Ugly exit, current state of old team will leave most fans in foul mood
Wednesday night, the Rockets will host the Brooklyn Nets. The buzz, as it were, is the opposite of palpable.
You can’t touch this. (When you see or hear that phrase, is it in MC Hammer’s voice followed by do-dodo-do, do-do, do-do?)
Longtime Rockets fans have enjoyed most meetings with the team that used to call New Jersey home. Basketball-reference.com shows the Rockets have won two-thirds of their games against the Nets, representing the franchise’s second-best
all-time winning percentage against an opponent.
This dates to 1976, when the Nets, then claiming New York as home while playing on Long Island, were so poor they had to sell Dr. J to the 76ers just to join the NBA.
The Rockets won the first meeting between the teams at the Nassau Coliseum. My childhood NBA heroes Murph, Rudy T, Modine, the Shark, DJ and JJ all scored in double figures that night, and rookie John Lucas was almost to the level with eight points.
It was the first NBA game in which Moses Malone scored in double figures and the first one in which he grabbed at least 10 rebounds.
I don’t remember that game specifically — I was young, it wasn’t televised, and Jonathan Feigen didn’t cover it — but I’m sure I was excited to hear Gene Peterson’s radio call.
The next Rockets-Nets game will be slightly more memorable.
James Harden is coming home.
“Yeah, I’m excited just to go back to Houston, where I basically had an unbelievable career,” Harden said. “They showed me mad love and respect, and I’m just excited to be playing in front of those fans.
“Yeah, I’m pretty excited.”
Wow. In a 16-second answer, my man used the word excited three times. Good for him.
Harden has deep feelings for Houston.
Team sources say he made as much known with Rockets brass, even after he forced a trade. Rockets management believes Harden might do a LeBron — take his talents to Brooklyn, hopefully win a championship or two, then come back to Houston in a few years to cement his legacy by rescuing the Rockets.
As raggedy as he made his departure, Harden is seemingly oblivious to how he is perceived in H-Town.
As Sydney J. Harris wrote, happiness is a direction, not a place.
While many Rockets fans share those feelings with Harden — happy with Houston, unhappy with where the Rockets are going — they are hardly excited about his visit.
Were a full house allowed into Toyota Center on Wednesday, the booing would be epic. ESPN will cover it as if it were a big game, but it isn’t.
Rockets fans are subject to use mostly expletives when discussing Harden. And of course, you should drop a letter from Harden’s new favorite word, because their angst has been exasperated by how he exited. (C what I did there?) These wounds are raw. There are those who feel so betrayed by Harden that they wouldn’t even welcome the all-time Rockets great back to town 15 years from now for a jersey retirement ceremony.
After the Rockets lose to the Nets and No. 13 on Wednesday, their losing streak will be at 13 games.
The Nets have 13 losses total; six of those were before Harden showed up in town all excited.
Since adding the Rockets’ best player, New Jersey has gone from 7-6 to 22-13, while the Rockets have the third-worst record in the NBA.
The Nets are championship contenders. The Rockets are contenders for the No. 1 overall pick.
Harden, who has played at an MVP level, was superb against the Spurs on Monday, posting a triple-double with 30 points, 15 assists and 14 rebounds. It was only the second time in his career he had a turnoverfree triple-double.
In just 22 games with the Brooklyn, Harden has seven triple-doubles, the most by a Nets player in a full season since Jason Kidd had 12 in 2007-08.
The league leader in assists will be handing out the love, but don’t expect that to be returned in kind, even if only some 3,000 fans are allowed into Toyota Center thanks to COVID-19 restrictions.
Harden wheeling and dealing on the court will only serve as a reminder of what is missing.
Incredibly, in less than two months, Houston sports teams have lost an NBA MVP, a World Series MVP and an NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
That has to be unprecedented.
Poor Rockets fans have endured so much during the franchise’s 26-year NBA Finals drought. Now, in the midst of a horrendous season that will end with the team’s first missed playoffs since Harden came to Houston nine years ago, they have to see him return to town with a supermodel new team.
Only a few thousand will even get to let the Bearded One know how they feel.
Boo. Yawn.