Now That's a Scheduling Problem

You may have read today that Rick Adelman's a bit perturbed by his Houston team's schedule for the balance of 2009.

In a group of games he calls "a horrendous stretch," the Rockets will play four back-to-back contests in the span of two weeks (running his team's total to five B2B's in the month of December), which is doubly troubling because it's the holiday season, after all.

Of course, if Rick could remember back to his halcyon days of the late 1960s when he was a rookie guard for the San Diego Rockets, he might temper his rage a bit. Back in the 1968-69 campaign, Adelman's Rockets also played five back to backers in December, including one memorable stretch in which San Diego played at Los Angeles, at New York, at Cincinnati, at Milwaukee, then at New York again - all in the span of six nights.

Or, better still, he could have played for the Sonics in 1967-68, when Seattle was forced to play 12 games between December 15th and the 31st, including, are you ready for this, five games in five nights.

You read that right. In December 1968, the Sonics played Dec. 22 (New York), Dec. 23 (at San Francisco), Dec. 24 (San Francisco), Dec. 25 (at Cincinnati), and Dec. 26 (at Philadelphia). Five games, five nights, all during the holidays.

I think, if I remember correctly, the Sonics formed a Player's Union on the flight back from Philly, somewhere over Omaha.