Houston Rockets: Leslie Alexander was committed to winning

The Houston Rockets are up for sale after 24 years being under the reign of Leslie Alexander. It’s not often in the sports world that an owner is beloved by the public and one that works as much for the franchise as for making a profit for themselves. But Leslie Alexander was a special type of owner.

The Houston Rockets are valued at $1.65 billion dollars, good for eighth most valuable NBA franchise, according to Forbes. Alexander paid $85 million dollars for the team back in 1993 so the value has obviously inflated since that time.

It was within his first two years of owning the team that the Houston Rockets won their first NBA championship and the only title Houston sports had ever seen. They would go on to repeat in 1995 and since that time, Alexander has done everything in his power to try and bring another trophy back to H-town.

From 1993-2017, the team won 56.9 percent of their games. That is the fifth highest rate of any team in that span. And Alexander was no small part in that.

Whether it was trading for Clyde Drexler or Charles Barkley to give them three hall of famers in the late 1990’s, to making those tough deals like trading away Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley to go get Tracy McGrady, Alexander always went for it and was willing to help his front office get what they thought they needed to become a champion.

Les Alexander always did his best to put a competitive team on the floor. We’ve seen the fruits of the Houston Astros tanking and now reaping the benefits, but those days of 2012 and 2013 baseball were terrible to watch and was not worth the price of admission. The Rockets never went through a tanking phase.

They were innovative under Alexander. When Steve Francis didn’t want to sign with the Vancouver Grizzlies, we swooped in and got him. When it looked like the Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Yao Ming trio wasn’t going to go as far as they’d like, they went and got McGrady.

In his (Leslie Alexander) time as owner, the Rockets made the playoffs 17 out of 24 seasons, enjoying 20 seasons where they finished above .500

And when McGrady and Yao both were gone, we suffered for a bit before making a trade that no one saw transforming the franchise the way it has, getting perennial MVP candidate James Harden from the Oklahoma City Thunder for a bag of peanuts.

Even the unsuccessful moves like bringing in Scottie Pippen in 1999 were still ones made with the best of intentions in putting a contender on the floor. In his time as owner, the Rockets made the playoffs 17 out of 24 seasons, enjoying 20 seasons where they finished above .500.

Compare that to the team that we beat in those 1994 NBA Finals who were in a similar peak of talent the New York Knicks, who in that same span made the playoffs 13 of those 24 seasons and finished above .500 only 12 out of those 24 years. And Alexander was able to do this in the ultra competitive Western conference.

He was also an owner that seemed to be just the right amount of hands-on but never publicly trashing the team or taking stances for or against anyone. He was not brash or loud like Jerry Jones or Mark Cuban. He never sold out the fans or the team for financial purposes like Jeffrey Loria or Donald Sterling. He sat quietly along the courtside (well outside of this one time) next to his franchise player, Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon, and watched like everyone else.

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Les Alexander was also beloved by the fans, a rarity in sports where the fans like the owner. With the knee jerk reactions that most sports fans have and how quickly they want someone fired or traded for one small misstep, you’ll nary find a bad word written about Alexander because his dedication to the team’s success is unquestionable.

And it is not easy for a city to have a good relationship with a sports team owner. We only need look as recently as Bud Adams who is basically the Voldemort of Houston sports. To speak his name is to speak that of the person that moved our beloved Houston Oilers away after the city payed for improvements to the Astrodome that was supposed to keep the team in Houston for 10 years.

Instead, shortly thereafter, Adams decided he wanted a new stadium altogether and the city balked and stopped showing up to games because they no longer wanted to line the pockets of an owner they had already made concessions to to try and keep their beloved baby blue Oilers here.

Next: Why Tilman Fertitta is a perfect fit to own the team

The fact that the news of Alexander is met with a somber tone means just how lucky we were to have him as an owner. We hope whoever purchases the franchise continues that tradition of putting the team and fans first, continuously making every effort to put a winner on the floor each and every season. Here’s to Les Alexander and a great run as owner of the Houston Rockets.

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