Tilman Fertitta has undergone a bit of a transformation in terms of his favorability in the public eye. For the first several years of Fertitta\u2019s ownership of the Houston Rockets, he was quite heavily disliked by the Rockets\u2019 fanbase.<\/p>\n
Understandably, as he struggled with knowing when\/how to insert himself at the onset of his ownership tenure. Fertitta became the face of financial frugality on mainly two fronts: Houston\u2019s unwillingness to pay the luxury tax and Mike D\u2019Antoni\u2019s contract negotiations.<\/p>\n
Since then, Fertitta has mostly learned how to stay out of the limelight. Even during the Rockets\u2019 rebuild, in which he endured a ton of losing (and profit losses). Fertitta publicly supported the Rockets\u2019 hiring of then embattled coach Ime Udoka in 2023 and was able to remain patient and avoid a rushed move during Houston\u2019s four year rebuild.<\/p>\n
And he made it known, while clearly inebriated, that he was praying for the first overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft and a shot at Victor Wembanyama, uniting with fans on several fronts.<\/p>\n
Fertitta\u2019s latest power move certainly endeared himself to the Houston community, as he shelled out $300 million for the WNBA\u2019s Connecticut Sun, which will become the Houston Comets in 2027.<\/p>\n
Talk about winning the hearts of Houstonians. The Comets were a legendary franchise, even though short-lived. Four championships in four years is impressive, but four championships in the first four years of existence is unheard of.<\/p>\n
However, many WNBA fans (most WNBA fans, even) aren\u2019t happy with Fertitta\u2019s purchase. Specifically the process by which Fertitta was selected as the WNBA\u2019a next owner.<\/p>\n
Which is unfair to Fertitta.<\/p>\n
Fertitta doesn\u2019t control that process. That anger should be directed towards WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert.<\/p>\n
She controlled that process. The person who wins the lottery isn\u2019t to blame. The team that wins the draft lottery isn\u2019t to blame (although they likely did an inordinate amount of shameless tanking along the way).<\/p>\n
Franchise relocations suck, in general. And it\u2019s nonsensical and illogical when league commissioners pass on legitimate prospective owners who have illustrated plans to move a franchise forward, like Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagulica, who offered $325 million and was willing to spend another $100 for the franchise to have their own facility in Boaton.<\/p>\n
Engelbert put an end to that, stating that the WNBA should control relocation. But again, that has nothing to do with Fertitta.<\/p>\n
He waited his turn. And WNBA fans should be happy for the return of the Comets.<\/p>\n
Voice your complaints to Engelbert and Adam Silver if you\u2019re unhappy with the process. Don\u2019t take your grudge out on Fertitta. You\u2019d do the same thing if you were in his shoes.<\/p>\n
Besides, he\u2019s got some work to do, as it pertains to getting the team good again. This is by no means a ready-made title team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tilman Fertitta has undergone a bit of a transformation in terms of his favorability in the public eye.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,211,1993],"class_list":{"0":"post-694995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-rockets","14":"tag-rockets-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116338108916867191","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}