Give Michael a follow! He is one of my good friends and just moved to H-town to be a Rockets beat writer for SiNow
Reporting in, first of all the players were amazing as usual and the fact they did an actual mini practice is great. iHart, Ryno, Gordon, Capela, and Harden were especially great with the fan interaction. That tiny girl who won the shooting competition is a baller, I'm sure she will get a scholarship somewhere when she's older. Now for Tilman and the Rox FO, they blew it big time. The line to get in was so long, only 6 doors open for security and entry. There was folks still being seated long after the "practice" had finished. I estimate 50% of the kids and families that came didn't even get to see Russ as he skipped out as soon as his scrimmage was over. I overheard so many people asking where Russ was, kinda pissed me off honestly. You could tell it was the only chance for some of these kids to see their ball players and they missed it due to poor planning. Also, only Club West was open for food and drink and it was a disaster. There were security ushers blocking folks from heading to the West side to get food and drink because the west stands were full; problem is they weren't going for seats they were going for food and drink. I'm someone who attends a fair share of games so I know the Toyota Center Rox experience, all I can say was I felt bad for the fans, especially the late arriving kids. No spare customers right Tilman, well you and your staff blew it big time today. Also, I scanned as often as I could and while I saw Tad Brown and a few others from the FO, Morey was no where to be found.
This is up there with the CP3 welcome event as one of the most poorly planned events ever. Line wrapped around the building yet only one entrance open. People still filing in whenever it was over. Not everyone could get concessions or discounted merch because they were denied by security.
10 days later,,Russ will need a knee surgery. he'll be out for 3 months...sounds about right from Rockets medical staff
This event was BS. Waited in line for 30 minutes, walked around the entire arena. When my part of the line got near the front entrance, an old lady started yelling at us holding people back, “PRACTICE IS OVER THE PLAYERS ARE LEAVING THE COURT!!” The practice was 30 f***ing minutes. Thousands of people pulled their kids out of school early (EDIT: it’s Columbus Day lol my b), wasted gas and time to come out to the event, just to get barricaded out. Poor method of earning good will with fans. As I walked away, I may or may not have yelled “F*** Tilman Fertitta!”
Fan service going down with Tilman, not surprising. Cheap mofo focused on his book. I do like the guys seems to really be focused on the mission, very serious throughout and I remember the 93 team said that this was part of the training camp atmosphere as well so a good sign!
While I empathize with those people who didn't get in and had to deal with the worst of the security demons at Toyota Center, this has nothing to do with the Rockets owner. Toyota Center coordinates the number of employees working each event and what area they will be stationed at. The problems mentioned earlier (too few doors open/people to man the doors, too few concession stands open) and additionally too few ushers in the arena itself led to a lot of BS taking place that no one was prepared to handle. The only reason there was a line around the building (IMO) was because Toyota didn't have anyone working outside to help manage the lines. Instead you had one long line that divided into multiple entrances right before the doors. I showed up at approx 1:15pm (before the line was moving) and saw that there was a relatively short line at the La Branch entrance but on the far left (the wrap-around-the-building line was on the right). I got in around 1:50pm and was very frustrated to see that practice had already started but happy that it was a practice and not a fake scrimmage. You couldn't choose where you sat - you had to sit in the section you were told (they filled in one section at a time from right to left). There was a pseudo scrimmage after practice but both things ended before 230pm. Austin Rivers got on the mike and wanted to have a rookie dance contest but that didn't happen. Some players got up shots after that and Capela and Hartenstein did stairs (literally). There was a game of knockout with kids - Harden said there would be one with adults afterwards but yeah that didn't happen. Westbrook snuck off the court at some point but not through the tunnel I was near. Most surprising thing was Harden signing probably 50 autographs or more as he was leaving. To sum up - I've gone to a lot of these since Toyota Center opened in 2003. While I don't like sitting around for an hour or more watching lame entertainment waiting for the players to come out, at least all the fans got in the arena in time to see the event. Why even both to have an event if you shut out the people you invite??? If you're gonna do that, why not instead make free vouchers available online and once they're gone, they're gone (like the Minute Maid Park viewing party system)? My favorite memories of previous practices include dividing the players into 2 teams and having shooting contests, having a relatively long 2 half scrimmage, and having organized post game autograph/photo sessions with proceeds for those tickets going to charity. I wish someone who worked for the Rockets would actually talk to the other NBA teams and learn how to make this even successful. This is many people's only chance to see the team each year in person - for a team of this caliber to not put any effort into making it a positive experience for the majority of attendees is pathetic. Here are the pics I took at the event https://www.snapfish.com/library/share?via=link&token=ltI6JyWESeJ7WIEyNUi1wg/AUS/27950832157070/SNAPFISH
I remember the Open Practice in 2016 and there was all kinds of vouchers you could buy, (shoot a free throw, high five players in the tunnel, autographs) and all proceeds went to charity and there was a very entertaining scrimmage that had Capela winning for Team Harden on a buzzer beating putback layup. That event was so much fun.
