Franchise like a Houston Rocket--Yao Ming!

I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the Rockets in this here space. I lauded myself as an NBA guy and 18 straight is just too much to let slip by. And if they lose this week, you can blame me. But the Rockets have been doing the do for the last month+ at a time when the L, especially the West, appears to be at its deepest. Now some will say this is a product of scheduling, for this hasn’t been the toughest stretch for Hou and Rick Adelman, but they did win vs. GS, vs. Por, @ Cle, @ NO, @ Dal & vs. NO in this stretch. That’s 33% of the games. So this hasn’t been a total fluke. And fluke would not be the term for this anyway. I don’t care who you’re playing, if you’re lacing up in the West night in and night out you’re getting a lot of best shots. It still looks like a 50 win team will be in the lottery. Even the teams on the outside of the West looking in are pretty frisky. Moreso than say the East. I don’t know what impresses me more about this though, that Yao is about to miss significant time for the second time in three years. Or that this is about to become a national incident for us and China heading into the Beijing Games. When I first read that Yao was having the procedure and hoping to play in the Olympics, I thought it was kinda bullshit and Houston fans should revolt and send the XXL Chinaman packing. Then I reconsidered and thought what it’d be like to rep my country on the universe’s largest stage. And about what an honor I’d consider that to be. Then I thought what if that country was China, and I thought I might be a little reticent, what with Darfur, Tibet and the Dalai Lama looming overhead now. But that’s just me. What do I know, I’m just some ass in Hoboken with a Sprint Air Card. My only hope is that the Chinese government borrows Hal’s weather machine, that shit will definitely keep the games free of cloud cover.