Losing is a habit -- just like winning. If players grow accustom to losing, they begin to accept losing which is what is happening with the Rockets. The Rockets have two players (Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady) other teams want. The rest of the team is full of role players who are either too young, too old, too injury prone, too slow, or simply too sorry. Combine those factors with a coach who prefers veterans over rookies as well as micromanaging a ball game and you have the recipe for the Rockets' record -- below .500.
Come on Les, do something. Give the fans a reason to support this club instead of a reason to boo this club.
In the words of pop group Shalamar, "Make that move -- right now, baby!"
