Fertitta endures a dose of reality after end of ‘magic carpet ride’

Kenneth Schnitzer, who developed Greenway Plaza, bought the Rockets in the same year the franchise acquired the great Moses Malone and posted its first winning season. Nice timing. A few seasons later, 24-yearold Gavin Maloof was younger than nine of the 11 players on the team when he took over the Rockets a few weeks after his father George died. The team was a measly 14-21 but squeezed into the playoffs and became the first team with a losing record to play in the NBA Finals.

That lucky rascal. Schnitzer and Maloof sit in the back seat of fortune’s Ferrari compared to Les Alexander, who paid $85 million for the Rockets

in the summer of 1993. Alexander had to fight off legal challenges by minority owners John Moores and some guy named Tilman Fertitta, but he gained control of the team just before it won back-toback NBA championships.

Fertitta finally bought the team 25 years later, for a tad more money ($2.2 billion) than his original group tried to get it for. His timing was still rather fortunate: With James Harden rolling to an MVP season, the franchise posted its best regular-season record, led the NBA in wins for the first time and pushed the Golden State Warriors to seven games in the Western Conference finals.

This NBA ownership thing didn’t seem so difficult.

Ah, but the year after has been anything but easy.

After all of the offseason talk of winning a championship, the Rockets went into the NBA All-Star break with a 33-24 record, just the 10th-best mark in the league. They approach the quarter pole of the season having wasted much of the first three-quarters of the race.

One doesn’t have to imagine if Fertitta is happy.

“I don’t think anybody is happy where we are today,” he told the Chronicle’s Jonathan Feigen, “but we are where we are.”

An unhappy owner can be a scary thing to an NBA franchise. The final 25 games are going to be a fascinating watch.

Fertitta’s full ownership style is still unknown, but one thing for sure is he isn’t one to tarry in circumstances of mediocrity.

He inherited the Rockets’ management team and head coach. His already positive evaluation — he didn’t feel compelled to bring in his own people over those who had performed well for Alexander — received a boost with last season’s playoff run.

He says the disappointing season to date hasn’t changed his opinion. He’s unhappy with where the team is but not unhappy with who has led it there.

“I’m extremely happy with the whole management team, from (CEO) Tad (Brown) to (general manager) Daryl (Morey) to Coach (Mike D’Antoni),” Fertitta said.

Nope, that wasn’t a dreaded “vote of confidence.” Fertitta truly meant what he said. He tends to speak his mind.

Of course, his position on that could change in the next two months.

This team is a difficult one to appraise. It hasn’t been at full strength long enough to know how good it can be. That could be about to change.

Chris Paul, who has missed 23 games, including 17 straight with a hamstring injury, is finally healthy. Clint Capela, out for 15 games after thumb surgery, returns at Los Angeles on Thursday.

Harden, Paul and Capela, the Rockets’ three highest-paid players, have not been on the court together since before Christmas.

It is OK for the Rockets to hang their hopes on health being the cure-all for their up-and-down year. If they don’t believe, who will? But injuries haven’t been the sole issue.

“If we play hard, I think we’re as good as anybody,” Fertitta said. If we play hard? “If we play hard” is a first cousin of “If we try.”

Such statements were not made about last year’s Rockets.

“I think we all had a magic carpet ride last year,” Fertitta said. “We all want to get back on the magic carpet. We have to come out every night ready to play. We’ve just got to play hard.”

Not playing hard and not trying are unforgivable sins in basketball, but the Rockets don’t suffer from that as much as some of you might think.

They frequently talk about a lack of energy, but poor defensive teams often look like they lack energy. The Rockets often make up for that pitiful defense, aka “lack of energy,” by being one of the best offensive teams in the league, with arguably the NBA’s most unguardable player.

Harden’s brilliance hides a bevy of flaws. So does D’Antoni’s coaching. And so does Morey’s inseason roster finds.

Wait. With all of that covering up, how are the Rockets barely a top-10 team?

Being courtside at every game gives Fertitta the best seat in the house for a team that can be marvelously entertaining one night, or even one half, and frustratingly dull the next.

Aggressively intense one game, passively unbothered the next.

At some point, someone has to point at someone.

These next 25 games and the playoffs afterward will shape Fertitta’s ownership. Either the Rockets will find that magic or prove to be what their record says they are with an early postseason exit.

If the latter happens, it is difficult to imagine the owner remaining “extremely happy.”