Rockets and Vipers now must follow through… carefully

HIDALGO — So now the Valley knows what Kevin Garnett’s sweaty bald head looks like in person. Tracy McGrady has sort of watched a meaningless preseason game just a couple miles from the border while injured teammate Shane Battier wore his red Rockets blazer.

Yeah, it was a novelty to see a sporting event at Dodge Arena with actual major-league athletes, some that are international celebrities. Watching the Rockets rally to beat the Celtics 96-90 was a historic moment in the history of Valley professional sports, the one part of RGV Rocket Launch that met or maybe exceeded expectations.

The next part for the Rockets and Vipers, however, is the trickiest. All week, the Rockets and Vipers played up their “unique” relationship, how their “hybrid” affiliation could be the future of the D-League.

It all sounds ambitious and great for NBA teams, who will know their younger players are staying in the same system. But with each player acquisition or change to conform to the Rockets, the Vipers run the risk of losing their Valley identity.

Even Wednesday, the Rockets announced that Gersson Rosas is the new Vipers general manager while Brian Michael Cooper will remain president. Rosas will also remain the Rockets’ vice president of player personnel and still be based in Houston.

Anybody else think that doesn’t exactly help the Vipers keep their Valley identity?

Wednesday night’s game was pretty much meaningless to the Celtics and Rockets. Sure, Boston wanted to see how the recovering Kevin Garnett would play, while Houston still needs to find out who might be able to replace Yao Ming.

Wednesday night, though, was really for the Vipers.

This was their night to show they can do things no other team in town can and have connections unique to the Valley. An actual NBA game was played in a building with their logo all over (though their court was missing). They’ve brought the Rockets to the area and are their D-League affiliate. They will once again have players with NBA futures in their uniform this season.

But as the Rockets-Vipers relationship grows tighter, the local team could begin to feel less and like an actual Valley team. Instead, if they become more and more intertwined with Houston, the Vipers could start to feel like nothing more than a satellite of the Rockets.

To avoid that, yet maintain their growing place in Valley sports, the Vipers must tread lightly. If they play up the Rockets relationship too much, the community (which still is the Spurs’) will eventually recognize that it doesn’t matter to the Rockets.

But if they don’t remind people who they are a part of, Wednesday night will feel like a patronizing one-night stand of NBA basketball, a tease that was the high point of the Vipers season.

In his new job, Rosas will have to balance all of that to work. Unfortunately for him, he’ll have to fly here to see how things are going.

Brian Sandalow covers sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4436.