Jeremy Lin Miami Heat

Earlier this month, I enlisted the help of you, the With Leather readers (still unofficially known as “Leatherheads”), to help me choose a new NBA team to follow/love/write about. I’d had a tumultuous life of stop-and-go basketball fandom, but now that I’m settled in central Texas and running a sports blog, it’s important to move forward and actually watch the sports about which I’m tasked to write jokes. You hear the one about LeBron James? *does soft shoe routine*

Anyway, the results are in, and With Leather has made me a fan of the Houston Rockets.

You guys made some convincing arguments, and I didn’t let my previous opinion of the team (which is, in total, “they used to have Hakeem Olajuwon”) stop me from making good on my word. The Rockets brought in a whopping 55.98% of the vote, beating the second-place vote getter (“Other, Please Specify”) by almost 40%. For the record, Other Please Specify was mostly people going LIKE MY TEAM, WHO CARES IF YOU LIVE IN TEXAS.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, here’s my favorite shot from last night’s game:

God dammit, you people set me up, didn’t you?

Anyway, because you helped me out, here’s a collection of my favorite pro-Rockets arguments. Keep in mind that I reserve the right to say f**k it and become a Raptors fan in 2013.

Burnsy:

I chose the Rockets, because the Mavericks are the popular choice, the Spurs are the boring choice, and the Hornets haven’t changed their name and logo yet, so you need to wait to see if it’s something cool. The Rockets have Harden and Lin. They’re a Tebow short of perfect marketing.

Patrick Cosmos:

There is nothing to not love about Omer Asik, who looks like Judge Reinhold and was nicknamed “Cheese Toast” by Joakim Noah (because ont he road he would eat cheese toast [?]). The Rockets are an obvious choice, even without Harden.

DrugBust:

Go with the Rockets. They overpaid for Harden but they’ve got a lot of assets. Royce White will be fun to watch while he’s around.

In a year or so Morrey will move some guys to acquire one more top 20 player, and then you could have a contender.

Marc-Vell:

The Houston Rockets, because of James Harden and his magnificent Mr. T-esque hair & beard Perfect for pitying fools on the court.

Houston Soilers:

Rockets – good enough that you can ride the “potential” train, not enough pieces so that you can justify the hope that will sustain you through the long season and the inevitable first-round exit and keep you hanging on into next season.

M4G3RK:

After a few years in the cellar, its time to be excited again as a Rockets fan. With this small core of young talent we are only going to get better over the next few years and that is very intriguing and should entice new fans.

runty little puppy:

Rockets. Smart GM who’s saving up tradeable assets for a star player, and a solid core of very young, but talented players that you might get to see develop into a playoff contender after a couple years, a la OKC. Nothing could be more fun. Other teams are holding on to boring veteran squads. No brainer IMO.

col:

I like your articles so I am going to help you out and push you in the right direction and suggest you share in my love of the Rockets, and if you haven’t joined the Texans fan club, then I don’t know what you’re waiting on

(I have, by the way. Note the lack of Help Me Pick An NFL Team polls.)