Notes: Story Time

Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer

HOUSTON -- Rockets point guard Rafer Alston sat down in front of group of fifth graders and asked how many of them had ever been to New York.

He saw zero hands pop up.

"That's the city for me," Alston told them. "That's where I'm from."

On Monday afternoon, Alston brought his city and the Statue of Liberty to them.

Alston and the Rockets visited about 250 students from local elementary schools on the floor of the Toyota Center Monday as part of the team's "Read to Achieve" program, an annual event where players read to kids.

The group of kids visited themed sets from around the world as their favorite NBA players read stories based on those locales.

Alston, who grew up in Queens, N.Y., had a chance to read a story about the Statue of Liberty to several kids and Juwan Howard and Yao Ming teamed up to read a story about China. Kelenna Azubuike, Shane Battier, Ryan Bowen, Chuck Hayes, Casey Jacobsen, John Lucas, Dikembe Mutombo, Steve Novak, Scott Padgett, Kirk Snyder and Vassilis Spanoulis also read books to the students.

Yao actually would have preferred to be in the audience during the story telling.

"I (wanted) to listen, not read," Yao said. "I (wanted) to sit with the kids. But no, I do like reading to them."

Comparing Van Gundy: After nearly a month with his new coach, Shane Battier has noticed that Jeff Van Gundy pays attention to every little detail -- no matter how small -- on and off the court.

He's had a few other coaches like that.

"When you look at the coaches who have had a lot of success, there are lot of similarities between (Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski), (former Memphis coach) Hubie Brown and coach Van Gundy," Battier said. "On the outside, they might be little things on the court. But those small things add up to big things. All great players and coaches have great attention to detail."

Van Gundy wanted to reward Battier for his remark.

"I wish I could extend him," Van Gundy said, referring to Battier's contract.

Mirror Image: Behind a dominant center and creative scorer, the Miami Heat found enough role players in the 2005 offseason to transform South Beach's franchise into 2006 NBA champions.

Notice anything similar in Houston?

Rockets forward Shane Battier does as Houston gets ready for its preseason game against Miami on Wednesday night.

"We have two building blocks in Tracy (McGrady) and Yao (Ming) who are as good as (Shaquille O'Neal) and (Dwayne Wade)," Battier said. "Our best players are in the prime of their careers, like Miami, so we must take advantage of that."