HOUSTON — Team owner Leslie Alexander wasn’t in his familiar mid-court front row seat for the final home game of the Rockets’ season.
To hear the scuttlebutt, Alexander has already seen enough of coach Rick Adelman and after four seasons is ready to move on.
It will go down as one of the most curious divorce cases in history, where the party that files the papers has irreconcilable differences that are equally inexplicable.
For the second straight season, the Rockets have missed the playoffs. But for the second straight season the Rockets have been without their All-Star center Yao Ming, who broke a bone in his left foot and played in only five games after sitting out the entire 2009-10 schedule. Midway through last season the Rockets traded away an injured and unhappy Tracy McGrady.
“What team loses two people of that stature in basically a two-year type of period?” Adelman asked. “You just can’t lose those types of people. You can’t do it. It’s impossible. It’s like the Lakers losing Kobe and Gasol. I don’t think you’re gonna replace those guys real quick.
“It’s been a real struggle. It’s been a real disappointment for everybody including those two guys who got injured. We tried to just take it for what it is and go with the guys we have in here. There’s nothing you can do about it. Sometimes you get fortunate and sometimes you don’t. The job is still the same.”
