Houston Rockets – The Early Years

Posted by admin | Posted on 18-01-2012

Category : Region IV

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Houston Rockets – The Early Years

The Rockets, along with the Seattle SuperSonics, entered the NBA in 1967 as an expansion team based in San Diego. They selected Pat Riley with their first draft pick in 1967. They went on to produce a then-NBA record 67-loss season.

In 1968 the Rockets won the coin toss versus the Baltimore Bullets, giving them the first overall pick in the 1968 NBA Draft. They selected Elvin “the Big E” Hayes from the University of Houston. Hayes led the team to the franchise’s first ever playoff appearance in 1969. The Rockets lost in the Western divisional semi-final to the Atlanta Hawks two games to four in a best-of-seven series.

The 1970 NBA Draft brought Calvin Murphy and Rudy Tomjanovich to the Rockets – both significant to the franchise after their playing careers were over.

Coached by Jack McMahon and Alex Hannum, the Rockets tallied a 119-209 record over their tenure in San Diego.

In 1971, real estate broker Wayne Duddleston and banker Billy Goldberg bought the franchise for .6 million and relocated the team from San Diego, where fans were more disposed to the Los Angeles Lakers than the Rockets. The Rockets originally had been named for San Diego slogan, “A City in Motion,” but with the move to Houston their name took on even greater relevance. Houston is home to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and Mission Control, which received national attention during Project Apollo.

The Rockets began playing at various venues in Houston, including the Astrodome, AstroHall, and Hofheinz Pavilion. They also played games at HemisFair Arena in San Antonio and in Waco. However, fan support was weak in the football and baseball-dominated city, and the Rockets averaged less than 5000 fans per game during their first Houston season. It was mused that the local churches in Waco drew more attendance than the Rockets.

Before the start of the 1971 season, Coach Alex Hannum left for the Denver Nuggets of the American Basketball Association. Tex Winter was hired as the new coach shortly before the team was sold. Coach Winter applied a triple-post offensive system that contrasted with the offensive style to which Hayes was accustomed. Houston soon traded Hayes to the Baltimore Bullets for Jack Marin. Lack of success did little to capture the city’s attention, and in the Spring of 1973, following the Rockets 10th straight loss, Winter was relieved of his duties.

In 1975, with Coach Johnny Egan’s guidance and Tomjanovich, Murphy, and Mike Newlin leading the way, the Rockets made their first appearance in the playoffs since arriving in Houston. The Rockets defeated the New York Knicks (led by Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe) in the first round, but lost to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals.

At the start of the 1977 season, the Rockets negotiated a trade with the Buffalo Braves to acquire Moses Malone, who as a high school star made the unprecedented decision of bypassing college basketball to sign on as a professional with the Utah Stars of the ABA in 1974. The Rockets defeated the Washington Bullets in the 1977 Eastern Conference semi-final, but lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in the Conference Finals. Malone made an impressive showing against Washington’s Elvin Hayes and waning star Wes Unseld.

On December 9, 1977, in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Kevin Kunnert got into a fight with the Lakers’ Kermit Washington. As Tomjanovich approached the altercation, Washington turned and threw a punch, landing squarely in the face of an approaching Tomjanovich, causing extensive structural damage to his cranium. The shocking scene became the defining moment of the Rockets’ 1977-78 season as well as the playing careers of Tomjanovich and Washington. Tomjanovich spent the next five months in rehabilitation and returned to appear in the 1978 All-Star Game. A book by John Feinstein recording the events surrounding this event and the different paths that Tomjanovich and Washington have taken since that day is entitled “The Punch.”

Malone received the 1979 MVP Award. Not exceptionally big or quick, he used footwork and positioning to become a successful center in the NBA. Malone, Murphy, and Tomjanovich all played in the 1979 NBA All-Star Game. Rick Barry was signed for the 1979 season from the Golden State Warriors in exchange for John Lucas. Barry averaged a modest 13.5 points and set a new NBA record, posting a .947 free-throw percentage for the season. He would play one more year for the Rockets before retiring in 1980.

The Rockets went 47-35 in 1978-79, Nissalke’s last season as coach. They finished second in the Central Division, losing two straight to Atlanta in a best-of-three first-round series.

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Schoenberg, Rap Music’c Early Grandfather

Posted by admin | Posted on 18-03-2011

Category : Region V

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Schoenberg, Rap Music’c Early Grandfather

Rap music has been around longer than we thought. In the arts everything is recycled (many times stolen and recycled). We have had bell bottoms make a return in fashion, the bringing back of muscle cars on the road, big haired metal bands making come backs in concert and Neo-soul music which is…new soul music. Of course many are aware that the Hip hop culture and its music started in the boogie down Bronx in the 70′s but the style or monotonous melody delivery may have been grand fathered even further back. The likes of social movement groups such as the Last Poets who released a Billboard Charting album in the 1970′s, rhythmic vocals precedes the combining of lyrics over DJ breaks by delivering a lyrical flow of poetry to the beat of ethnic drums and instrumentation. The style which resembles closely the current Def Jam Poetry series or other earlier African American poets is not far off the beat of rap. You can link traces of both to the African Griots oral tradition.

Years ago rap music was considered a fad to vanish like the cabbage patch kids. The genre of rap music has thoroughly spread throughout the entire world and not only reaches, but affects and relates to every culture. Many cultures histories are connected and deeply rooted in some influence of music, and the gap may be bridged closer. Before attending the University of Southern California, I grew up in Long Island, NY. I was a product of the renaissance age of rap music. I grew up along side many earlier influential names of hip hop icons such as Rakim, Groove B Chill and Sweety G. Rakim himself was fond of jazz music and played Baritone sax along side me in marching and jazz band. My own interest and love for music ironically (’cause that’s a whole ‘nother saga explained in the future) lead me to study music at U.S.C. as an undergrad taking a few classes in jazz and classical music history. I once had a debate with a professor and chairman of the Jazz studies program, who refuses to believe and admit that rap is music. On the other side in classical history, I had just learned that Arnold Schoenberg’s Sprechstimme is similar to a monotonous chant rap style flow in which there was no present melody just like that of rap. This style of music dates back to the early 1900′s and is thoroughly supported to be music so much it was kept record of, appreciated, analyzed and taught throughout out the years as part of the expressionist movement in German poetry and art.

Music is studied and broken down. Many composers and musicians learn to write scores of music by dissecting, studying and analyzing music of other composers and musicians. Music theory is derived from the analysis of common practices of that music’s time and genre. Typical elements that are analyzed in music is it’s form, such as intros and cadences, harmonies, rhythm patterns, tempo changes tonality or atonality and melody which are all present in rapping. My highly educated world renowned professor tells the class that Rap is not music because it does not contain a melody. Rap is certainly not musically dissonant as the likes of Pierre Schaeffer’s Mosque Concrète, whose genius attempt at innovated music technology was difficult to notate on paper like traditional classical music, but it may resemble more the expressionistic era as that of music theorist Arnold Schoenberg. Schoenberg’s Sprechstimme was singing in a restricted way to maintain a constant pitch unlike the ups and downs melodic contour most melodies would have when they are played or sung. An example of this would be in Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder or later works by Pierrot Lunaire. Rap can be notated the same as Schoenberg did for Sprechstimme. However, rap actually has inflection in its speech delivery. This is relative to some exotic scales in which a micro tonality exist like Burmese or Indonesian music. Today’s rappers like 50 cent and Ja Rule have distinctive melodic flow. Groups like Bone Thugs and Harmony are actually harmonizing in their rap flow. Rappers like Nelly are practically borderline singing or sprechgesang-ing. Not to mention, the entire above named have been Grammy nominated. It is always said “to know where you are going, you must know where you are from.” Rap is today’s urban music. Its techniques are deeply rooted for over 100 years in American music.

History serves as a blueprint that has been forged for us to learn from. Does this mean that Germany is the birthplace of rap music? Not quite, though Schoenberg is Austrian he is a well known early American composer, but it puts an end to the debate for historians or ignorant professors on whether the fad of rap is indeed at all music. In a world in which music is a huge part of every one’s life, many cultures have been influenced by and incorporate rap into their own native language and music. Billions of profitable dollars have been earned from rap, it is not only grandfathered in as a style of music to last, but worthy of and honorary degree in which the success of hip hop can now afford to buy.

Copyright 2008 JackDazey free to reprent maintain credit to author and article intact

JackDazey is a music industry veteran whom attendend U.S.C. Currently he works as a entertainment consultant. He is now working on the JackDazey Project E5, due to release early 2009. See his blog at www.jackdazey.com


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Be Proactive In 2010 To Buy New Orlean Saints Tickets Early

Posted by admin | Posted on 18-01-2011

Category : Region V

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Be Proactive In 2010 To Buy New Orlean Saints Tickets Early

Saints fans are still celebrating the most memorable and magical season in their memory, as their team not only staged a remarkable regular season, but also marched through the playoffs and knocked off the favored Indianapolis Colts to become the victors of Super Bowl XLIV!  It is time for Saints fans to realize, however, that because of these happy circumstances there will be significant changes in the opportunities to buy New Orlean Saints tickets during the 2010 season.  The fans who are wise enough to look ahead and make plans around their ticket purchases will be those who have the chance to see their defending champions live… and those who do not will be relegated to catching games on television at home or in sports bars.

Planning Ahead For Home Games… And Away! –

Home games for the Saints are amazing affairs that positively shake the Louisiana Superdome, and have resonated into increasing national popularity for the Saints throughout the league.  Getting home tickets at the Superdome will be a challenge, and likely only available to those who plan ahead.  But now that the Saints are legitimate contenders (and defending champs) the tickets will also be a tough find at opposing stadiums on the road, as well.  Fans will definitely need to think ahead to see their Saints live in 2010…

Exciting Schedule for 2010 Saints Football –

The 2010 schedule will bring an excellent slate of games for Nawlins fans, as the Minnesota Vikings will return for a visit to face Drew Brees and the rest of the Saints roster at the Superdome to open the league’s season.  In addition, the Saints will be facing the San Francisco 49ers on the West Coast for a Monday Night Football matchup, and the Seattle Seahawks at home under new coach Pete Carroll, fresh from his stint coaching national champions at University of Southern California.

Additionally, the Saints will play the Pittsburgh Steelers in a matchup of recent Super Bowl champions which could go a long way toward showing which franchise is on the rise, and which is on the wane.  Another highly anticipated game will send the Saints to the new Cowboys Stadium to challenge Dallas, who last year ended the Saints’ regular season winning streak.  There will also be a road tilt against the tough Cincinnati Bengals, who took the American Football Conference crown last season.  All of these games will be great opportunities for Saints fans to see their team match up against the rest of the league!

Don’t Delay, Plan for the Saints Today –

The Saints are going to be popular with fans (and will get the best shot of each and every one of their opponents, as the defending Super Bowl Champions) all around the league.  Tickets for their games will likely be hard to find no matter where the Saints are playing, so the most savvy of fans are going to make plans for their best opportunity to see the Saints live, in a location that works for their situation!

Don’t leave your opportunity to buy New Orlean Saints tickets up to chance! Be sure to click on http://www.ticketsizzle.com/s/new-orlean-saints-tickets.aspx to make the most of the upcoming 2010 season.


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Virginia Study Links Teen Accidents With Early School Start Times

Posted by admin | Posted on 19-10-2010

Category : Region I

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Virginia Study Links Teen Accidents With Early School Start Times

Car crashes are the number one killer of teens in the US, and a new study presented at the American Academy of Sleep Societies suggests an early school day may lead to an increased number of teenage car accidents. Any new insights into this terrible epidemic could save thousands of teenage lives every year.

The study in question compared the 2008 crash rates of high school students in two adjacent Virginia towns. The author of the study was Dr. Robert Vorona, an associate professor of internal medicine in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, VA.

Dr. Vorona relied on the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles for data on the accident rates among drivers aged 16 to 18 in the two towns. The two Virginia towns, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, have similar demographics but start high school an hour and twenty minutes apart, 7:20 am and 8:40 am respectively. The study found that Virginia Beach, with its 7:20 am start time, had 65.4 crashes per 1,000 teen drivers compared to Chesapeake’s, with its 8:40 am start time, 46.2 crashes per 1,000 teens. These figures equate out to a 41% difference in teen driver crashes.

Dr. Vorona will not outright make a direct correlation between teenage car crashes and early high school start times. He is quoted as saying, “This study did not prove by any means that early high school start times led to increased rates of car crashes. Instead, it shows an association between early risers and car crashes.”

Dr. Vorona does however believe that when combined with other research, he suggests pushing for later start times, and goes onto to say that, “Early high school start times are problematic.” Speaking on these later start times, Dr. Vorona goes on to say, “Teenagers need over nine hours sleep a night, and it looks like a large number of teens don’t get sufficient sleep…part of that relates to the time that high schools begin.”

Studies done on teen behavior agree with Dr. Vorona. “There are data that demonstrate that lack of sleep has negative consequences for teens,” he said. “And some data show that younger drivers are more likely to have crashes when they have inadequate sleep.”

A leading Kansas City auto accident attorney and Dr. Barbara Phillips, of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, both agree with Dr. Vorona’s claims. Dr. Phillips believes that teens are “biologically programmed” to become sleepy and wake up later than adults. “They truly can’t help it. They’re just not going to get sleepy at 10 p.m., so it’s hard for them to get the eight to 10 hours of sleep they need to get when they have to catch the 7:30 bus,” she says.

When you combine the lack of sleep with the act of driving, things turn dangerous. “Younger, inexperienced drivers don’t fare well with additional handicaps such as impaired alertness caused by having to get up earlier than is natural for them,” said Dr. Phillips. A leading Kansas City car crash attorney has witnessed first hand the dangerous combination that sleep-deprivation and driving can be.

Much like Dr. Vorona in Virginia, Dr. Phillips co-authored a study comparing car crash rates and the sleep of teen drivers. Hers in 1998 compared the crash rates for teens in Lexington, Kentucky after the school district instituted a later school start with the previous two years before the change in start time. The results of the study were conclusive; crash rates declined 16.5% in a period where teenage crash rates actually increased in the state of Kentucky by 7.8%.

Perhaps more states should listen to the research of Dr. Vorona and Dr. Phillips as well as the observations of Kansas City car crash attorneys and Kansas City auto accident attorneys everywhere and move high school start times back. The argument against doing so is that early start times allow for after school sports; there has to be a compromise because the world cannot afford to lose one more teenager to a car crash before their time.

The Early Days of the Miami Heat

Posted by admin | Posted on 08-10-2010

Category : Region V

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The Early Days of the Miami Heat

During the boom period of the NBA of the 1980s the league sought to expand itself from 23 teams to 26 by the end of the decade. In Florida, a state devoid of any NBA franchises, groups from Orlando, Tampa/St. Petersburg and Miami all vied to land franchises.

The Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority eventually endorsed a group led by NBA Hall of Famer Billy Cunningham and former sports agent (and lifelong friend of Cunningham’s) Lewis Schaffel, who received their financial backing from Carnival Cruise Lines tycoon Ted Arison, who would be the majority shareholder of a potential franchise but defer the day-to-day operations to minority shareholders Cunningham and Schaffel.

In April 1987, the NBA expansion committee endorsed the bids of the cities of Charlotte and Minneapolis. However, the committee was split between awarding the third and final franchise to Miami or Orlando, causing representatives from both cities to toss barbs at the other. Finally, it was decided that the NBA would expand by 4 teams, with the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat debuting for the 1988-89 season and the Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic beginning for the 1989-90 season.

For their first head coach, Miami hired Ron Rothstein, who was a longtime assistant coach under Chuck Daly in Detroit and who was credited with being one of the architects of Detroit’s stifling defense.

The Heat came into the NBA for the 1988-89 season with an unproductive first year, with a roster full of young players and journeymen. Among the players on the inaugural roster were first round picks Rony Seikaly and Kevin Edwards, fellow rookies Grant Long and Sylvester Gray as well as NBA vets Rory Sparrow, Jon Sundvold, Pat Cummings, Scott Hastings, Dwayne “Pearl” Washington and Billy Thompson. The team started out the season by losing its first 17 games, an NBA record. It did not help that the Heat were placed in the Midwest Division of the Western Conference. This forced them on the longest road trips in the NBA; their nearest divisional opponent was the Houston Rockets, over 900 miles from Miami. The team ultimately finished with a league-worst 15-67 win-loss record.

To help address Miami’s league-low point production, the Heat picked Glen Rice from the University of Michigan in the first round of the 1989 NBA Draft, and Sherman Douglas of Syracuse University in the 2nd round. The team also moved to the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference for the 1989-90 season, where they would remain for the next 15 years. However, the Heat continued to struggle and never won more than two consecutive games, en route to an 18-64 record.

The 1989-90 season saw Miami awarded with the 3rd pick overall, only to parlay via two trades (first with the Denver Nuggets and later with the Houston Rockets) into getting the 9th and 12th picks, with which they selected Willie Burton of the University of Minnesota and Alec Kessler of the University of Georgia. Both picks flopped, as the Heat tried to turn Burton, a college small forward, into a shooting guard without much success and Kessler was bogged by injury problems and was not physical enough to be a quality NBA power forward.

While Rice, Seikaly and Douglas all showed improvement from the previous year, Miami still only went 24-58 and remained in the Atlantic Division basement.

Rothstein would resign as head coach at the end of the season, but later would return to the Heat prior to the 2004-05 season as an assistant coach, a role he still fulfills today.

In the wake of Rothstein’s resignation prior to the 1991-92 season, the Heat hired Kevin Loughery, who had 29 years of experience in the NBA both as a coach and a player, to be their new head coach. For the 1991 NBA Draft, the team selected Steve Smith from Michigan State, who provided an agile guard to a more mature Heat team. With the help of rookie Smith, Rony Seikaly, and a more experienced Glen Rice, the Heat finished in fourth place in the Atlantic Division with a 38-44 record and made the playoffs for the first time. Playing the league-best Chicago Bulls, the Heat were swept in three games. Steve Smith made the NBA All-Rookie team and Glen Rice finished 10th in the NBA in scoring.

The 1992-93 NBA season included the additions of draft choice Harold Miner of the University of Southern California as well as trading a 1st round pick (which would turn into the #10 overall pick the following season) for Detroit Pistons forward/center John Salley. While Salley’s addition was first met with optimism because of the role that he played on two championship Detroit Pistons squads, it became apparent quickly that Salley was a quality role player for a good team, but not a quality player for a mediocre team like Miami was at the time. Salley would eventually have his playing time diminish, ultimately resulting in his being taken by the Toronto Raptors in the 1995 expansion draft. As for the season itself, it started off poorly, with Smith missing time with a knee injury and Burton being lost for most of the year with a wrist injury. Upon Smith’s return, Miami posted a winning record in February and March, but it was not enough to dig themselves out of the 13-27-hole they began in. They finished 36-46 and would not return to the playoffs.

A healthier squad fared better in 1993-94, posting the franchise’s first-ever winning record at 42-40 and returning to the playoffs as the #8 seed versus the Atlanta Hawks. After Miami had a 2-1 series lead, Atlanta rallied from the deficit to win the best-of-5 series. After that season, Steve Smith would be selected as a member of the 2nd Dream Team, the collection of NBA All-Stars who were selected to compete in the 1994 World Basketball Championships in Toronto as Team U.S.A.. Dream Team II, also made up of future Heat players Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Dan Majerle and Tim Hardaway, would go on to win the tournament.

In 1994-95, the team overhauled their roster, trading away Seikaly, Smith, and Grant Long. In return, the Heat obtained Kevin Willis and Billy Owens.

Also, at this time came a power shift in Heat’s front office. On February 13, 1995 Cunningham and Lew Schaffel were bought out by the Arison family of Carnival Cruise Lines fame, who to that point in time had been silent partners in the day-to-day operations of the franchise until the buyout. Micky Arison, son of Carnival founder Ted Arison was named Managing General Partner. He immediately fired Loughery and replaced him with Alvin Gentry on an interim basis to try and shake up the 17-29 Heat. Gentry went 15-21 for the remaining 36 games of the season for a 32-50 record overall, 10 games off the previous year’s mark.

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Wisconsin Early Autism Project Leads The Way In Aba Treatment

Posted by admin | Posted on 03-09-2010

Category : Region III

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Wisconsin Early Autism Project Leads The Way In Aba Treatment

Wisconsin autism activists felt years of effort pay off last year when Gov. Jim Doyle issued an emergency rule requiring insurance coverage of autism spectrum disorders.

The emergency rule, which went into effect Nov. 1, mandates autism coverage for health insurance policies issued by an insurer. The rule does not apply to employers with self-funded health plans. The rule lasts for a year while the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance comes up with a permanent rule.

The law requires a minimum of ,000 a year for intensive evidence-based treatment, and ,000 annually for non-intensive services.

As autism diagnoses grew in the 1990s and first decade of this century, so did the variety of treatments, everything from diet change to psycho-educational interventions. But “evidence-based treatment” at the moment refers to Applied Behavioral Analysis, an intensive intervention method developed by clinical psychologist Dr. O. Ivar Lovaas.

Lovaas, his staff and students trained in his method worked one-on-one with autistic children aged two to four. The work – 40 hours a week of structured training – was conducted in the children’s homes, with parents participating so they could continue the behavioral training on their own.

After studying three groups of children through age 7 – the experimental group receiving the Lovaas Technique, a control group that received some behavioral training and other treatments, and a third group that received no behavioral treatment – Lovaas published his results in 1987 and reported that 47% of the children in the group that received intensive behavioral therapy were functioning normally.

His results caused a stir in the then relatively small autism community, especially when other studies were unable to replicate Lovaas’ results.

“People were starting to say about Lovaas’ treatment, ‘It can’t be true. He’s faking his data.’ That caused a war in literature between camps for years,” said Dr. Glen Sallows, president and co-founder of the Wisconsin Early Autism Project, a program and clinic with treatment based on Lovaas’ work.

“Lovaas’ study came out in ’87 and he updated it in ’93, but no was ever been able to replicate it,” Sallows said. “There were several attempts to replicate it. In my mind, there were good reasons why those didn’t work as well. They didn’t have enough hours. By and large they were at universities and didn’t have access to much money so they didn’t have the hours. They didn’t do it long enough to bring about the changes. And I don’t think people understood how much supervision and training you have to give your line staff.”

Sallows, originally from Los Angeles, had Lovaas as an instructor when he was an undergraduate at UCLA in the 1960s. He went on to the behavior-oriented graduate school at the University of Oregon. Upon graduation, Sallows’ first job was as a psychologist for a children’s mental health clinic in New Jersey. In 1979 he joined the staff at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, and in 1981 led the autism unit there.

Sallows had read about Lovaas’ treatment methods. Following those methods, Sallows treated an autistic boy who responded.

“He did quite well,” Sallows said. “I decided that was pretty fun. I called up Lovaas and said I wanted to be trained in his way of doing it. He said, ‘OK, I’ll train you if you run a replication site for me.’”

Sallows studied with Lovaas in 1994-95, and then left Mendota to start the Wisconsin Early Autism Project.

“I started hiring staff and it grew from there,” he said. “I m just a dyed-in-the-wool clinician. You want to help everybody. At that time there was no funding. There were no providers living in Wisconsin. There was a provider in Chicago who was working with people in Milwaukee, but they were charging some high prices.”

Being a startup operation with a promise to keep about replicating Lovaas’ study, WEAP needed funding.

“I had to have enough money to run 40 hours a week,” he said.

He sent a funding request to the state Department of Health and Families Services (now known as the Department of Health Services).

“They rejected it on the grounds that this treatment was experimental,” Sallows said. “I called Lovaas and he gave me names of people all across the country to write letters. One of them, Bernard Rimland, he’s sort of famous being one of the founders of the Autism Society of America, he wrote this funny letter, two sentences, ‘You asked if behavior treatment for autism is experimental. Absolutely not.’”

The letters helped win a hearing for the program.

“We won the hearing,” he said. “After that my wife (Tamlynn Graupner, WEAP co-founder, CEO and clinician) and I met with people at DHFS. There were no codes for this. There was no protocol for what should and should not be funded. We hammered it all out. That took until March of ’95 to get that all done.”

WEAP opened an office in Madison.

“But we were getting referrals from all over the state,” he said. “We were the only ones certified to do it in Wisconsin.”

Today WEAP operates the original Madison clinic as well as offices in Milwaukee, Eau Claire and Green Bay.

And in 2005 Sallows kept his promise to Lovaas when he and his wife published a paper replicating his findings.

“The thing that’s really important about our study, we’re really the first ones in the world to actually replicate with a similar population,” Sallows said. “Actually, our population was somewhat lower functioning than his. His average IQ for kids beginning treatment was 60 and ours was 51. Lovaas got 47% of his kids to reach best outcome; we got 48%. You couldn’t replicate it much closer than that.”

Sallows said the WEAP study put an end to doubts about ABA, at least among serious researchers in the field.

“Cathy Lord, who is very famous in autism – she’s the main author of the two most famous diagnostic tools, ADIR (Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised ) and ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) – before our study came out, she was saying, ‘OK, we agree that Lovaas’ method works. But we don’t know why. It was a fluke.’ Then our study came out and that really put a stop to all that talk. Geraldine Dawson at Washington State in Seattle has published a couple of really big studies. She’s into brain imaging. She wanted a copy of our paper and quoted it. We’re one of only a couple of autism programs across the country she put in her reference list. Everybody now kind of agrees this treatment does work.”

Still, Sallows knows ABA treatment is competing with a host of other treatments.

“There are things on the internet that I don’t think are supported by research. We pretty much stick to what’s been researched by us or by somebody else,” he said. “So many parents are trying gluten- and casein-free diets and supplements. There are more and more doctors that follow the DAN protocol (Defeat Autism Now!, a project of the Autism Research Institute), but there’s no data to support that. For the most part, I feel it’s kind of harmless. But chelation (a method to remove heavy metals from the body) is not harmless. There’s only been one death and most parents don’t believe it will happen to their child. But, again, there’s no data. The problem I have sometimes if a kid is on a bunch of supplements or on chelation and he gets upset, I tell the parents, I don’t know what I’m seeing now. I’ve given up trying to argue them out of using biomedical stuff. It’s all over. Everybody’s talking about it, but it does very little. It might do a little bit, but it’s certainly not the cure for autism.”

If parents want to research treatments online, Sallows suggests they stick with proven data.

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The Early Years of the Houston Rockets

Posted by admin | Posted on 25-07-2010

Category : Region IV

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The Early Years of the Houston Rockets

The Rockets, along with the Seattle SuperSonics, entered the NBA in 1967 as an expansion team based in San Diego. They selected Pat Riley with their first draft pick in 1967. They went on to produce a then-NBA record 67-loss season.

In 1968 the Rockets won the coin toss versus the Baltimore Bullets, giving them the first overall pick in the 1968 NBA Draft. They selected Elvin “the Big E” Hayes from the University of Houston. Hayes led the team to the franchise’s first ever playoff appearance in 1969. The Rockets lost in the Western divisional semi-final to the Atlanta Hawks two games to four in a best-of-seven series.

The 1970 NBA Draft brought Calvin Murphy and Rudy Tomjanovich to the Rockets – both significant to the franchise after their playing careers were over.

Coached by Jack McMahon and Alex Hannum, the Rockets tallied a 119-209 record over their tenure in San Diego.

In 1971, real estate broker Wayne Duddleston and banker Billy Goldberg bought the franchise for .6 million and relocated the team from San Diego, where fans were more disposed to the Los Angeles Lakers than the Rockets. The Rockets originally had been named for San Diego slogan, “A City in Motion,” but with the move to Houston their name took on even greater relevance. Houston is home to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and Mission Control, which received national attention during Project Apollo.

The Rockets began playing at various venues in Houston, including the Astrodome, AstroHall, and Hofheinz Pavilion. They also played games at HemisFair Arena in San Antonio and in Waco. However, fan support was weak in the football and baseball-dominated city, and the Rockets averaged less than 5000 fans per game during their first Houston season. It was mused that the local churches in Waco drew more attendance than the Rockets.

Before the start of the 1971 season, Coach Alex Hannum left for the Denver Nuggets of the American Basketball Association. Tex Winter was hired as the new coach shortly before the team was sold. Coach Winter applied a triple-post offensive system that contrasted with the offensive style to which Hayes was accustomed. Houston soon traded Hayes to the Baltimore Bullets for Jack Marin. Lack of success did little to capture the city’s attention, and in the Spring of 1973, following the Rockets 10th straight loss, Winter was relieved of his duties.

In 1975, with Coach Johnny Egan’s guidance and Tomjanovich, Murphy, and Mike Newlin leading the way, the Rockets made their first appearance in the playoffs since arriving in Houston. The Rockets defeated the New York Knicks (led by Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe) in the first round, but lost to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals.

At the start of the 1977 season, the Rockets negotiated a trade with the Buffalo Braves to acquire Moses Malone, who as a high school star made the unprecedented decision of bypassing college basketball to sign on as a professional with the Utah Stars of the ABA in 1974. The Rockets defeated the Washington Bullets in the 1977 Eastern Conference semi-final, but lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in the Conference Finals. Malone made an impressive showing against Washington’s Elvin Hayes and waning star Wes Unseld.

On December 9, 1977, in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Kevin Kunnert got into a fight with the Lakers’ Kermit Washington. As Tomjanovich approached the altercation, Washington turned and threw a punch, landing squarely in the face of an approaching Tomjanovich, causing extensive structural damage to his cranium. The shocking scene became the defining moment of the Rockets’ 1977-78 season as well as the playing careers of Tomjanovich and Washington. Tomjanovich spent the next five months in rehabilitation and returned to appear in the 1978 All-Star Game. A book by John Feinstein recording the events surrounding this event and the different paths that Tomjanovich and Washington have taken since that day is entitled “The Punch.”

Malone received the 1979 MVP Award. Not exceptionally big or quick, he used footwork and positioning to become a successful center in the NBA. Malone, Murphy, and Tomjanovich all played in the 1979 NBA All-Star Game. Rick Barry was signed for the 1979 season from the Golden State Warriors in exchange for John Lucas. Barry averaged a modest 13.5 points and set a new NBA record, posting a .947 free-throw percentage for the season. He would play one more year for the Rockets before retiring in 1980.

The Rockets went 47-35 in 1978-79, Nissalke’s last season as coach. They finished second in the Central Division, losing two straight to Atlanta in a best-of-three first-round series.

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