http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2006/09/pick_up_game_at_toyota_center.html Did Hakeem and Yao spend time together??? September 20, 2006 Pick up game at Toyota Center Though it took a relative road trip to get there, there are times I miss the open door days of Westside Tennis Club. Rarely, however, did I want to be able to walk freely inside the Rockets practice court more than today. The Rockets of course now train in the practice gym at Toyota Center. Those workouts are very closed to the media and they are serious stuff so this is understandable. The workouts these days are work, not games. But today, after the usual individual workouts, there was time for play. Tracy McGrady played. So did Vassilis Spanoulis. Kirk Snyder. Chuck Hayes. Pretty much all the summer workout guys scrimmaged. (Yao Ming was there, but had already gone through his usual workout routine so he did not scrimmage.) NBA rules prohibit coaches from coaching with so many players on the court in the off-season so the Rockets coaches could only watch. But the day's work, in which they can work with players in individual sessions and in smaller groups, had already been done so that might have been nice, too. If nothing else, they got to see McGrady get up and down the floor painlessly for a little more than an hour. For a final interesting twist on the day, Hakeem Olajuwon stopped by. He was not there to play, but he made the Toyota Center rounds, offering another reminder of the old days. Then again, it's finally only a few weeks until games start again on courts where they don't lock the doors.
NBA rules prohibit team coaching sessions in the off season. They can't officially start team activities till training camp opens.
From my understanding, under the NBA collective bargaining only a certain amount of players can be on the court at one time with coaches coaching them. Once it goes over that ammount the coaches can't coach.
I've heard both Yao and Olajuwan mention that they would like to work with one another in the past. It was due to conflicting schedules that they have not gottent together. When Hakeem is normaly in Houston, Yao is in China. I beleive this meeting will hopefully be the first of many. And I hope the the following meetings will be helpful tutorials.
I actually happen to know why Hakeem was there since I saw him at his mosque and he was mentioning it to some guys. I believe whoever is in charge of Toyota center wants to build a statue of Hakeem Olajuwan outside of Toyota center, similar to Michael Jordan's statue outside the United Center. Hakeem went there to discuss ideas with officials of Toyota Center and the team itself. Not sure what exactly the statue will be like.
i have to believe that if both guys were in the building they had to atleast have talked. maybe that's a chronicle article he's saving.
Its kind of like the NFL rule that says teams can't practice together before camp starts. Only they do and call them official team activities and play with in the quote "rules" unquote....<wink><wink> It has something to do with the CBA and players not working officially outside of the specs of the agreement.
Anybody else get a couple of butterflies in their stomach when they read that part? I don't know, maybe it's just me but just picturing all the "pieces" finally coming together on the court got me really anxious for the season (yet again).
You are correct, i should have clarified that. It wont be a statue of Hakeem, but it might be something along the lines of making his jersey outside of the Toyota center, that was just an idea mentioned.
Do you get the sense that Feigen is biting his tongue a bit. ANd what he really wants to say is "that moron won't even allow me to watch a pick up game. What is he worried I am going to leak out to the world the Rockets play of slowball." I sometimes get annoyed with Feigen for his sugarcoated reporting. But I get the sense that any real reporting will get him banned completely. Still I say report the truth and let the chips fall were they may. What is the worst that can happen they lock you out of the practice. Oops, there it is.
Collective Bargaining Agreement. The players union does not want players to be officially "working" any other time then during the NBA season. Thus no official team activites until training camp.
