The 10 Houston sports moments that made 2020 even worse

We got glimmers of hope when the Astros started their season in late July. Then, a week later, the Rockets returned. Shortly after that, the Texans reported to training camp with high expectations after blowing a big lead over the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs just eight months earlier.

But as Houston sports are wont to do, they kind of crapped all over us.

The Astros season felt like a slog as every national broadcast led to incessant talk about the cheating scandal that was sooooo pre-pandemic. Houston got a bit of a reprieve when the Astros put together a surprising playoff run, but then it ended abruptly and we all were left to deal with the realities of 2020 again.

The Rockets also gave fans brief hope, but the entire thing has gone bad ever since Game 1 of the second-round playoff series against the Lakers in September.

And the Texans? Don’t get us started.

Here’s a look at all the ways Houston sports made 2020 even worse, beginning chronologically with when sports were shut down and Bill O’Brien kicked off the pandemic with a real beauty of a decision.

You traded who? For what?

As the world was starting to realize the gravity of coronavirus, Bill O’Brien tried to sneak in a trade that dropped a bomb on the franchise. On March 16 – just five days after the NBA announced it was shutting down and four days after the NCAA Tournament was canceled – the Texans traded DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals for running back David Johnson and a second-round draft pick. Six months later, the O’Brien would be fired in a move that was too little, too late to save the season. Now Texans fans watch their team lose nearly every Sunday at noon, then check the box score for Cardinals games and scream in agony when they see Hopkins had another Hopkins-esque game.

Astros injuries

It took just three days into an abbreviated season before the Houston Chronicle reported that ace Justin Verlander would miss the rest of the season. Although Verlander disputed the report, he did, in fact, miss the rest of the season and have Tommy John surgery in September, which means he’ll likely miss all of 2021 as well. A week later, closer Roberto Osuna also leaves a game with an elbow injury and doesn’t pitch again. A couple weeks after that, slugger Yordan Alvarez makes his season debut then is shelved for the rest of the season with pain in his knee. So a few weeks after celebrating the return of baseball, Astros fans already were cursing their team’s fate.

Making Joe Kelly famous

Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly throwing at the Astros’ Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa on July 28 wasn’t really all that bad, but the fact that his five minutes of fame made him a cult hero among baseball fans ranks way up there on the 2020 crap list. Kelly is a middling reliever with a powerful, but erratic arm. He threw at the Astros, then mocked Correa as he hastily made his retreat back to his own dugout. For that, a mural of him was painted in Los Angeles and T-shirts were made as though he were Sandy Koufax. Go away already, Joe Kelly.

Morons boo

Before the Texans’ season opener Sept. 10 in Kansas City, players from both teams linked arms in the middle of the field in a show of unity. In response, some of the fans at Arrowhead Stadium booed. After the game, Texans star J.J. Watt said, "I mean, the booing during that moment was unfortunate. I don't fully understand that. There was no flag involved. There was nothing involved other than two teams coming together to show unity." Booing a moment of unity sums up where we stood as a country in 2020.

Danuel House's entanglement

After studying surveillance cameras, the NBA ruled that Danuel House had an unauthorized guest in his bubble hotel room for multiple hours on Sept. 8. Before House’s entanglement with a woman was caught on camera, the Rockets were tied with the Lakers 1-1 in their second-round playoff series. House wasn’t allowed to play the rest of the series and was sent home. The Rockets went on to lose the next three games by double digits and all got sent home themselves.

Daryl Morey bolts

The Rockets never won a title with Daryl Morey as general manager, but he kept the team extremely competitive during his 13-year run and always gave fans the sense that their team had one of the smartest guys in the room. On Oct. 15, he stepped down citing a desire to spend time with his family. A week later, he became the Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations. It’s hard not to take that personally, Daryl.

Sad Altuve

Maybe the lowest point for Houston sports in all of 2020 was seeing how sad Jose Altuve was when suddenly he couldn’t throw the ball to first base in the American League Championship Series. Altuve botching routine throws helped cost the Astros Games 2 and 3 against the Rays in a series that went the distance. The Astros star seemed to get it together the rest of the series and was spectacular at the plate, hitting .462 with three home runs in the series, but the indelible image from the Astros falling one win short of the World Series will be a frustrated Altuve crouched down after throwing away another routine play.

Everything James Harden

The first time we saw James Harden in the NBA Bubble, he was wearing a "Thin Blue Line Mask," which is often viewed as an opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement. On the court, he was brilliant as always, but he stubbed his toe off the court throughout 2020. Shortly after the Rockets were eliminated by the Lakers, word leaked that Harden wants out of Houston. He flouted his ambivalence for the Rockets by attending Lil Baby's birthday parties in Las Vegas and Atlanta instead of reporting to training camp on time. Then, when he did show up, he went out to a nightclub and was forced to quarantine again, which helped lead to the cancellation of the Rockets' season opener.

Trash can jokes

The news of the Astros’ banging a trash can to signal to their hitters what pitch is coming broke before the pandemic, but the players and their fans had to deal with the blowback throughout 2020. You couldn’t even post something positive about the Astros on social media without some super original jokester asking about a trash can. Even innocuous social media posts like Alex Bregman announcing his engagement came with Debbie Downers and their trash can jokes or warning the star’s new wife about cheating. Hilarious, guys.

Passing of Astros legends

In a span of seven months, three Astros legends – Jimmy Wynn, Joe Morgan and Bob Watson – all died. The 5-foot-9 Wynn, known as the “Toy Cannon”, died at 78 in March. Seven weeks later, Watson, who starred for the Astros on the field and was baseball’s first general manager died at 74. Morgan, a Hall of Famer traded away by the Astros way too soon, died in October.