I’m not even a real Rockets fan and my stomach is in knots. Houston had the perfect opportunity to shutdown this series and they let it slip right through their hands.. Literally.. Turnover after turnover.. Bad shot after bad shot. It was like they said “hey we could win now, but let’s wait till we get home and share this with the fans”. At least that’s what I’m hoping they were thinking.

I tried to be as positive as possible about game 6 and I thought it was working… 75-74, Utah in the lead, Houston has the ball with 8:15 left in the game.. Things were looking really good. Then Kirilenko decided to wake up. Andrei blocked a Juwan Howard gimme layup, forced a T-Mac turnover, and blocked a McGrady drive to the basket. Even with all of that, the Rockets were still in good position down 77-76, 4:45 left in the game… Little did I know, Utah would go on a 17-6 run to close the game. So close. So frustrating.

Game 7. I don’t care what Tracy says, this is the biggest game of his career. This is his latest attempt to move on to the 2nd round so this has to be the most important game for him. Before this series started McGrady said it’s all on him. I’m gonna stick with that. Tracy, do this for you. Do it for Houston… And positively do it for my blog. A game 7 at home with the chance to shake off your playoff demons is all the motivation you need.

Rockets and Jazz game 6 play by play. Thank you ESPN.com

The Law of Attraction and the Houston Rockets. Thank me

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Game 5 tonight Houston. What you got? Are we gonna see the team from games 1 and 2 or the disappointment from games 3 and 4? I know the Rockets aren’t gonna let us down. Fellas, let’s start wrapping this thing up. Have you seen how the Warriors are playing lately? You don’t wanna go 7 games if G. State’s gonna be maxin and relaxin after 5 or 6. Here’s my positivity for the day: THE ROCKETS WILL WIN TONIGHT.

Red Rowdies are you with me?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz8VuEhps58]

To be honest, I couldn’t make out any words other than “Houston Rockets”.

Here’s a little more motivation.. The Chuckster dissing Yao (and paying for it):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YTzSvDQ26c]

We all know the Charles’ history for losing bets. I hope he has Utah tonight.

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The good news is the series is holding to form and if that continues, the Rockets are on to round two. The bad news..well, where do I start? Too many turnovers, un-Rocket like defense, and some over officious jerks working the game all contributed to the game 4 loss. I was happy to see more people getting involved on offense, but I’m worried about Deron Williams and Okur waking up for the Jazz.

I’m trying to be as positive as I can about the situation. I’m trying to attract only the best circumstances for the Rockets. Obviously I’m not trying hard enough… Or maybe it’s you. Yeah, it’s you. Step it up. Repeat “The Rockets are great and they are going to win this series” 5 times in the morning and 5 more times before you go to sleep.

It’s not time to panic, the sky’s not falling yet BUT winning game 5 is a must. I’m being positive and everything.. Trust me I am.. I just don’t wanna see Houston having to win in Utah to stay alive.

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I don’t know how I could be more positive.. The Rockets need to shake game 3 off and they will. Call it a fluke, call it the ugliest game you’ve ever seen.. Either way, the Rockets will get back to their winning ways on Saturday.

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The positivity tour got off to a good start in Houston last night. Actually it got off to a slow start until Rockets head coach Jeff Van Gundy read my blog to his team at the half. Tracy McGrady, 1 point in the first half, was so inspired by my writing and support that he came out and scored 16 points in the 3rd quarter. T-Mac’s outburst combined with solid play from Yao Ming and Skip To My Lou led Houston to a 84-75 victory.

I’m not gonna take all of the credit for this victory.. the players and coaching staff definitely did their parts. A lot of people say that you don’t need a coach in the NBA.. You can just roll the ball out and the guys will do what they do. Not true.

Jeff Van Gundy is one of the best coaches in the league. He might not be as much of a pleasure to look at on the sidelines as Pat Riley or older brother Stan, but the dude can coach. Jeff has compiled a winning percentage of .574 in his 11 years in the league. He has only finished below .500 once when he has coached a full 82 game season.  I’ve had the opportunity to meet JVG twice. He pretty much yelled at me the first time (after the Lakers/Knicks, Kobe/Childs game), but he was much cooler the second time. That time we were heading over to Minute Maid Park for the All-Star game or the Homerun Derby..I can’t remember which. Regardless, we put the past behind us, and I’m looking forward to meeting him again when he’s the coach of the 2007 World Champion Houston Rockets.

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Need more proof that the power of positive thinking is helping the Houston Rockets? Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller and guard Derek Fisher have traded words through the media, resulting in Miller meeting with the team for 30 minutes after Wednesday’s shootaround. The Rockets first round opponent has some in house fighting going on.. That’s gotta be a good thing. 

Forget for a minute that Larry Miller’s original comments came after a game Sunday, and I didn’t start supporting Houston until yesterday. I’m gonna need you to ignore the part of the story that states both parties have said everything is ok now. Let’s focus on some of the things Derek Fisher had to say after Miller ripped the team.

” … what it’s not time for is peripheral people to have comments about what’s going on in our locker room and questioning who we are as a team. And I don’t really care who that is.”

Well said Mr. Fisher.

Derek admits that he had been biting his tongue for some time:

“He made a statement, and I made a statement in response to not only his statement but just overall. It was something I probably wanted to say overall but just held onto it. It was something I just feel is important, and I want everybody to hear that, not just to him, just to Coach (Jerry Sloan) or to the fellas. It was to everybody. That’s important to me.”

Like I said earlier, Miller and Fisher have said everything’s good between them but I don’t believe it. “The Secret” is conspiring to guide the Houston Rockets to the championship by any means necessary. I’m not hoping that any of the Utah Jazz get arrested.. Off court problems are weclome though…

A couple of former Rockets must not know what being positive means or they don’t read my blog. TNT’s Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley might be using the tough love tactic.. It’s just that they sound like they’re being negative.

Chuck and Jet, you guys have the opportunity to inform millions of people about the Rockets trek toward the title. Use your platform to spread the love, don’t start shoveling the dirt. If the Rocket’s and their fans can’t have the support of two of their own, doesn’t that mean that the terrorist Utah Jazz have won?

***The Houston Rockets are a proud franchise. Stop telling me the only reason they won a couple of titles in the 90s is because MJ was playing baseball. I have to go with the history books..The Rockets were absolutely, POSITIVELY, back to back champions in ‘94 and ‘95. Woulda coulda shoulda whatever.***

Miller apologizes for comments. Thank you Desert News

Barry, Smith, Barkley cutting Rockets no slack. Thank you Houston Chronicle

Walk into the light friend..not away from it. EVERYTHING is right with Houston.

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I’ve only been to Houston, Texas one time. It was for the 2004 MLB All-Star game and I was there on business. I didn’t really get a chance to experience Houston.. Still I had a great time. I met Drayton McLane, I chopped it up with Tracy McGrady at a party, and Barry Bonds turned down my interview request. I ate Chick-fil-A which is probably no big deal to you, but Chick-fil-A is the shit and there’s not one near where I live… And I met TS.

Whew she was bad… A 5′7″ brown-skinned(ded) dime. I met her at the party I mentioned a second ago. We got to hang-out one night, eating on the company’s coin(no trickery), and we finished up the night in my room ”sippin on some drank”. One thing did not lead to the other, but it was cool. It wasn’t really about that. Dinner, drinks, and a nightcap plus a cool convo with a beautiful woman from a different city was good enough.. Nah I’m bullshittin’. I wanted to hit.

I don’t have any complaints about what I saw of Houston even though I know everybody there was on their best behavior while they tried to impress MLB and out of towners. The people were friendly, I don’t remember the weather (that could be considered a good thing), and Roger Clemens got slapped in the 1st inning of the All-Star game (6 runs). That’s what I remember about H-Town.

“HG, you’re stroking Houston pretty hard”… You call it stroking, I call it trying to be positive. I’m (we’re) gonna have to do a lot of stroking in order to help the Rockets win the title.

If you need proof that the power of positive thinking works, check out how people feel about the Utah/Houston, 4-5 match-up in round 1. So far so good. Let’s keep it up people.

Positivly thinking the Rockets to the title. From You Been Blinded

2007 NBA Playoff Brackets. From Ball Hype

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I’m a fan of the Philadelphia 76ers. They didn’t make the playoffs so I don’t have a rooting interest in this year’s tournament. Since Philly’s out I can enjoy the basketball, but I don’t care who wins the title.. I’m just looking forward to some great series and incredible individual performances although it would be nice to pull for a team on a (every other) nightly basis. 

 I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with “The Secret”, but it’s the latest get rich quick scheme self-help concept spreading like wildfire. It’s a movie/documentary sort of thing that teaches about the Law of Attraction. To put the basic theme of “The Secret” in a nutshell, you are what you think and we all possess the ability to manifest things into our lives. According to the movie, in order to get your dream job, ideal mate, or happiness in general, you need to think positive, reinforce your positive thinking, and of course take action. You can check out the first 20 minutes of the movie below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b1GKGWJbE8&mode=related&search=]

This is the official website for “The Secret” and you can get the wiki11 here. As always, there’s two sides to every story so “The Secret” has a number people that think the whole idea is complete bullshit.

What does this have to do with the NBA and sports? Nothing at all.. Until now. Lemme say thanks to everybody that took part in the “Can You Help A Brotha Out?? leave a number” post. I wanted to involve the masses because A) I’m a man of the people and B) I didn’t want there to be any suspicion about the validity of the team selected.

Here’s what happened.. I put all of the teams that qualified for the NBA playoffs into a hat. I drew the teams from the hat one by one. Each team was assigned a number based on when they were drawn from the hat… For the slow people, I picked San Antonio from the hat first, so they were number one. New Jersey was drawn 2nd, so they represent the number 2,  et cetera. After giving all of the teams their number, I tallied the results of the CYHABO post to see which number received the most “votes”. The numbers 2 and 3 tied with 3 votes apiece. Here’s the breakdown of the votes per number:

1. SAN ANTONIO (2 votes)
2. NEW JERSEY (3 votes)
3. HOUSTON (3 votes)
4. MIAMI (1 vote)
5. UTAH (0 votes)
6. LA LAKERS (1 vote)
7. DENVER (2 votes)
8. CLEVELAND (1 vote)
9. ORLANDO (2 votes)
10. DETROIT (2 votes)
11. DALLAS (1 vote)
12. PHOENIX (1 vote)
13. CHICAGO (1 vote)
14. GOLDEN STATE (1 vote)
15. WASHINGTON (2 votes)
16. TORONTO (2 votes)

To break the tie, I had to flip a coin (and throw the validity out the window). Heads was New Jersey and tails was Houston. The quarter landed on tails.

So… I’m gonna test “The Secret”. Sort of. For the duration of the Rockets’ stay in the playoffs they are my “Secret” team. I’m gonna (and I encourage others to join me) try to only think positive thoughts about Houston. No Jeff Van Gundy humping Zo’s leg jokes… No reminiscing over Shaq dissing Asians welcoming Yao to the league, and definitely no ”Houston we have a problem” references. I will post at least one positive comment about the Houston Rockets everyday until they win the championship.. Or get eliminated. I’m gonna have to be hella positive seeing as Tracy McGrady has never advanced to the second round of the playoffs, and the Rockets are facing a tough first round test in the Utah Jazz. The only glitch I can see with my plan is the “taking action” aspect. There’s no action that I could take that would increase the Rockets’ chances of winning it all. I don’t have 12  Jeff Gillooly’s aka Jeff Stone.

There you have it. I wanted everybody to select a number in hopes of having one number dominate the polling. I didn’t wanna do the lottery on my own, pull SA, Dallas, Phoenix, Detroit, or Miami, and then have everyone thinking I rigged the contest. I guess “the best laid plans….”

If you’re a fan of a team that didn’t make the playoffs or you just wanna have some dumb fun, join me in “secreting“ the Rockets to a championship. 

CAN YOU HELP A BROTHA OUT?? (apparently not many people could) Courtesy of You Been Blinded

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