Columnist Dean Juipe: Rockets fit to be plundered

Dean Juipe

Friday, Feb. 18, 2000 | 10:55 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@vegas.com or 259-4084.

Let's see, what should we call this team after we get it?

The Las Vegas Rockets?

Well, maybe. After all, if the New Orleans Jazz can move to Salt Lake City, as it did in 1979, and retain the Jazz nickname in spite of it qualifying as a misnomer in Utah, then the Houston Rockets can move to Las Vegas and keep the same moniker if they're so inclined.

But the "Rockets" nickname is meant to reflect the Houston area's connection to NASA and has a regional significance it wouldn't share in Nevada. As a result, we need to stay alert and on the lookout for something a bit more pertinent and topical.

How about the Las Vegas Pirates?

After all, the city and its mayor seem intent on stealing this team.

The Rockets, in case you missed it, are in the process of making themselves available to the highest bidder. And stepping to the front is Las Vegas and its sports-minded mayor, Oscar Goodman.

He'll entertain Rockets owner Les Alexander next Thursday, with an eye toward convincing a man dissatisfied with Houston that Las Vegas is the place to relocate.

Alexander's complaint isn't the result of Houstonians not liking pro basketball; it's because Harris County voters rejected a proposal last November that would have provided a publicly financed new arena for the franchise.

The Compaq Center, formerly The Summit, where the Rockets play, seats 16,285 and every ticket is routinely sold. It has been that way for some time, or at least since the Rockets won consecutive NBA championships during the 1994 and '95 seasons.

Houston is a good basketball city but, like many others, it has grown weary of constructing stadiums for professional sports teams. Voters were willing to finance a new baseball stadium that opens this year, but they let the NFL's Oilers move to Nashville and they haven't gone after an NHL team with any serious vigor simply because the populace is reluctant to build a new arena.

Alexander feels the time for compromise has passed, and, apparently so does NBA commissioner David Stern, who told a recent audience "I think it's certain the team will be relocated."

Bad news for Houston, good news for some other city willing to pick up the tab.

Goodman is lobbying that Las Vegas is that city, even though Stern warned him last fall that the league might not approve a franchise coming here due to the state taking legalized wagers on NBA games. That said, his position seems less ironclad today than it did then and the wagering issue may not be the stumbling block that Stern once intimated.

The Pirates, er, Rockets, would be a terrific booty. They have a great young player in Steve Francis and would be a pleasure to see on a regular basis.

The fact that Las Vegas has no new arena of its own, nor immediate plans to build one, puts a bind on the move to Nevada, however. All Goodman can do with Alexander is show him a plot of ground downtown where a new arena could be built.

Alexander may be too impatient to wait, or too reluctant to accept the Thomas & Mack Center as an interim home site.

Then again, he may be ready to be sweet-talked right off his feet.

Aye, sweet-talked by a guy with a figurative eye patch and a parrot on his shoulder.