Dikembe Mutombo News

As much as the Rockets like to put their small guards together in the same backcourt, they played a team Wednesday that has in recent seasons been as eager to put small, quick guards together.

Some playgrounds in Houston damaged or destroyed by 2008's Hurricane Ike will get a boost from Yao Ming.

Dikembe Mutombo is joining the NBA as a global ambassador. The league announced Mutombo's hiring to the newly created position Tuesday, with commissioner David Stern calling the eight-time All-Star "one of sports' outstanding humanitarians." Besides being a four-time defensive player of the year, Mutombo is known for his charitable work.

The NBA has announced that former star center Dikembe Mutombo will join the league as a global ambassador, a newly created position.

Wednesday: Rockets 104, Grizzlies 79. Record: 5-3. Friday: At Sacramento, 9 p.m. TV/radio: FSH; 610 AM and 850 AM .

When/where: 9 p.m.; Arco Arena. TV/radio: FSH; 610 AM, 850 AM . Key players: Andres Nocioni was stuck on the bench to begin the season, but after injuries to leading scorer Kevin Martin and Francisco Garcia, the former Bull is at his natural position of small forward.

Luis Scola had 22 points and 15 rebounds, and Carl Landry scored 20 points in the Houston Rockets' 104-79 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night.

Chuck Hayes is the most remarkable player on the NBA's most remarkable team. How's that for an opening sentence? Good one, huh? Don't believe me? Let's check in at Toyota Center and run it past some people who should know.

One of the leading domestic sportswear companies, Peak, announced it has signed sneaker contracts with Houston Rockets' power forward Carl Landry and the Minnesota Timberwolves' rising star, Kevin Love.

The Rockets might deny it now, but they used to really get into that no respect nonsense.

It's no secret that the Houston Rockets will be "going small" in 2009. How small, you ask? Well, there's a very, very good chance that their starting center on opening night will be six-foot-six Chuck Hayes.

I will answer that question with a quick and easy "yes." This NBA season will not be like any other recent season.

For a few minutes, Rockets coach Rick Adelman let the concern show. He had talked about the challenge of replacing Yao Ming at center, about relying on a group of forwards, none with particularly good size, and a slender Australian center in his first season in the NBA.

Shares of Peak Sport Products opened below the IPO price on Tuesday but Sequoia Capital, which has backed the strong local rival for Nike in mainland since 2007, made a big win in its investment.

After watching the postseason play out, Houston Rockets boy wonder general manager Daryl Morey boldly "tweeted" that his club was the second-best team in the NBA.

Celeb action is heating up. Yesterday around noon, Bradley Cooper and Rene Zellweger rolled into the Starbucks at Eighth and Walnut Streets.

During her trip to Africa last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited a $30-million private hospital established by Congolese basketball star Dikembe Mutombo.

Every political family is complicated in its own way. Hillary Clinton lost her temper at a town-hall meeting in Kinshasa - as if we didn't have quite enough town-meeting temper-losing on our shores.

In the case of the Houston Rockets, it means a lost season. This past offseason has not been one to remember for the Rockets, who lost center Yao Ming to a season ending injury, and forward Ron Artest who left the team for a more championship-ready team in the LA Lakers.

In the case of the Houston Rockets, it means a lost season. This past offseason has not been one to remember for the Rockets, who lost center Yao Ming to a season ending injury, and forward Ron Artest who left the team for a more championship-ready team in the LA Lakers.