Between Sunday’s home game against Golden State and Friday’s tilt versus Atlanta, the Rockets have a rare break during the 2022-23 NBA season: four consecutive days without a game. They’ve also been able to stay in Houston for the entire time, since they’re currently in the middle of a four-game homestand at Toyota Center.
Because that break happened to coincide with the Thanksgiving holiday, it also presented the franchise and several of its players with an opportunity to give back to the Houston community.
“It means a lot,” said head coach Stephen Silas, as relayed by Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. He continued:
One of my messages to the guys was, ‘How blessed are we to be out here for practice, and there are people lining up around the building just trying to get a free meal for Thanksgiving. And the blessing that we have, we have to pass along.’
I love that we have guys … going to the organization saying, ‘I want to help,’ and ‘I want to do something.’ We got really, really good guys. They’re young but they have a sense of self and a sense of giving and they know what’s important. It’s really good to see young people do that because the perception of young people is ‘me, me, me and I, I, I.’ We have a bunch of people who are selfless and give to each other and give to others.
Scroll on for details and highlights from many of those Thanksgiving events. The Rockets return to basketball with Friday’s home game versus Atlanta, with tipoff scheduled for 7 p.m. Central.