hailing the king

Houston businessman courting NBA king LeBron James with new local campaign

A local businessman is hoping James will be all smiles in Houston.

Courtesy photo

With local fans having watched the NBA Finals from their televisions — as opposed to in Toyota Center, with the Houston Rockets vying for a title — all eyes are now on the team’s offseason moves. In Houston, that means two words: LeBron James.

Sports analysts, gurus, and Sports Radio Caller Guy are pushing for the greatest basketball player on the planet to take his talents to the Bayou City. (Adding the the frenzy: Unverified reports even had James in Houston last week touring a famous Houston private school.)

Hoping to sway King James, local businessman and self-described “NBA superfan” Greg Andrews of S&S Industries is sponsoring what he calls a “full-court-press communications campaign that will center around how amazing Houston is, and the benefits for LeBron James and his family — if he chooses to play for the Houston Rockets.”

Andrews’s welcome wagon includes a series of six billboards that will be unveiled around town on June 22. He’s also pushing a social media campaign that’s tailored to local personalities, civic leaders, influencers, fans, and all Houstonians with the tag @striveforhtown on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Fans can also look for videos with the hashtag #HTOWNCROWN that “will be used as a gathering point for people to share their love for LeBron, LeBron’s family, and Houston,” according to a statement. Plans for a kickoff party on June 29 are also in the works.

“The campaigns that have been launched so far have been very amateur, small, and frankly a waste of money,” Andrews tells CultureMap — throwing a little shade at other grassroots campaigns he’s seen that were meant to woo free agents. He notes that if he was James, he would “come to a city that has the biggest campaign, a basketball team that already has some of the key pieces, and one of the most aggressive owners and general managers in the NBA.”

So if James lands in Houston, will Andrews want some love? “I can’t take all the credit, but I would like to think I played a role in the NBA soap opera or drama.”

And if James chooses — gasp! — Los Angeles, will Andrews turn his attention to another notable free agent, say, current Texas resident Kawhi Leonard? “No,” says Andrews plainly, “it’s LeBron or bust.”

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income analysis

Texas families need to make this much money for one parent to stay home

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With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

As the cost of raising a child balloons in major cities like Houston, many families are weighing the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas — not just Houston — that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support a stay-at-home partner and a child, the report found. If two parents worked in the household, necessitating some additional costs like childcare and transportation, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in Houston, however, is somewhat more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $21,868 to raise a child in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts, where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report acknowledges ways families are working to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

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