Derrick Rose strolls into Delmar Fieldhouse, wearing jeans, a simple white T-shirt and near slipper shoes — and all of Houston just about stops. At least, the portion that truly cares about NBA basketball (and one look at the line snaking around the fieldhouse doors and deep into the parking lot, packed with people waiting to get in, shows that segment is much larger than the league's critics would have you believe).

On an evening of all-stars (Memphis Grizzlies power forward Zach Randolph and Portland Trailblazers center Marcus Camby), near all-stars (Houston Rockets forward Luis Scola), future all-stars (Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan) and all-star schemers (Rockets guard Kyle Lowry), the reigning MVP trumps all. Without ever even picking up a basketball.

Rose walks across the floor to deliver one of the shortest speeches in history (about how the crowd should pay attention to the young talent playing before the NBA stars take the court) and Delmar is buzzing. It's a lesson in true superstardom.

Everyone else in the old gym is a basketball player. Derrick Rose is a celebrity.

One who doesn't believe in pickup basketball. Rose doesn't even end up playing on Sunday night — a night designed to give everyone in Houston a taste of what it's missing during the NBA Lockout, to provide a little break in David Stern's Nuclear Winter if you will. It's a testament to Rose's respect for the game's organizer/champion John Lucas that the MVP still shows up in the Bayou City to provide support even though he never had any intention of playing.

"I haven't played pickup basketball since I was in high school," Rose laughs.

The Chicago Bulls lifeline point guard believes in individual workouts — intense, skill-centered sessions — rather than loose, dunk-a-thon pickup games. He even largely shuns the more organized games — those with fancy T-shirts, Lucas' Houston Lockout Celebrity Charity Basketball Game included. It's an approach the 58-year-old Lucas, who regularly runs NBA players through grueling workouts, can appreciate.

One Rose is sure of.

"I don't know about anyone else's team, but my team is good," Rose shoots back when someone asks if the Bulls are having trouble staying sharp. "We're good."

Kevin Durant is good too. Good with the idea of playing basketball in Germany. The former University of Texas star and reigning NBA scoring champion was supposed to play in this Houston game. But he told Lucas his negotiations with BBC Bayreuth were taking too much time for him to make it.

What did Durant miss?

Just a little slice of Lockout life. There's Lowry playing like he's determined to show he's the best player on the floor, dropping in 30 points by one unofficial tally, leading his White Team to a 166-157 win over the mad-dunking Blues of Jordan and NBA rookie-to-be Kenneth Faried. While Jordan and Faried attack the rim like they're trying to punish it for bad, bad deeds, Lowry keeps pulling up outside the hastily-rigged-together pro 3-point line (white stickers on the floor that don't connect all the way around).

Three is still better than two. Even in Lockout math.

Playing a glorified pickup game on Nov. 20 — a day when Durant was supposed to be in Oklahoma City facing the Utah Jazz, if the games weren't already canceled through Dec. 15 — is the real painful equation for everyone though. The announcement of that upcoming LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony powered "Hometown Tour" is not exactly warming the hearts of the league's rank and file either.

"Optimism is gone," Scola says. "It was there one day. I don't even remember when it was there, but optimism is gone. I should be playing in a real NBA game right now and I'm not."

The minister who opens the game with "And, I pray that you will unlock the lockout" may have drawn laughs from the 5,000-plus packed into every backless bleacher seat in Delmar, but this is mostly a stone-faced situation for Scola and his brethren.

"I'm not used to being here in my offseason home this long," says Camby, one of the many NBA players who chooses to call Houston home even though he's never played a game for the Rockets. "I'm not going to say I miss the rain in Portland. I love the weather in Houston.

"But I guess I do miss the rain in Portland."

Not All Clouds

It's hard to feel too sorry for a man who's made more than $107 million playing basketball like Camby has in his career. Or even a player scraping to stay in the league, who earned the league minimum of $473,000 last season.

Even though the owners are much more greedy. Even though Stern is a classic bully of a sports commissioner. It's still impossible for the players to come across as overridingly sympathetic.

They largely seem to realize this. So they just try and share some fun with the fans. This game doesn't have the budget for mascots and high-tech T-shirt cannons. Instead, a volunteer giveaway crew runs onto the court and throws free shirts into the crowd — the old fashioned way.

Later, an older gentleman leads a group of kids around the court who fling small bags of chips — the kind you get out of a mixed box of Frito-Lay offerings — up into the stands. You've never seen so many people so excited to snare a gratis bag of potato chips.

Moses Malone — the all-time NBA great who serves as one of the honorary coaches — snags one and starts munching on the bench, right in the middle of the fourth quarter. Phil Jackson has his methods. Moses Malone has his.

It's hard to leave the building without a smile. Which is about all anyone can hope for from this failure to launch NBA season.

"If anything, I feel bad for the fans," Rose says. "Knowing last year that (the league) had such a big year. To not have a season this year hurts."

Rose looks around Delmar's modest locker room, one typically occupied by high school players. "It's my first time in Houston like this," Rose says, speaking about a much more leisurely visit than the typically quick NBA road trip rather than the current digs. "I like it."

And Rose hasn't even stepped onto the "limo bus" that's been arranged for a postgame bash, should a player so desire. As a long line of women in shiny short skirts head toward that bus, someone in Delmar's cramped back hallway calls out, "Now, this is more like the NBA!"

Hey, the MVP could be a LeBron James-worthy free agent in 2013. It's never too early to dream. Especially when you're stuck playing Lockout Limbo.