Chad Buddinger. I remember him. Didn't he play point guard back in the mid-sixties for a couple of weeks during preseason before sadly the Rockets dropped him. Crushed by this painful rejection, the budding basketball star traveled to the Soviet Union and played ball in Moscow. Apparently, he messed around with a daughter of one of the Politburo members and they exiled him to Siberia. After serving twenty years of hard labor for violating Soviet womanhood, he left prison and soon formed a traveling basketball team a la the Harlem Globe Trotters. Chad, for some strange reason that he never fully understood, named his team the Houston Explorers, and they traveled the Trans Siberian hinterlands barely eeking out an existence making trick shots for the peasants. These proletariat of the plains particularly loved his tomahawk slam. When the Soviet Union fell, Chad, now disillusioned with the concept of a capitalist Russia, used his underground peasant contacts to smuggle he and his aging basketball team to the Peoples Republic of China. Re-invigorated by once again being succored in the bosom of communism, he and his team eventually settled in Shanghai where they scratched out a living playing round ball against local thugs. After one exhaustingly violent game Chad spied in the distance a gangly but rather tall boy who had watched the entire game with great intent. Fascinated with Chads various basketball moves, the shy young boy approached the aging Sino-American basketball star and asked him if he would teach the boy how to play basketball-- American style. Chad reluctantly agreed and quickly a budding friendship blossomed. The young boy was an intent student and he quickly mastered Chad's famous tomahawk slam. Soon, Chad realized that he had nothing more to teach this clever Chinese child and he told his new found protege to find a better instructor. Dejected, the young boy left, never to meet again his beloved basketball mentor. Later that year Chad, after saving his money for several weeks, purchased a ticket to the local professional basketball team, the Shanghai Sharks. While at the game he spied a bespeckled American in the stands. Hoping to once again speak his native tongue, Chad approached the foreigner and started up a conversation. Chad soon learned that the American was a scout for a Texas basketball team, the Houston Rockets who was searching for talented basketball players in the Peoples Republic of China. Upon hearing the name of his former beloved professional team, Chad let loose his considerable knowledge of Sino basketball talent to the American scout. Chad informed the American that at the present time there were no NBA quality basketball players in the Peoples Republic. However, signaled Chad, if the Rockets were patient, he knew of a young budding basketball talent that Houston would surely want to chase. That night the American scout dejectedly left the Shanghai basketball stadium, but returned to the building several years later. Lo and behold he spied a extremely tall but gangly young basketball phenom who demonstrated a powerful presence under the boards and who, with a twinkle in his eye, occasionally shot a tomahawk slam over his defenders outstretched arms. Later that night the Rocket scout met with this tall young, gangly and budding Sino-basketball star. During their conversation somehow Chad Buddinger's name arose and both parties quickly realized that Chad's long-term yet nebulous devotion to Houston Rockets basketball and his fruitful mentoring of this budding Asian sensation was the common thread that bound the Chinese giant and the Houston Rockets together. Contract negotiations between the two parties progressed smoothly and it wasn't long before China's greatest living basketball player became a Houston Rocket. Interestingly, both parties agreed, that in order to perpetually honor Chad Buddinger's silent contribution to Houston Rocket history, the Houston Rockets shop would always display and sell the jersey of one of the Rockets true unsung heroes, Chad Buddinger. As a side note, sadly, Chad Buddinger recently passed away in his beloved Shanghai. While demonstrating several of his patented American basketball moves at a local noodle shop he apparently missed a tomahawk slam and fatally impaled himself on several chop sticks. All of China mourns this great Sino-American basketball players loss. His contributions to the development of basketball in the Peoples Republic of China will always be recognized, especially in the Rocket Shop in Houston, Texas, USA.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6499883.html the Chronic approves of this name... Look at the description under the picture
This story brought a tear to my eye. Mostly because I had to look at a computer screen long enough to read it.
In public Chad was often mistaken to be one of these guys. I heard they both attended the funeral, as a sign of respect.
I like this cap, and I like who they named it after http://www.rocketsshop.com/rockets/...id=0&mscssid=3EUAEWE4A6FW9NWDF7UMVJ33RGAHDJQB
That is a fly cap. Not some sissy Cali flat-billed cap that people are going to wear slightly sideways.
