You know what my favorite thing about Houston is? It\u2019s really a city of go-getters. People from the outside, they don\u2019t get it. They might look at H-Town as slow or Southern or whatever. But if you actually live here, you understand that it\u2019s people from all over the world down here just trying to get their piece of the pie, and that\u2019s why this place has such an amazing creative energy. The food, the music, the way people are \u2026. Houston is one of the most underrated places in America, bro.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I almost don\u2019t even want to hype it up too much, because we gotta keep our thing our thing down here, you know what I mean?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I loved being a Rocket, for real. I almost can\u2019t believe I\u2019m talking about H-Town in the past tense. But that\u2019s life in the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Listen, nobody likes to get traded. But I can honestly say that I get it, bro. This is a business, and if I was up there in the executive chair, I probably would\u2019ve made the deal, too. I think it\u2019s a better situation for both sides, and I\u2019m just excited to get it popping with Book, and to create that winning culture that we figured out down here in Houston.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What\u2019s that thing that people are always saying in these moments? Don\u2019t cry because it\u2019s over? Smile because it happened? Bro, I\u2019m smiling. It\u2019s nothing but love for the Rockets. I\u2019m sorry I gotta try to bust y\u2019all ass now, but every time I see y\u2019all, it\u2019s gonna be love. I mean, I grew up here, for real. Some dudes just be saying that when they get traded, but I really came here at 19 years old still eating Skittles before games, and I\u2019m leaving here as a father. It\u2019s been a time, y\u2019all.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I got here, all anybody was talking about was a \u201crebuild.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRebuild, rebuild, rebuild.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alex Bierens de Haan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Doing that droopy dog thing, looking at the floor, you know what I mean?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGee, I dunno. Might take 4 or 5 years, man. Just take it one day at a time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pssssshhhhh. We said, \u201cF*** a rebuild.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I think our group was just too young to even know any better. Maybe most teams would be chilling during the third quarter of a regular season game in February or whatever, just thinking about where we were gonna go after the game. Bro, we were playing every possession like it was life or death. Even when we were losing, we were entertaining. Our philosophy was, \u201cHey, we\u2019re young and athletic. So let\u2019s slide our feet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
We were flying around every gym in the league. We were doing the electric slide in that b*tch. You always knew Houston was gonna be playing some defense. Not defense, D-Fence, bro. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The vets on the other teams would be looking at us like, \u201cYo, it\u2019s a Tuesday, bro. Chill. Aren\u2019t you dudes supposed to be trying to get picks?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But we weren\u2019t trying to chill. We weren\u2019t trying to get picks. We were trying to win now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My rookie year, we won 20 games. Twen-tee, bro. Within three years, we had the Toyota Center packed out for a home playoff game. I\u2019ll always be proud of that. To flip it around like that, it\u2019s about culture. We had our young core, but we also had vets like Fred VanVleet \u2014 guys who had really won in this league \u2014 showing us the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cameron Browne\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll never forget\u2026. This is the first time I ever heard something like this from a vet \u2026. I came out on a heater one night. I think I hit like three in a row to start the game, and the next time down the floor, I passed it. As a young dude, you almost got that guilt, you know? \u201cI guess I gotta pass now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Man, Fred looked at me crazy in the huddle during the timeout, and he gave me the green light in front of everybody.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYo, did you just pass that? Shoot it again, bro. We\u2019re running this s*** through you until you miss.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
We were such a close group. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so tough to even be doing a goodbye, because I might as well just post a link to the whole damn roster. Every guy is somebody I was close with \u2014 somebody who I\u2019ll keep in touch with after basketball. Fred, Amen, Tari, Jabari, Jock, Steven Adams, Jae\u2019Sean Tate \u2014 everybody. Even our coaching staff and trainers \u2014 Royal Ivey, JB, Willie \u2014 you guys know it\u2019s bigger than basketball. How many conversations about life did we have? Thank y\u2019all for helping figure my s*** out. Not just as a ball player, but as a young father and as a man.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And of course, my Turkish brother, Alpy. When we first came in here as kids, I didn\u2019t know what the hell you\u2019d be saying half the time. We were teaching you how to swear in English, bro. Remember that? You\u2019d be showing me all that Turkish rap, and I just couldn\u2019t get jiggy with it. I\u2019m sorry, bro. Y\u2019all gotta learn to switch the flow up. Hahahaha. That\u2019s my guy though. I didn\u2019t know Europeans could be so down-to-earth like that! I thought y\u2019all were all bougie. But no, Alpy is cool as hell.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With him and Amen, Rockets fans got a lot to look forward to for years to come, man. I can tell you because I had a front row seat for it \u2014 Amen isn\u2019t just gonna be great. Amen is gonna be crazy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, man, the biggest testament I can say about my time here is that the day I got traded, I spent all day on the phone. I know how it is in this league. Some teams, they\u2019re not that close. Some guys, they get traded and call up their 1 or 2 dudes on the team and that\u2019s a wrap. Me, I was calling the whole roster. Started calling in the morning and it was dinner time before I said my last goodbye, bro.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Logan Riely\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Thank God at least DB is coming out to Phoenix with me. I can\u2019t wait to see a traded DB. He\u2019s gonna be out there creating chaos, bro.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You know what\u2019s funny? First person I called after I got the news was my mom, because of course. You gotta call Mom. If I even had one second of feeling sorry for myself, that was gone by the time she picked up the phone. A lotta moms work the night shift to provide for their kids, man. Shout out to all the moms. But my mom worked a night shift as a corrections officer, bro. That\u2019s a hell of a shift she was putting in.\u00a0 But when I was coming up, she still used to come home in the morning and then drive me three hours to Oakland just to play basketball. She used to sleep in the car between games and everything.\u00a0<\/p>\n
(Hey Ma, remember how I used to be getting bubble guts in the car before every game? Nervous as hell! I know dudes in the league that still be doing that, by the way.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you nervous, that means you ready!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Right, Ma?\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Taking long drives, playing basketball, handling business. That\u2019s always been our life. Ain\u2019t nothing going to change now. I got a team out in Phoenix who wants me to be me. I get to play alongside one of the best in the game in Book. It\u2019s another opportunity to build a winning culture. Another opportunity to show people how deep my love for this game really is. And another opportunity to shut up y\u2019all petty-ass haters, too. (I see everything, and I thank you for it.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
So I\u2019ll miss Houston and all my guys down there, but I\u2019m smiling, man. I get to play basketball for a living. How can I have a bad day? Every day I\u2019m hooping is a good day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
H-Town, thank you for the love. For real, thank you.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And if I bust y\u2019all ass for 30 next season, just remember the good times!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sincerely,\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jalen\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You know what my favorite thing about Houston is? It\u2019s really a city of go-getters. People from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-33642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}