Even visitors can sense an undeniable feeling of possibility inside the new Houston Rockets training facility on Old Katy Road.
Part of it is the sunlight. Unlike the team's previous space in the Toyota Center, the new facility has natural light streaming in through windows all around the perimeter. It illuminates the tiny number of scuff marks on the new floor of the court. The team had just finished practicing half an hour before the media tour began, and the smell of sweat and effort lingers in the air.
Partnered with Memorial Hermann, the new facility is 75,000 square feet, which is three times larger than before and big enough for two practice courts. The project cost $70 million.
During the press conference, Rockets owner Tilman J. Fertitta jokes that this is the exact amount he lost the bid by when he tried to buy the team in 1993. Ultimately, he paid $2.2 billion for the team when he acquired it in 2017.
He seems pleased with the building, especially its location just 15 minutes from the Toyota Center and 10 minutes north of the Post Oak Hotel, Fertitta's luxury property that recently earned a coveted Michelin Key.
“Most teams build their training centers way out of town,” he says. "I didn’t want to do that. I wanted it to be convenient for the players, coaches, and media.”
The focus in the building is on the glory days of Clutch City in the 1990s, with the team’s two world champion trophies displayed in the extremely black and red lobby. The offices are decorated with prints of legends like Clyde Drexler and Elvin Hayes. Rockets legends Hakeem Olajuwon and Rudy Tomjanovich showed up for the opening, too, sitting and joking as Fertitta showed off the building.
One goal for the new facility is to make Houston as attractive as possible for future players, and there’s no doubt that goal was accomplished. The locker rooms are double the size of those at Toyota Center, with elegant designs that resemble walk-in closets. Visiting teams have a separate locker room, complete with its own entrance, should they need to use the facility.
The actual training areas are a high-tech combination of gym and treatment facility. Multiple massage rooms, hot tubs, and cold plunge baths offer players whatever they need from the Memorial Hermann staff. Meanwhile, the weight room is calm and quiet thanks to the pneumatic machines eliminating the clank of barbells. Outside is a climbing stair with three different treads. Every amenity an athlete could want is within a few yards of the practice court, which sits in the center of the complex like a jewel in a prized ring.
After the tour, Fertitta answered questions. One that came up repeatedly was whether the facility might soon be hosting a WNBA team. Even as the WNBA gains new mainstream success, the city has been without a women’s team since 2008. Fertitta says that Houston is among eight cities vying for a franchise, and getting one is a top priority.
“We’ve had some of the greatest players here, but we had an owner who didn’t even live in Houston,” says Fertitta, taking a shot at his predecessor, Leslie Alexander. “Sometimes, you just have to do something for the community. This city deserves a WNBA team. We need to get it, then we’ll figure out how to make it profitable.”
The Gold Over America Tour cast performing on NBC's "America's Got Talent."
First came the gold medals, now comes the Gold Over America Tour, the gymnastics mega-show headlined by Simone Biles, currently touring 30 cities around the United States and coming to Houston’s Toyota Center on Saturday, October 19.
Joining Biles are fellow Paris Olympic champions Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, along with bronze medal-winning men’s team members Paul Juda, Brody Malone, Asher Hong, and Fred Richard, plus other gymnastics superstars. Adding men to the G.O.A.T. showcase is a new twist; the 2021 tour, post-Tokyo Olympics, had a cast made up entirely of women.
It’s a change that Biles hopes will help elevate men’s gymnastics around the country.
Juda, for one, couldn’t be more grateful. The Olympic medalist is still riding the wave of excitement from winning the first USA men’s team medal in 16 years, along with having achieved his own dream of competing in the Olympic individual all-around final.
We recently chatted with Juda, who took us behind the scenes of the G.O.A.T. show, the squad, and life on the tour bus as a college student missing classes to travel the country like a rock star.
CultureMap: At the Olympics this summer, the whole vibe of men’s and women’s USA gymnastics seemed happy and supportive of each other. How are you carrying that camaraderie into performing together as a troupe in the Gold Over America Tour?
Paul Juda: I think during the whole Olympic experience we just had a lot of joy. We had a lot of of fun outside of those two hours of competition. So the competition in and of itself was kind of like a "mission critical," and we were pretty focused, but we still tried to keep it light.
On this, there's no real competition; we’re here to put on the best show possible for the audience. And as long as we can kind of keep leaning in on each other like our support system, the shows are going to come easier because it's going to be a long tour. It's going to be hard, but fun together.
I can already see even just on the the two nights and three days that we've been here together, we've had a lot of fun. We're all best friends here, and we're going to bring that kind of energy to the stage.
CM: The last Gold Over America Tour was all women - and the theme was very much female empowerment, and girls as superheroes. Now that men are included, what can we expect from the show this time?
PJ: I think it's awesome (men are included) and I'm not even gonna lie, this tour just got, like, a million times better after making a medal. I'm really excited to get to do the show. It's going to be a lot of back and forth (between men and women). Yeah, we're doing some gymnastics; we're trying to learn a little bit of dancing. We've got lights, we've got a lot of songs, and we're bouncing off of each other's stories. There's going to be a lot of really fun, fun parts. (Note: Here's a preview.)
CM: Figure skating has shows like “Stars on Ice” and the old “Ice Capades” that they can join after the Olympics to perform for audiences. Would you like to see something like that for gymnasts, who often don’t get to really “entertain” audiences?
PJ: Yeah, (in gymnastics) we use the human body to all of its maximum capability, and (learning) dance moves, I enjoy using a different side of my brain. I'm a guy who would also enjoy a musical or a Broadway show or something like that, just for the element of like, “Wow. Look at the choreography and how they're able to add the music and the lights and everything in the whole production.”
And then you couple it with the fact that we have, like, extraordinary strength and flexibility and we can kind of do almost circus-like events, but then also add in a touch of difficulty - like hey, okay, they're not just acrobats; they also spent 20 years doing this sport.
I feel like it's the ultimate show. You know, it's some dance lights, some music, a storyline, you can watch your favorite athlete and then see him or her in a kind of different light. Now the athlete literally just gets to have fun out there. I wouldn't see why people wouldn't want to see more of this type of show.
CM: There’s so much buzz around gymnastics during the Olympics. How do you keep those fans interested the other three years in between, especially men’s gymnastics?
PJ: I'm hoping this tour does that, and I'm also confident, like anything that we do afterwards on the global stage (like "pommel horse guy" Stephen Nedoroscik competing on Dancing With the Stars), I hope people are like, "Oh yeah, I see them doing that. But I also remember they represent men's gymnastics."
Paul Juda on parallel bars for the University of Michigan team.Photo by John Cheng
Q: A lot of cast members are in college, including yourself (a graduate student), and you’re also captain of the University of Michigan Men’s Gymnastics team. How will you balance your studies and college athletics commitments while you’re on tour?
PJ: (He holds up a notebook with a calendar planner filled in.) This. I'm looking at my schedule today, I've got a weekly reflection. I've got a case to work on. I've got a data analytics assignment, a lecture to watch, and a reading quiz to do, so, it's a lot for sure. Hopefully after this tour I can come back and be in a really good place with my team. It's really bittersweet. (Teammate Fred Richard and I) we were able to have our only really big tailgate of the year for the Michigan football game last week. And I'm just so heartbroken because that that's like my favorite part of the year.
I think my team will be okay, though, and I've left some excellent people in charge … phenomenal captains, and I have no doubt that they'll keep the team on pace, and if they need anything from me, they'll text me.
And on top of that, in terms of school, I think honestly, if anything, it’ll just keep me doing the right things. I got to go to bed early to wake up early and get some homework done, that's probably for the best. I’ll try to do some lectures on the tour bus and stuff.
CM:The reception in Houston - hometown of Simone Biles and adopted hometown of Jordan Chiles - will be nuts, and of course Fort Worth is where the last National Championships was held this past summer. What cities are you most looking forward to?
PJ: Chicago and Detroit are going to be my two main places. I've got a lot of people coming for the Detroit show from University of Michigan, and then Chicago, that’s where I'm from. Every time that I've visited Texas, I really enjoy Texas. We'll have a lot of fun. I'm excited to see the Texans come out and specifically in that Austin area, we've got a lot of people there.
CM: Well, don’t forget your cowboy hat.
PJ: Alright!
Note: This interview was edited for clarity and brevity. The Gold Over America Tour, presented by Athleta, will take place at 7:30 pm October 19 at the Toyota Center in Houston. For tickets ($35-$500) and more information, visit the website.