Houston Sports loses innocence - 7/30/2008

So the Rockets made a splash yesterday by making a trade for Ron Artest.  Rockets gave up over-the-hill PG Bobby Jackson, a 1st round pick next year and the rookie Donte Greene.  Everyone is totally giddy about it, predicting championships, saying the Rockets are in the upper tier of the Western Conference, etc.  Now this is a team that has not gotten out of the first round for 6 years straight.  The same team that has 2 superstars who are oft-injured, no real point guard or back-up Center.  But because of Artest the team is going to win a title?  I don't think so. 

The team have had injury problems galore for the past 3 years.  Yao has never played a full season, so why do we think that after coming off the Olympics he will be fine this year?  T-Mac seems to have a hard time deferring to anyone, so will he defer to Artest next season?  But my bigger problem with all of this is the team getting Ron Artest at all.  This guy is a creep.  The same people calling sports talk today were calling Ron a piece of crap, everything wrong with sports today just a few months ago.  This was after Ron beat up his gf.  But now he is some sort of conquering hero?  Let's look at the problems of Mr. Artest:

2003 - Suspended 3 games for destroying a TV camera
2003 - Suspended 4 games for confrontation with Pat Riley
2004 - Suspended from the Pacers for asking for a month off because he was "too tired" from promoting his R&B group
2004 - Detroit-Indiana "Brawl at the Palace", suspended 73 games
2007 - Arrested for domestic abuse when he beat up his gf in their home
2007 - Had dog moved into protective custody due to neglect

I am not even including all the ejections he has racked up. 

I guess my point is that Ron is a bad man.  A great player, but a guy that cannot stay out of trouble.  So now have the Rockets taken on a "win at all costs" attitude?  Would they sign Roy Tarpley if they could?  I am not a big fan of this.  Houston teams have always had class and not really dealt with this kind of player.  I guess times are changing. 

One Down, Nine to go - 9/10/2007

When the schedule was released, I stood in a friend’s garage and proclaimed the Texans would go 10-6 in the 2007-2008 schedule.  Free Agency hadn’t been completed, trades hadn’t happened, training camp wasn’t even a thought at the time.  After week one, my optimism was rewarded.  The Texans blew out the Chiefs, 20-3.  A defensive TD by Mario Williams and a 70+ yard TD from Schaub to Johnson highlighted the day.  The game started very shaky on both sides of the ball for the Texans, the offense had a 3 and out on it’s first possession, the defense allowed KC to drive almost the length of the field.  Then it seemed a spark in the form of a 15 yard reception from Jacobi Jones started an inferno.  Though they drive ended in a Schaub INT when he tried to force a pass to Andre Johnson in the end zone, it showed the Texans were able to move the ball.  The defense responded by tightening up and allowing Larry Johnson under 50 yards on the day.  Great game, great day.

The tailgate was great, but our crew ended up in the concrete area in the Yellow lot, which we didn’t like.  We made the best of it and honestly, having more space was cool, but we were really disconnected from most of the fans in the grass, where we usually park.  I walked around and saw that most fans had complaints about the parking situation of splitting up caravans on the way in the stadium.  There really isn’t a quick fix solution as with people actually coming to the games instead of sitting at home, we will have many cars getting to the stadium at the same time and all using one entrance.  Maybe opening a 2nd entrance for the Yellow lot would be the answer, I don’t know.  I will be contacting the team to see what they suggest.  But either way, it was a lot of fun.  Many Bull Blasters were taken, many Shotguns were shot, the food was great and I got to see many friends I hadn’t seen all off-season.  I didn’t see Flava Dave though!!!!  I have to rectify that at the Indy game.