It’s become something of a running joke in Houston that championships aren’t won without various skeptics having “what if?” scenarios.
After three straight titles by the Chicago Bulls, the Rockets claimed their two NBA crowns in 1994 and 1995 following Michael Jordan’s unexpected mid-career retirement in October 1993. Many critics have wondered if they’d have won those, had Jordan kept playing. (Jordan did come out of retirement midway through Houston’s second championship season.)
And while Major League Baseball’s Houston Astros won their first World Series title in 2017, some have since questioned whether they would have won it without illegally stealing signs.
So with some NBA analysts such as Shaquille O’Neal alleging that a 2020 NBA champion — assuming the suspended season resumes, of course — would carry an unofficial asterisk, why not add this title to the city’s list? That’s the perspective that Rockets GM Daryl Morey is adopting.
This is why the @HoustonRockets are destined to win this year – Houston championships always get an asterisk https://t.co/j4VJNUZqQG
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) May 12, 2020
Jokes aside, it’s certainly true that the 2020 NBA playoffs — should they occur — will look very unusual. They would almost certainly occur without fans in empty arenas, and after an extended multi-month layoff late in the regular season due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. That’s not the way the league’s champion is usually decided.
Then again, all teams are facing the same circumstances. Rockets guard Austin Rivers recently argued that given those factors, it would be the “hardest championship ever won.” Here’s what he said:
People have been saying, whoever wins, it’s going to have a blip [asterisk] next to it. I personally believe it’s the complete opposite. Whoever wins, this is so much harder. … Whoever wins this year really had to go get it and earn it, and had guys who took time off seriously and still stayed in shape, and was able to get back the chemistry, true chemistry. So many things. In my eyes, whoever wins this, it’s going to be the hardest championship ever won.
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The first step, of course, is getting the 2019-20 season back up and running. From there, any NBA champion to emerge would be thrilled to have the opportunity to hold that debate.
Considering Houston’s history, it would somehow feel fitting if this was the year for this generation’s Rockets — currently led by Morey, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and head coach Mike D’Antoni — to finally have their long-awaited championship breakthrough.
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