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I hope you all will excuse ol' Mr. E as he goes on a preseason rant about the upcoming season, the Rockets and a little bit of life thrown in the mix.

During halftime of the Texans game today I went out on a beer run (stupid no booze before noon laws!) and seeing as how it was a bit chilly by our standards I decided to rock my classic Rockets sweatshirt that I've had since 1993. Yes, it is a bit threadbare and may not be - as my girl says - "fit to be worn in public" but come on...it's my classic Rockets sweatshirt! We don't do cold weather here, so it's pretty much held up over the years. I love this thing and will never get rid of it! I'll wear it until it is falling off of me, dammit!

All that said, this thread is not about my awesome sweatshirt. It is about the conversation I had in line with a fellow beer-buyer trying to get back before the half to watch whomever it was that we were trotting out to play QB in the second half. He made some comment to me about how the lockout was over. I said "yeah, can't wait for the season!" to which he replied something very nasty about the players and how they don't deserve anything and that they should all be out on their ass.

Basically, I ran into the RealGM General Board made flesh...

Anyway, I wasn't in the mood to discuss basketball with a stranger who obviously had his mind made up. I just paid for my adult beverages, chips and made my way home. On the way I was thinking about my own attitude during the lockout. As much as I love our Rockets I was perfectly prepared to lose a season if it meant that we'd get a stronger league going forward. I understand that many are upset still with the owners and/or players and will hold that grudge, but I guess I'm not that guy. I guess I'm easy like a Sunday Morning...when you can't buy beer in Texas...

Look, guys - I'm over it. I love basketball. I always have and I'll always be the biggest Rockets fan you'll find in Houston. No matter who the players are I will watch the team. Yes, I am an admitted Houston-Only-Fan, and I will support my Rockets, Texans, Astros & Dynamo because, you know...they're my teams!

But the Rockets hold a special place for me for so many reasons.

I still recall every detail of the 94 championship, both on and off the court. I remember the look of absolute pain and anguish on Bob Costas' face when he had to interview the Rockets and not the Knicks. I remember driving up and down Richmond Avenue in front of Yagas, Sam's Boat & Sam's Place yelling and cheering with old friends and new friends.

I remember the 95 season and never giving up, only to see what remains the most impressive playoffs run by any team in NBA history culminating with Hakeem and his Phi Slamma Jamma teammate and prodigal son of Houston, Clyde Drexler, holding the trophy high.

I remeber meeting both Sam Cassel and Vernon Maxwell that summer at Cabo over on Richmond Avenue. Sam was as cool as anything and I am not ashamed to admit that Mad Max scared the everliving hell out of me! Yeah, he ending up being cool as hell, but those eyes, dude...the man could make Satan piss himself!

Next years were the attempts at the dream teams with first that guy from Chicago whom I shall not name, and then that guy from Phoenix we all hated, but then loved once he was a Rocket. My favorite part about the Barkley years had nothing to do with what was on the court, tho...rather it was the fact that whenever I would go out people would buy me drinks because they thought that I was Matt Maloney!

Growing up & life made it harder to follow the Rockets after that other than the box score. I was living all over the place and for some reason the bums in Seattle or New Orleans had no interest in showing Rockets games. What the hell was wrong with those clowns??? I still read all about the games and poured over the box scores. No matter where I was in the world - from the Bering Sea to Italy - I was always looking for any news of my Rockets.

I got back home permanantly around the time that some tall, Chinese dude was drafted by our team. Yao instantly became one of my favorite Rockets of all-time, and I still catch myself wondering what could have been. We picked up some guys like McGrady, Moochie, Carl Landry, Kyle Lowry, Aaron Brooks, Luis Scola (traded for the Euro Michael Jordan, if you can believe it!) and two of my other all-time favorite Rockets: Dikembe Mutumbo and Shane Battier. Throughout so much of my life with all of the things going on I can always trace back to who was on the team whenever some pivotal moment of my life happens. Yeah, some may think that is sad; but FU - I'm a fan!

I'm going to stop rambling now and move onto the next thing. I can't wait to see what Morey will do for our team this season! I'd tell you all that this is a good time to be a Rockets fan; but as you can probably tell from ol' Mr. E: it's always a good time to be a Rockets fan.

Looking forward to the season, guys. Let's see what the fellas can do!

GO ROCKETS!!!

Happy season is back.

We'll need to make decisions on our 09 rejects soon. What to do with Thabeet, Hill, Flynn and Twill? Extend or not to extend that is the question.

That's not a rant E. Now i'll give you mine.

I started playing Basketball in grade 3 of primary, (elementary to you Americans!) school in 1987. Basketball was just starting to take off, I had NEVER played the game before, but my mother thought it might be good for me. I remember in my 1st year, I scored 6 points, for the entire season.

My second year was much the same, I scored 16 points for the entire season, and we were runners up in the grandfinal. But I had began to improve, and I was starting to develop that "love of the game" you here bandied around like a cheap cliche`.

By my third season, (we play to seasons a year in Autralia, so really, a year and a half after starting to play) I dominated my grade, scored 146points for the season, and we won the finals. I was hooked.

A few years passed, I started Highschool. Australias NBL, was beginning to really take off, (1990) This is pre-internet, so NBA is just Basketball played in America, or an article in "One on One" magazine, (a now defunct publication!) I bought a Batman Comic, which had an advertisement for Fleer trading cards. Olajuwon was the prominant picture in the Ad.

Skip to year 9, I changed schools, and was a mad Basketball addict. It's all I wanted to do. The NBA had started to become more prominant. You got a game on Friday and Saturday night, (late at night, 1030pm onwards) and NBA Action on a Saturday morning. I decided that it was time for me to pick a team, I didn't want Chicago, because everyone was a Bulls fan, Or at the time, Lakers, Boston or Charlotte, (Grandmama!!!!!!!!!!!!) Re-reading the Batman Comic, this time I took note of the Ad for Fleer Cards, (everyone was starting to buy Upper Deck.) and again, took note of Olajuwon. I saw he was a Centre, (like me.) And more importantly, he wasn't from any of the aforementioned teams.

My Rockets Mania began. I got anything I could Rockets. I still have Sam Cassell, and Big Shot Robert's Rookie cards, and collected over 100 Olajuwon cards as well as the usual assortment of other players.

I was getting better as a player, and I spent hours trying to mimick olajuwon's moves, (I taped everything I could Rockets, and watched it till I destroyed it! While his post moves were near impossible to copy, I did get a few down pat. But I could Block Shots. (Mutombo was my 2nd favourite player behind Olajuwon.) I used to cop so much crap for being a Rockets fan. Then we beat New York.

After that Series, Chris Jent came to Australia and played in the NBL, for my team, the North melbourne Giants. Believe it or not, he was nutzo, completely off tap. He led my NBL team to the finals, but they lost. He then went back to the NBA to play for the Knicks. Olajuwon came to Australia after that, for the NBA Jam tour. And after that, Houston went double clutch. I was completely and utterly hooked.

Then, the NBA went off free to air. Internet was in it's infancy, so with the exception of Pro Basketball Today, (another defunct publication) there was no real way to get NBA scores etc. The NBL then went into a state of decline. I believe a direct correlation can be drawn between the downslide of our NBL, and the removal of the NBA off Australian TV. At this stage, I had just turned 18, (1996) was legally allowed to drink, get my Licence etc, so I was going to a lot of NBL games. in 1998, my team closed it's doors, and merged with the enemy. (Imagine Houston merging with Dallas!) I stopped going to the NBL. I started working in a sporting goods store, (Cheap access to Basketball shoes, I'd buy a new pair every 3 months!) My playing was really taking off also. One day at work, I came across some old Basketball singlets with some photos as well. One of the singlets, was Olajuwons, and it had his signature on it. There were photos of the owner of the shop I was at, with Olajuwon as well. I liberated that singlet and the photos.

So I missed the Barkley, Pippen Francis getting drafted days. I came back to the NBA fold, in about 2001. I got my first tattoo, (The Rockets Logo!) and started to get back into the NBA. Then we got Yao, and I was hooked again.

E-bay became my close companion, for any merchandise Rockets. The rest of my history, you can probably follow through this board. I might not physically be a Houstonian, but I think I am definately one spiritually. I named my son Akeem for Christs sake.

And that's about it up to current day. I plan to come to Houston during Basketball season in 2013. Maybe I'll see some of you at a game.

Damn good rantin' kam! Let me know if you ever make it over here.

Interesting path to becoming a Rockets fan. I remember those Hakeem ads in the comics, too!

Anybody else care to share their life's story? We can make a novel with these walls of text.

good post E, good read. you too kam

I'll be 22 in January.

Stockton's 3 is literally my oldest memory, which has contributed to my hatred of all things Jazz and why I think anyone who thinks we should get Boozer should be summarily shot. Of course, I remember the Last Shot just as well, and of course every little kid grew up worshipping Jordan.

I think I got into basketball out of a lack of other options due to my age. The Texans hadn't existed yet when I was a kid, I would rather listen to Sarah Palin than watch baseball, and I was really tall for a little kid, so obviously tall people play basketball ( sadly, I am not tall anymore ).

So basketball kept me interested, and we've always had interesting players to keep me in. I was a big fan of the Franchise, and then of Yao. And of course, I played it. Football was too chaotic for my liking, and while swimming was my best sport, it was boring.

To this day I'm still not quite sure why I'm a Rockets fan. And I don't mean that in a bad way, because I watched almost every game last season and this is my #1 team. I've been a diehard Sonics fan for about 15 years but after they moved I was without a team. I started developing an interest in the term in late 2009-2010. The Rockets were fun to watch with lots of young players I liked (Brooks, Budinger) and I loved the fact they stayed competitive despite countless injuries to their key players.

Now almost 2 years later I'm still aboard the bandwagon and I'm looking forward to a great season. I think we still got a shot at the playoffs this year with so many Western teams on the decline (Lakers, Mavs, Spurs, Nuggets) so I hope we'll still be playing at the end of April!