Why Tilman Fertitta is the perfect fit for the Houston Rockets
By Michael Brown
While there was heavy competition for ownership of the Houston Rockets in 2017, Tilman Fertitta has proven he was the best option for the organization.
As the season is about to begin, one question that hasn’t been discussed enough is if Tilman Fertitta was the right choice to be the next owner of the Houston Rockets after Leslie Alexender. The first thought that came to mind centered around who else could have taken on that role.
There was conjecture that Beyonce was intrigued at the prospect of owning a stake in the team, but that never came to fruition. There was also a rumor swirling that famed Houston businessman Mattress Mack had an interest in becoming the new owner of the Houston Rockets, but that also didn’t pan out. In the end, Fertitta won the bidding war, and Leslie Alexander agreed to sell his team to Tilman for $2.2 billion.
What most Rockets fans don’t know is Tilman actually tried to purchase the Houston Rockets in 1993 but was beaten to the punch by Alexander. Back then, Fertitta made an offer of $81 million, but Les’s offer of $85 million awarded him the franchise. His ownership tenure included back-to-back championships, which ranks him as one of the best professional sports franchise owners in Houston’s history.
Now just a couple of years after Tilman’s purchase, it has already become evident that Rocket fans could not have asked for a better person to lead the franchise for the foreseeable future. Fans of the team want and expect one major thing from their guys and that’s to win.
Of course, the city wants the organization to be active in the community and be good role models, however, above all else, it wants the team to win as many games as possible. If Tilman Fertitta has shown anything with his many business dealings, it’s that he hates to lose and wants to go down as one of the most successful business minds ever.
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One criticism of Tilman’s ownership style so far is that he is too outspoken for some people. Knowing what we know about Fertitta’s personality, don’t expect that to change any time soon.
When you are the owner of a professional franchise, you can run the team how you want to run it.
During his short time with the team, Tilman hasn’t been afraid to go all out to make big moves. If Tilman Fertitta was not the owner of the team, would the Rockets have been able to acquire Russell Westbrook?
If they didn’t get Westbrook, would they have been able to sign Tyson Chandler? If they didn’t get Westbrook or Chandler, would they have been able to land Thabo Sefolosha?
The point is, with his brash and harsh ownership style he has pushed General Manager Daryl Morey to do an even better job than he has ever done before, and that could be what pushes the Rockets towards championship success.
Fertitta has pushed the entire organization to be better than they’ve ever been before and the fans are going to be the ones who reap the benefits.
Buckle up Rockets fans, because it’s going to be a memorable season with Tilman Fertitta running the club.