The Rockets will always have their doubters. There is just something inherent about the Beard bias, even as he is square in the midst of a second consecutive historic season. That dislike extends out to the Rockets as a whole, and it’s just a fact of life as a member of Red Nation.
Granted, the Rockets made some of this bed with last season’s .500 stumble that led to the firing of Kevin McHale and Dwight Howard moving on to Atlanta. But we’ve even still seen some of that disrespect through the first quarter of this season, despite a hot Houston start, primarily on the road, that’s led them to the upper half (4th seed to be exact) of the admittedly early Western Conference playoff seeding.