After winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song for his haunting track “Streets of Philadelphia” in 1994, rock legend Bruce Springsteen said, “Gee, this is the first song I ever wrote for a motion picture, so I guess it’s all downhill from here.”
Three months later, first-year Houston Rockets owner Les Alexander hoisted the Larry O’Brien trophy after his newly purchased franchise delivered Houston its first ever professional sports championship with a Game 7 NBA Finals victory over the New York Knicks.
While it certainly hasn’t been “all downhill” for either of the two, Alexander has had a much more difficult time maintaining his success than “The Boss”.
But it’s not for lack of trying.
Alexander, along with former GM Carroll Dawson and current GM Daryl Morey, has a history of pursuing, and oftentimes landing, marquee talent for his franchise.
His first big splash came in 1995, when he helped orchestrate a mid-season trade with the Portland Trailblazers to reunite All-Star shooting guard Clyde Drexler with his University of Houston “Phi Slamma Jamma” teammate Hakeem Olajuwon. The move rejuvenated a struggling squad and helped propel the Rockets, who entered the playoffs as the 6th seed in the Western Conference, to their second straight NBA championship.
And the hits just kept on coming. Alexander’s Rockets have acquired a veritable “Who’s Who” list of NBA superstars in his two decades of ownership. The list of players he’s acquired via trade or free agency includes:
- Hall of Famers Drexler, Charles Barkley, and Scottie Pippen;
- Scoring machines Tracy McGrady and James Harden;
- Defensive stalwarts Shane Battier, Ron Artest, and Dwight Howard;
- International sensations Luis Scola and Yao Ming (whom the Rockets had to lure from China with the first pick in the 2002 NBA Draft)
While Alexander has never been shy about chasing big name talent, his success in landing such talent has yet to translate into championships. After their second title in 1995, the Rockets fell to the Utah Jazz the following season (Barkley’s first with the team) in the Western Conference Finals, and have yet to advance that far since. And for every James Harden and Dwight Howard there was a Steve Francis and a Jeremy Lin.
With free agency set to kick off this Tuesday, Alexander and the Rockets appear to be at it again, with the team being linked to anyone and everyone from LeBron James to Carmelo Anthony to even Kevin Love. The wheels are already turning in Houston, as the team’s latest move to clear cap space came with the trade of center Omer Asik (and his huge contract) to the New Orleans Pelicans for a first-round pick in next year’s NBA draft.
“We’re going to have cap room to bring in a terrific free agent and I think next year we’ll be a lot better than we were this year,” Alexander told Houston’s Fox 26 Sports. “We have a good nucleus.”
Can the Rockets really pull off a blockbuster acquisition for the third consecutive season after bringing in perennial All-Stars James Harden and Dwight Howard?
They can. And they will, if Les Alexander has anything to say about it.
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