@xiki and I may be the longest-running Rox fans (along with a couple of others, probably). I started following the team when they came over from San Diego - I was a freshman in high school. So I definitely qualify as both longtime fan and old as f%#k. In the '70s, we sucked and had no real rival. In the '80s, it was the Lakers and Celtics, though the rivalry for each wasn't that big. Just based mostly on the one year we made the finals (1986). The '90s had both the Jazz and Sonics, the '00s had pretty much no particular rival, and the '10s it was definitely the Warriors. I'd have to go with the Jazz and the Warriors as the biggest rivals, historically. Both great teams that had to rely on cheating to get past us in at LEAST one playoff series. It'll be interesting to see what the other OGs think.
Y'all are the best. I appreciate all the insight. Im envious a lot of you got to witness this all firsthand!
It’s a very tough pick. Payton’s mouth versus the high knee from mailman that never got called. I believe the answer in the end is those two share the Mount Rushmore of Rocket fan ugly looks. Actual photo of Karl Malone for those who did not see him play:
A couple of prime examples of why the Jazz are so hated by us old timers... The time clock game: The Malone bear-hug pick game There was also the Boki jersey-grab game, but I couldn't find a video of that.
Regrets. Regrets that there is no sustained rivalry for the Rox. Sonics v Rox in 90s. Ouch. Dream had some outstanding games. The Sonics’ overall, and frankly illegal, D (at that time) just was too much to handle. I will rue til I die 1997. Chuckles was finally TheMan to swing things Rox’ way. Up 3-1 in semis TheGoodGuys let the Karls back in to 3-3 before finally disposing them besterds. The 7 game win came at the cost of an 0-2 hole v Jazz. I believe to this day that if they had taken care of biz in Game 5 (or at least 6) Rox WOULD HAVE DEFEATED UTAH. And paraded with a Championship v the Jordanairs. WouldaCouldaShoulda. Pippin ‘era’ doomed our team for an eternity.
dad always said he hated the spazz, but respected the sonics. so i guess our biggest rivals were the bulls and that fake blek jesus
The Jazz were never really a rivalry back in the Dream days. Sure we hated them, but so did the rest of the WC as they were dirtier than Ric Flair. They ran constant illegal screens. held onto you, shoved you, and generally played with hard nosed douchery behind Stockton, Malone, and Hornacek. Spurs and Sonics on the other hand were actually real rivalries, though for very different reasons. Sonics were rivals because they beat us more often than not behind Payton, Kemp (absolute beast), Schrempf, and their illegal zone defense. They were probably the only team that the Rockets and its fanbase came close to fearing and a big reason why we traded for Barkley later on. Spurs on the other hand were an interstate team that was actually good and also coincidentally built around another historically great big man (Robinson). Before that, I would say that our biggest "rivals" were the Celtics where Bird (and McHale) just straight up kicked our butts and dispatched us with relative ease. Like seriously, iirc Bird almost got a trip dub for the entire series and was an outright menace.
No other team made me throw tantrums like when we were playing the Jazz in the late 80s and early 90s.. Even Deron Williams made me sick and my cousin dated him in high school.. Sonics were a likeable rival even though I hated Detlef Schremf old beer smelling looking ass cause he stayed lighting us up every chance he got..
I could understand 80s guys disliking Boston or the Sonics and Spurs in the 90s. I had family in sports so I was taken to Rockets games extremely young, I would say Utah for me, and really Golden State in recent memory. I like a lot of things but I'd like to see more posters or perhaps a section sharing classic games on the forum. This is Game 5 of the 1995 playoffs vs Utah. Those games were like Heavyweight championship fights, with Malone and Olajuwon trading baskets back and forth like all-time great boxers throwing haymakers.
Mavs for me. The other teams it was more so about them being good and being tough to beat, Jazz played dirty with everyone and their fans suck, Sonics were good and just a matchup issue, but the Mavs it was always just personal. It wasn't just on the court stuff it was our entire city vs their city. I would also say the Lakers along the same reasons, they tended to get a lot of calls and it was known the league was fixing games in their favor, when it goes beyond them just being better than us, and their fans are cringe. They along w Mavs fans never really took the time to understand the game, but seemed to carry a lot of bandwagoners. Warriors had great fans, but the whole franchise sold out and they are like Mavs/Lakers fans now.
There's no Rockets rival like there is in college sports--no OU/Texas or Auburn/Alabama kind of hate. That said, the Jazz probably draw the constant ire from me but my best hate is reserved for whatever favored big market team we're going against in the playoffs: Boston, New York, LA, Golden State. We could have had a good rivalry against the Jordanairres, but we beat them enough that it wasn't really an even match.
The proper answer is the Jazz featuring dirty John Stockton and Karl the ****head dirty Malone... **** the Jazz...I know who Hakeem would choose...
