2009 Ron Artest Rockets

[RoxSteady]

The Netflix doc. on Malice at the Palace renewed my interest in Ron Artest. Accordingly I did some Basketball-Reference exploring and was intrigued by the 2009 Rockets, a team I didn't follow too closely. They lost in 7 games to the eventual champion L.A. Lakers who face Dwight Howard's Magic in the Finals (who defeated the Cavs but it's noteworthy that KG was hurt for the Celts). During the 7 game series, the Rockets lost Yao. Artest and Shane Battier carried them forward. T-Mac also played 35 games for the team and although declining, seemingly would've helped.

Would love to hear more about what it was like to follow this squad from the fans.

[reamily]

Its still 2009 Yao ming rockets, this was imo cemented yao short nba career where he carried houston up to that point...lakers dogged woth rick adelman led squad but still win in the end..
They have Yao scola battier artest and aaron brooks?

[jove9]

That was our year, TBH, until everyone started getting hurt. T-Mac was hurt in the first round, but Artest was unstoppable and carried the team. Then Yao broke his foot (again), then Mutombo, Yao's backup, was injured and retired. If we had our full team, it's easy to say we would have beaten the Lakers and went on to the title.

The Lakers realized how great Artest was and signed him in the offseason. I believe we signed Trevor Ariza from LAL, who was then a young kid, as a step toward rebuilding.

[YoungMoney23]

T-Mac shut it down mid season and had microfracture surgery (apparently he didn't need it). Artest was good but frustrating to watch in that he'd gamble a lot on defense and throw up a lot of bad shots up but when he played smart you saw the talent come out and not to mention the toughness he brought changed the culture. Carl Landry was a great unsung hero of that team though