NBA NOTEBOOK : Houston Content With Label

Everything anyone needs to know about the Houston Rockets can be summarized by the results of two season series. The Rockets have won two of three games against the Los Angeles Lakers. They have lost two of three to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

This is the sort of craziness and inconsistency that has led the Rockets into believing they are an exceptional franchise.

Sound strange? It should, but then the Rockets’ nearly won the 1981 world championship with a mediocre team that was 40-42 during the regular season.

Understanding that makes it easy to understand why the Rockets were so excited last summer when they signed re-instated drug offenders Mitchell Wiggins and Lewis Lloyd and free agent Larry Smith.

Rockets officials were certain that those ingenious maneuvers made them legitimate contenders for the championship -- not favorites, but contenders. In their most optimistic moments, Rockets officials predicted 52 victories, which led to theories that they had been sniffing fumes from the polluted Houston Ship Channel.

The rest of the NBA, however, awaited the explosion of the talented time bomb, Akeem Olajuwon, because when it became obvious to Olajuwon that the Rockets were merely a mediocre team, there would be an eruption.

And, there was. In fact, there were several. Olajuwon even mentioned the unthinkable in Houston -- if the Rockets could not duplicate the rebuilding success stories of teams like the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs, he wanted to be traded.

“He’s changed,” Rockets Coach Don Chaney said. “He knows now that if he’s going to win a championship, it’s going to be in Houston because we’re not going to trade him.”

To Olajuwon’s credit, he channeled his frustration into outstanding play. The Rockets recently won six consecutive games, and in that stretch, Olajuwon averaged 31.5 points, 14 rebounds, a staggering 7.1 blocked shots and 2.7 steals a game.

“Akeem is a winner,” Chaney said. “He has been frustrated and he’s aired that to the public, but it doesn’t affect his game. In fact, he takes his game to another level.”

And it is precisely that habit that scares the hell out of the rest of the Western Conference. Unlike the New York Knicks, who are 6-17 vs. the nine winningest teams in the league, the Rockets have relative success against the best. In games against the top 10 teams, adding the Knicks, the Rockets are 10-13.

“If Akeem keeps playing like Superman,” said Lakers coach Pat Riley, “this team is on its way.”

The Rockets’ primary problem, besides Olajuwon’s poor supporting cast, is that they can’t win on the road, where, at 6-25 prior to Thursday night’s visit to Sacramento, they have won exactly one more game than the 5-25 Miami Heat. If the Rockets do make the playoffs, and they currently would not qualify because they have the ninth best record, they obviously would not have the home court advantage.

If they do make it, however, they could be as dangerous as the 40-42 team that took the Boston Celtics to six games before losing in the 1981 NBA Finals. Franchise history, and the presence of Olajuwon, suggests the Rockets are just average enough to be a playoff team.

Stu Jackson and Al Bianchi will be interested in hearing Don Chaney’s assessment of how Olajuwon has developed in another area. “I tell you what I like about the big guy,” Chaney said. “I wasn’t aware that he was able to do this. Last year, I made him the captain. He’s one of those guys who doesn’t like to voice his opinion to his teammates and get them going from a leadership standpoint. But this year, he’s become more of a vocal leader. Last year, he led by demonstration, by the way he played. But this year, he’s talking to his teammates and boosting their confidence. I had no idea he was capable of doing that.”

The Knicks keep saying they need a leader, preferably Patrick Ewing. But Ewing prefers to lead by example. Perhaps, like Olajuwon, he can change. There is little doubt that Ewing is the only Knick who can get away with bossing his teammates around. And there is no doubt they could use a little internal leadership.

New Jersey Nets General Manager Harry Weltman recently stated that with power forwards Roy Hinson, Charles Shackelford, Jack Haley, Chris Dudley and Anthony Mason on the roster, the Nets have such a surplus that it puts them in good trading position in the off-season. That, of course, is assuming someone is interested in players who have had knee surgery, been involved in a point-shaving controversy and charged with marijuana possession, been waived, traded for second-round picks or who have played a total of 53 minutes this season.