Changes are coming for The HRR

The "Basketball for Thought" is a commentary by Kris Gardner.

March 2002

I love basketball. No shocking news in that statement because if I didn't love basketball, I wouldn't continue enduring the struggles involved with operating the Houston Roundball Review. However,despite my love for hoops, changes are coming for the HRR.

I've decided to shift my concentration away from the Rockets and the NBA toward women's hoops and high school hoops. While attendance at Rockets' game is down, media outlets which cover the team are quite prevalent. The Chronicle, tv and radio stations, the Associated Press, Space City Sports, etc. all discuss the Rockets. With all those media outlets providing coverage, the Houston Roundball Review can only do so much to distinguish itself from the pack. Therefore, despite being the only basketball publication to feature audio clips from post games, press conference, and practices, the HRR is shifting away from the Rockets. However, the shift does not mean, the Rockets will be ignored by the HRR because I worked too hard to gain acceptance and a season credential from the team. The shift means I'm moving toward another niche in basketball.

I've believed for quite some time women's hoops and the Houston Roundball Review have something in common: both produce good quality; but, both are under exposed and under appreciated. This weekend, I overheard the NCAA& women's championship event described as a "niche sport". Semantics say that is a true statement; however, the NCAA’s men's event is also a "niche sport"; but, men's college hoops is just a much bigger and more established niche.

Naturally, a man described the women's game as niche sport; but, that doesn't matter to me because I, as a man, will try to do my part in helping the women's game grow.

As more and more star high school players (at the very least) consider skipping college and head straight to pros, I realized high school basketball has a popular (and growing) fan base. Summer leagues and AAU high school basketball is a big business; and, I decided to become a part of it. Clearly, I know there are people with good (and bad) intentions involved in the summer leagues; but, my main objective is to help kids develop their skills and to increase their exposure and recognition; but, also help them realize having a good education is also very important.

Consequently, the monthly issues of the Houston Roundball Review will evolve away from being dominated by NBA news and information toward featuring information on high school / AAU events plus women's college and pro hoop news, too.

I attended the WBCA's 2002 All-Star Challenge in San Antonio which featured the 2002 USA Women's World Championship Team (including WNBA stars Sheryl Swoopes, Dawn Staley, and Lisa Leslie just to name a few) competing against some of the top college seniors like North Carolina's Nikki Teasley and Baylor's Danielle Crockrom and Sheila Lambert. In addition to the All-Star game, I also attended the NCAA championship game featuring Connecticut facing Oklahoma at the Alamodome.

April is upon us; so, look to the HRR for information regarding some big time AAU events being held this month in the Houston area. Plus, the Comets' 2002 season is about to start, too.