Legal Commentary

The Rockets Narrative

By Tom Kirkendall

As the Houston Rockets face the beginning of their straight decade of failing to get out of the first round of the NBA playoffs, the familiar mainstream media narrative regarding the team's probable playoff loss to Utah is all around us -- Superstar Tracy McGrady folds during crunch time at the end of close games and is simply not the type of true superstar who can carry his team to greater success.

However, reality is much different. Rather than underachievers, this season's Rockets overachieved, somehow winning 55 games during the regular season despite having only two players on the team who were in the top 15 of NBA players at their position in terms of wins-produced. And those two players -- injured center Yao Ming and relatively little-used power forward Chuck Hayes -- are only ranked 14th and 15th respectively at their position. Not only is McGrady no longer a superstar player, there are dozens of players in the NBA who produced more wins for their team this season than the just-above league average McGrady.

Given this quality of analysis in the local mainstream media, don't expect the familiar narrative regarding the Rockets to change any time soon. But the truth is that this Rockets team -- relative to their talent level -- had one of the best seasons of any team in the NBA this season. It's just that the club needs to find or develop a couple more above-league average players before it can get beyond the first round of the playoffs. 

Full post as published by Houston's Clear Thinkers on May 02, 2008 (boomark / email).