From
CHOKE CITY To
CLUTCH CITY How three fresh players helped Houston rewrite sporting history By Dan Oko
B
ack in August, the seemingly unstoppable Astros gave Houston sports fans a serious bout of heartburn. Though the mid-season slide is standard in pro sports, faithful followers were only too mindful of the collective ways the Rockets, Texans and the Astros have dropped the ball, so to speak, since the ‘90s. Neither Hurricane Harvey nor Hollywood Harvey had made headlines yet, and the slump worried the city. Houstonians needed no reminders that on the Astros only previous trip to the World Series, in 2005, the Chicago White Sox swept the team in four games. Fortunately, the Astros hatched a plan. Just before the trade deadline in late August, the team signed veteran ace Justin Verlander from Detroit. With Verlander in the rotation, the team righted the ship, and the Astros found ways to vanquish the mighty New York Yankees, the fearsome Boston Red Socks and the National League leading LA Dodgers. In October, bringing joy to a region still wracked by the most expensive hurricane in US history, the Astros won their first World Series pennant. Clutch City, indeed. SOTHEBYSHOMES.COM
41
Photo credit: Visit Houston
In addition to the Astros, in 2017 the Texans and the Rockets picked up players that helped spark an unprecedented enthusiasm for the rest of Houston’s sporting scene. Just as Verlander showed himself to be a lynchpin on the baseball diamond, rookie quarterback Deshaun Watson provided the missing offensive spark for the Texans, a team that still has never reached the Super Bowl. And even before Galveston-born “billionaire dollar buyer” Tilman Fertitta purchased the Rockets in September – for a record $2.2 billion – the team put the rest of the NBA on watch, trading for LA Clippers superstar Chris Paul to play alongside James Harden. “It’s a weapons race in the NBA,” Rockets general manager Daryl Morey told reporters in June. “You’re either in the weapons race or on the sidelines.”
addition of CP3. In his recent book “Basketball (And Other Things): Questions Asked, Answered, Illustrated” Serrano offers a seasonby-season evaluation of Michael Jordan, invents a “Disrespectful Dunk Hall of Fame” and dishes on rules for pick-up games. “Paul was such a big addition,” he says. “I think they’ll actually beat the Spurs this year.” Serrano is less conflicted when it comes down to NFL heroics, and he believes that the arrival of Deshaun Watson in Houston has provided sports fans with something sorely lacking prior to the Astros championship season: hope. It does not hurt that at the start of 2017 Watson brought a collegiate championship to Clemson University, nor that he threw a record-setting 19 touchdowns to begin his first pro season. And though the rookie QB was sidelined with a ruptured ligament in his knee after just six games, Serrano thinks Watson can carry the team in 2018.
“It’s a weapons race in the NBA... You’re either in the weapons race or on the sidelines.”
By the end of January, despite time-limiting injuries to both Harden and Paul, the Rockets seemed a lock for a playoff appearance, if not a full-blown championship run. To start, the Rockets beat the league champion Golden State Warriors two-out-of-three games in the season; with Paul knocking down 33 points and grabbing 11 rebounds on January 20, during a likely playoff preview in Houston, the Rockets record stood 32-12. When Paul was overshadowed in AllStar voting, hometown fans howled, and even coach Mike D’Antoni noted Paul was having a career year.
Though Houston-based bestselling author Shea Serrano disagrees that Paul deserves a spot on the All-Star squad (raised in San Antonio, Serrano favors the Spurs), he is happy to see the team firing on all cylinders with the
“I have lived here for 14 years, and the funny thing is you just expect something to go wrong,” he says. “So you get to thinking, maybe this is the season when we don’t get crushed by the New England Patriots. Then you look at those numbers Deshaun put up in those first six games, and you think maybe they really can do something. I’m looking forward to seeing what he does when he’s healthy.” Serrano is not alone with high hopes for the year ahead. With the Astros also looking strong in 2018, Houston finally has a roster of teams that can earn history.
SOTHEBYSHOMES.COM
43