I can't talk to people who listen to what #33 said when he quit the Rockets after '99, especially compared to the full-out effort Barkley gave every playoff game of his life.
Was anti Barkley before we traded for him. Didn't like him taking touches from Dream on the left block. Didn't like giving up Sam and Bob to get him. I get that it was done to get past Seattle but little did we know that they were about to soon implode (McInvale/Kemp). Yep Charles definitely was a deciding factor in us getting past them but what about Utah. We always had their number prior to the trade and they were the sleeping giant we could have stayed in front of by simply standing pat and still acquiring Bryant to help with Seattle.
Tad segment: 97:06-103:50 link: http://www.sports790.com/media/podc...ckets-hammer-the-thunder-and-afcnfc-25741544/
It was Kevin Willis who was acquired that may have been enough to beat Seattle. However, Utah beat us because we had nobody who could stay with Stockton... and that was true in the Smith/Cassell era as well. In addition, Malone took his game (steroids) to another level and he would have had his way with Horry (as he did when Horry moved on to the Lakers).
Yeah you're right. It was Willis I was thinking of. We'll just have to agree to disagree about the Utah matchup though. The 97-98 Utah teams looked just like the 92-95 teams to me. They didn't change, we did. For the worse.
The Rockets essentially stole the 95 series from Utah (which was only a 5 game series... don't know if the Rockets win a 7 games series presuming Utah stops giving the ball to David Benoit). Utah's later teams featured Byron Russell, Howard Eisley and Shandon Anderson... three athletic shooting guards that the Rockets had trouble containing for 48 minutes. I would say they were gaining on them with each matchup. And yes, the Rockets did change... as Hakeem and Clyde got older. Sam/Robert were not going to beat Utah by themselves.
Barkley & Shaq saying they have never seen a championship won with one guy going so much 1-on-1, that's the biggest crock I've ever heard from them. Kenny straight owned Shaq, saying Kobe & Wade did it with HIM on the team and all he could say was : not like that, not that much...**** TNT, **** SHAQ and yes Tinman, **** BARKLEY!! The guy is a disgrace, making so many grammatical errors, talking like's stupid. Sure it's funny but the guy is a pooper.
barkley played hard, but imo he didn't adjust to playing with 2 other stars as well as he needed to. i still have bad memories of him trying to nonsensically post up a much taller/stronger karl malone in 4th quarters instead of exploiting the mismatches hakeem and clyde had going. his ego just never allowed him to defer enough on offense.
if you hate Barkley, then you hate the Rockets going to the Western Conference Finals because that was the last time it happened, with BARKLEY. and newbs, shut up, we all know you weren't old enough to play Super Mario World on the SNES.
