Galveston Native Second to Bigger, Better Houston Native

Contrary to popular opinion, DJ was not the first NBA player to endorse Chinese athletic apparel. All right, he's the first active player.

Former Rocket Clyde "The Glide" was the first, signing a two-year deal to be the spokesperson for Fujian's Athletic shoes last year--pardon the translation and non-facts from the source.

We had a story planned, but then, Drexler didn't seem like such an odd fit. You only need refer to earlier campaigns.

Rockets' Fists of Furious Futility

Dikembe Mutombo makes a J. E. Skeets midseason Top Ten list, er, Top Seven.

Someone in Shanghai swears he's Tracy McGrady.

Cavo @ Yayo! Basketball sums it up for all the True Believers out there... we wish we'd thought of this first. Or at least lied and claimed we thought of it first but didn't have the resources to go through with it... but we didn't.

Oddjack links T-Mac's ails to cousin VC, but only hints at their perpetually inversed power relationship.

Upon further research, we've concluded that it is only natural that one cousin performing at peak levels will inevitably drain the health of the other. One family can have only so much power.

And Peter Kerasotis (who we've never heard of either) rubs it in.

Lastly, former Rocket, Stevie Franchise gets the "indefinite" treatment... suspension that is, and at least one blog thinks Houston got the good end of that deal, but he's out of his gourd if he thinks the 76ers will work a trade for him and field Iverson, Webber and Francis.

Deke can't pick Sisue up either.

Rockets Owner Desperate, Suits Out Young

The DDR shows up, gets a personalized Rockets jersey, doesn't play.

In a misquided but good-hearted (in that senile old man kind of way) attempt to field a competitive roster versus Sacramento last night, Rockets owner Leslie Alexander issued Vince Young a personalized Houston jersey before tipoff. Alexander would spend the rest of the evening alone in his luxury box, baffled at why Van Gundy refused to play the Dance Dance Revolutionary.

Attending the game but not asked to play: Percy "Master P" Miller and Anthony Goldwire.

No more Globetrotter commentary until the Rockets win or unless they sign Spree. Just links.

Van Gundy: "We do just enough good to lose close."

Rockets lose to Queens 88-80.

Latrell Sprewell is Still Not in a Rockets Uniform (Day 48)

Latrell Fontaine Sprewell (born September 8, 1970 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American professional basketball player. A guard/forward who built his career around his athleticism and versatility, he is currently a free agent.

No Yao, no Mac, but no sign from management that the year is lost...

Big Shot Lou and Big Shot Luke

Our favorite rookie, Luther, is displaying a penchant for making big shots. But Mac-less and Yao-less, it wasn't enough to pull out a good one in Charlotte.

Little John Lucas III (yayuh!) hit a big one, too. Which was a surprise considering we thought he was cut--apparently a move to re-sign without having to guarantee his contract.

Rockets Too Heavy a Load For Mac's Back

It's an obvious analogy. We're surprised more people haven't used it. Too easy? The Rockets have been living (and dying) on Mac's back all year and last night... it gave out.

Mac don't look too good, but we all hope it looks worse than it is.

Charles Barkley Loves This Town

Houston. Houston is the most schizophrenic city in the nation. Nuzzling the bottom of the bible belt, it houses the earth's largest non-denominational church and it's Charles Barkley's "strip club capital of the world." H-Town has more strip clubs AND churches per capita than any other major U.S. city. We don't have the numbers on that but it sure feels that way. Not that we'd mind either individually--though the churches are a bit much and if we had daughters, we'd have to take that whole Chris Rock "keep my daughter of the pole" mantra to the next level.

But does anyone outside of Houston know what happened to the Compaq Center (or The Summit as we slightly older ones knew it--was there a better arena name than that?), former home to the Rockets, Comets, Aeros, Hotshots and Thunderbears?

It's the new Lakewood Mega Church -- all 16,285 seats.

And of course, no more than 6 minutes and 3.5 miles away is Houston's largest nudie bar, Treasures, which boasts over a 150 girls working on a busy night. And no more than 2 miles and 5 minutes away is H-town's "classiest" strip joint, The Men's Club, where you'll see all your favorite pro athletes. Train reports former Rockets, Stevie Franchise and Cuttino Mobley, used to frequent the free lunch time buffet. And, fittingly, the website loops choral music.

So how does this explain the Rockets' record or their habitually sluggish starts at home We think we know, but we're not quite sure, and maybe we really don't want to know. But it sucks.

Houston Rockets Stat of the New Year

Mac and Co. are 3-9 at home. 9-9 on the road.

Late Great BPR

We were too late to put in our two cents this week. Our fault entirely. We believe that our subconscious warded us away from our e-mail to obviate the humiliation of dropping the Rockets in ranking. So we left that to our good colleagues. And drop them you have.

And hey Cavo, not to rub it in, because we know you would never rub one on your site, but where should the Rockets rank now after last night in Cleveland?

Local Kid Makes Good, Gets Cut

Little John Lucas, III (yayuh!)... local kid, Bellaire High (like Emeka Okafor)... cut just as soon as he got signed.

Come on Les, give the kid a shot.

Vince Young: Dance Dance Revolution

We don't really do college football, but the Pride of Madison High deserves an entry on every sports blog today. And he'll probably get it. Not that we college football dilettantes could really appreciate it, but that was the illest National Championship game ever.

And fittingly, the Longhorns celebrated with a hoedown, all huddling up in the corner of the endzone, helmets held high, bouncing and chanting--not their school fight song or anything lame like that--but that techno dance song you can only find now in Euro-trash dives. You know, the one with the chorus, "Dance! Dance! Dance! Dance!" Wait, that's kind of lame, too. But is it ironic? Kids, you never can tell.

Vince Young, though, never stopped dancing (The Dallas Morning News has continuous coverage here, here and here). He danced on the bus, he danced during warm-ups, he danced on the sidelines, danced on the field, and he danced, danced, danced on the podium when UT was presented the National Championship Glass Football Thingy.

And just so we're not completely off topic, Vincent Paul Young, Jr. was a four-year letterman and two-time all-district guard/forward for the Marlins of Madison High with a career average of 20+ ppg. At 6' 5" 230, what'd you expect?

Fast Eddie and the Jump Shot Club

Holy shit. Former Rocket "Fast Eddie" Johnson has a blog and like the jumpshot... it's good. Visit and improve your skillz. Just don't argue with him.

Globetrotter Resolutions

Strongly consider redirecting my career toward young adult sci-fi/fantasy novels.
-- aloneconformist

Start waking up before 1:00p, stop staring at myself in the mirror, start working on a six-pack before working on six-packs, stop spending entire days watching The O.C. DVD boxsets. Oh, and travel more.
-- Train

Eat more vegetables. Tame Mr. Sassy (my alter-ego).
-- Soy Sauce (aka A-train, aka Too Saxsy, aka Mini-Me, aka Mr. Sassy)

Start an aloneconformist fan club.
-- Duke Hogwild

Warriors Ruin New Year's...

The brothers Train with Duke sporting the Vernon Maxwell throwback.

Waiting in front of the Toyota Center, L-Train shakes and blurs his limited edition Head jersey... limited as in the only one.

From ball boy to bench warmer. Little John Lucas III (yayuh!) signed with the Rockets. He's littler than Van Gundy, but Jeffy put him in during a late 4th quarter comeback, eschewing Moochie Norris. Lil' John was received by cheers for a local kid made good.

Stro' puts on another good one, extending his preview. If he can get Van Gundy's system down and maintain some consistency... well, we'll see. (AP photo/Pat Sullivan)

In one of those things you only notice at the game deals, the Rockets' PA kept looping Lil John's yayuh! and okay! intermittenly throughout the game with no real rhyme or reason.

Also, Rafer Alston returned to the lineup, logging 36 minutes. And everytime Skip scored, the announcer T. Gray (who also happens to be a DJ at a local hip hop station) played a chorus of children singing "Skip to my Lou."

What they could have gone without is the Scorpions' "Rock you like a Hurricane." Nothing beats Queen's rock you.

Is it just us or does any else notice Baron Davis is a bit of an odd duck? In a peculiar, Gilbert Arenas type of way.

Rockets lose another at home but Mac makes it interesting.

New Fist of Fury's Eve

On the way to the Rockets' New Year's Eve game, Train tells me how he got tickets for Duke et al. His friend DruZaius has a hook up with the Yao Ming fan club... his mom is the President.

I don't quite have the words for how funny I thought that was. Train swears it wasn't as if she was elected or campaigned, but rather she was impelled by default. She speaks the best English.

From their website, El Presidente, second from the right, and the Yao Ming fan club board of directors with... Lisa Ling? Well, they have a life-size poster of Yao.

But there seems to be some competition for who is the OFFICIAL Yao Ming fan club. Yao's got an all new website, too, where he looks all imposing and shit. And apparently he visits them all and leaves messages for fans.

All right, countdown time... you know they tape delay the NYC New Year's Eve show with Carson Daly an hour down here to match the Central Time countdown? But the screen graphic still reads "LIVE" in large type. I almost feel like I was there. Almost.