I tried. I really did. I was as positive as I could be. There’s not too much that can be said. I’m not gonna sit here and rip the Rockets, even though if I was a real Rockets fan I could find plenty to complain about. Houston was down most of the game, by as much as 16 in the first half, but they battled back to a 88-83 lead with 6 minutes left in the game. It seemed like the Rockets had taken control of the game and would pull away down the stretch. Wrong and wrong.

The question now is where does the team go from here? JVG has already called it quits, and Tracy said after the game that the team needs to get more athletic. This team would be perfect for a coach like Phil Jackson circa 2000. The current sit there and do nothing version of Phil Jackson couldn’t do anything more than Van Gundy did. Adding a player like Chauncey Billups or Rashard Lewis (Houston native) to McGrady and Yao would automatically boost Houston’s status. A high energy guy like Gerald Wallace would be a good fit with Houston too if he doesn’t mind being the 3rd guy.

I’ve gotten a couple of emails that say something like “see, that Secret stuff is bullshit”. I can’t write The Secret off because Houston didn’t win. Getting Tracy McGrady to the second round is obviously gonna take a whole lot more than me saying nice things about the Rockets. It starting to look like T-Mac’s gonna need some bonafide miracles.

I wanna thank everybody that took part in the leave a number post, and all of the people that followed me following the Rockets. Shout out to the RR’s too… Hold your heads up people. Peace..

How I started following the Houston Rockets. YBB April 19th

Jeff Van Gundy to say good-bye to the Rockets. China Daily

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I caught somebody hatin’ on Rafer Alston over at www.redrowdies.com . We’re all rooting for the Rockets.. What’s the problem bro? Calling Rafer Alston the worst point guard in the league is A) wrong and B) NOT POSITIVE. I guess you would prefer Sebastian Telfair. Or maybe you would like Smush Parker’s 14 minute, 0-2 from the field, 2007 playoff performance.

For those not in the know, Rafer is a street ball legend.. Alston aka Skip To My Lou was able to make the transition from the parks to the arenas. I met him one time when he was with Milwaukee. We talked more about “Skip” than Rafer even though he made it clear he was very proud to make it to the NBA. Here he is back in the day:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCkx7sjPsjM&mode=related&search=]

Everybody can’t be Nash, Kidd, or Paul. On a team with Tracy and Yao, you need somebody that can bring the ball up court, get the team into it’s offense, and hit wide open shots when guys are double teamed. STML can do all of those things. Rafer shot 36% from 3 point land this season. His mark could be better, but he’s in line with the league average. He doesn’t put up the biggest assist totals either although that’s more of a JVG style thing.

If you’re wondering why I’m defending Rafer Alston, you haven’t been keeping up with YBB lately. Let’s go everybody. Support the Rockets. ALL OF THEM.

YOU CAN TRACK MY ROCKET SUPPORT AT THE LINKS BELOW:

Why I’m down with the Rockets for the 2007 playoffs.

My only Houston experience and starting on a positive note.

Positive thinking is bringing down the Jazz.

T-Mac Time.

Houston defeats Utah in game one.

Great video showing Yao and Olajuwon. The editor did an excellent job of finding similarities.

Cranking up my support for the Rockets.

Shout out to fellow Rocket supporters, the good folks over at Red Rowdies.

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I received a couple of emails saying that I’m doing “The Secret a disservice”. That I’m not “applying the actual teachings of The Secret”. I probably am and am not, still, whatever we’re doing is working. Not only has all the positive thinking gotten the Rockets out to a 2-0 lead, it’s affecting Utah to the point that they can’t stop fouling. Houston shot 34-38 from the foul line in game two. To be honest, positive thinking can’t take all the credit for Utah’s hacking… they’ve been fouling all season. They led the league in fouls per game average. All in all, the positive thinking is working… Even if I’m not doing it right.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2MqciSMOmk]

The video above is a visualization tool based on “The Secret”. Besides thinking positive thoughts, I’m supposed to build a vision board (see above), and use positive affirmations. Here are some affirmations based on the video:

• Houston is a championship magnet.
• Every move JVG makes turns to gold.
• The Rockets have more rings than Red Auerbach and Robbins Bros. combined.
• Confetti falls over the Houston Rockets like an avalanche.
• There are championship hats and t-shirts being printed for Houston right now.
• The coaching staff is creating winning strategies everyday.
• The Rockets receive unexpected technical foul shots.
• Tracy and Yao have more than enough of a supporting cast.
• Houston is having their dream season.
• The Rockets play their best everyday.
• The Houston Rocket fans will be celebrating everyday.

OK…Am I doing it right now? I hope so. I doubt know you’ve all been using positive thinking to help Houston win the first two games… We’re gonna have to turn it up now that H-Town’s headed out on the road.

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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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