I saw Yao Ming when he just entered the league at Dong Tin restuarant. Yao is so damn tall. I didnt want to bother him cause he was with his friends and family. Got an autograph from Hakeem Olajuwon during the early 90's at a card trade show in the George R. Brown convention center. I saw Moochie, Cuttino, and Francis haulin ass down westheimer. The funny thing though is Moochie had the top down on his ride and his awesome fro was just all over the place.
Saw Calvin Cato in the parking lot next to his car as we were leaving Waffle House. I yelled "we want our money back." Then he gave us the finger.
When I was in 7th and 8th grade, my middle school won some NBA Team Up thing where we were honored for outstanding service in the community. Since we won, we were told a Rocket was going to come to our school. In 7th grade, that was like 1997, so we were expecting someone like Zan Tabak or Elridge Recasner. We were shocked when we got Rudy T, Kevin Willis and Hakeem the Dream. It was soooo sick! The next year when we won again, we got Calvin Murphy, Brent Price and Turbo..and for some reason, I remember that 2nd year as being the better one! Those were some good times. Big Ups to James Holub Middle School in Alief!
don't mean for the double post but.. i've seen trevor ariza twice at first colony mall, talked to him for like 10 minutes. every time i see him, he's in a white tall tee and sweat pants.. have all the players signatures and shook their hands (2006-2007 roster) kenny smith at boulevard bagels in sugar land, whole family talked to him i play basketball at this moss in sugar land, with new legit NBA goals and full outdoor paint. hakeem came out one day and watched us play, talked to him for a couple of minutes. he's the head of the moss and built the court out here for kids to play. real classy guy
Masji Al-Sabareen, aka Dulles Masjid? Yeah, I heard he built some new goals, Imma check it out soon. I go there for Jumma prayers all the time and I see Hakeem their time from time. I live like a minute from there.
This girl I know was dating Robert Horry. I was out with a bunch of her friends and he met up with us that night at a bar and we all went back to his place in San Antonio. He had a really nice place. I also see him out all the time in Houston and San Antonio. Another time, I met Maurice Taylor. When we first moved to Houston back in 1999-2000 or so, he was our neighbor for a few months. I didnt even realize he lived there until I saw a huge bus pick him up (i'm assuming it was the Rockets team bus driving to the airport or somewhere near by. Dallas, San Antonio?) and another night I saw a limo drop him off. So thats when I realized who he was lol. About a year ago, this other girl I knew was good friends with Bobby Sura and he was out with us at some bars drinking with us lol. As far as other people I've run into randomly at clubs/bars: I saw Mutombo with Joey Dorsey one night at Pandora. Mutombo was hollaring at every woman walking by him lol. I saw Sam Cassell about 3-4 years ago at a club called Bond. I've seen Battier at Roosevelt and Blue Label before. I've seen the entire Detroit Pistons team (2006 roster) in a club called Mansion in Miami, FL (back when I was in college at UM). Saw Cuttino Mobley at the mall. Nick Van Exel, Shawn Kemp, Antonio McDyess and some others at Westside Tennis club.
i saw Rafer Alston at the ESPN Zone in new york about 3 months ago.... he was with his family eating and playing arcade games i also have seen Sam Cassell at Westside Tennis Club on numerous occasions
Met chuck hayes at the galleria last year right before christmas, very cool guy talked about a minute or so Met Clyde at edwards cinema across the compaq center, watched rush hour2 in the same theater, got an autograph from him Saw francis driving down drop top on eldridge Met cuttino at my middle school in the 6th grade Met Brooks at a bar in the rgv for a vipers thing, it was empty and i had some beers with him for like an hour lol coolest thing ever. and Dorsey at the galleria, dude was a monster.
Met Rafer Alston and Stephen Colbert at the airport about 2 weeks back when everyone was grounded at IAH because of a nasty storm. Met Robert Horry at the AMC24 in Sugar Land when he was on the Spurs. Met Tierre Brown, Steve Francis, Cat Mobley, and Terrence Morris at Fonde. But the most memorable meeting was kind of meeting Mark Jackson and Escalade (http://bbs.clutchfans.com/showthread.php?t=74876&page=1&pp=20) at a Chili's.
A couple of years ago, i took my girlfriend to the rodeo to see George Strait, and was shocked when i saw Battier jammin out to Strait a few rows in front of us. I was freakin out and screamin so my gf was like what the hell?? Needless to say it was pointless trying to explain why i was so excited to be around Battier to her, lol.. Anways after the concert i went up to him and we talked basketball all the way outside to the parking lot. He was really a awesome dude. I asked him a lot of questions about the Rockets and he was happy to answer them. But the really cool part was that Battier was with some blond chick who i think was his gf at the time, (now his wife).. But anyway his gf and my gf were talkin and getting along the whole time me and battier were talking.. It was really awesome. Like i said, asked him a lot of questions.. I remember one i asked him was who was the guy he HATED to guard.. And he quickly said Carmelo. I was pretty shocked because i thought he would say Kobe.. But then he said he actually enjoyed gaurding Kobe because it always makes (shane) work harder. He said the trick with kobe is of course putting a hand in his face, but also not letting kobe go to his right. If he goes to his right then ts over.. But anyways sorry for the rant, but it was really awesome.. And ill try to find my old cellphone to upload some pics.
yeah man, back near avenue e? i play there all the time, my friend's dad is on the board so we get the courts whenever we want it. they had some crap rims before hakeem put in the new legit goals. they're in the process of painting it but it's real nice.
met the whole rockets squad from the 91-92 season, the first season OT was with us. it was after the game and OT was one cool dude. didn't meet hakeem though, i think he was doing some interviews for something. went to school with jake voskuhl.
whats weird is that I was born in Houston and went back a number of times visiting family/friends and would always ask my family to go to the mosques that hakeem frequents, but never found him there. My trips were usually in the summer though so chances are he went out of town. But then like 3 or 4 years back I was doing Umrah in Saudi Arabia and met him in Madinah after prayer in the morning. It was like 5:30AM and he was sitting in the mosque alone wearing a thobe, so I just walked up to him and said "you're Hakeem Olajuwon" and he said "yes I am" LOL. We ended up sitting around talking for a bit about Houston, retirement/NBA, how he was keeping busy, etc. Really cool dude.
