ROCKET NOTES

By BILL PLASCHKE

May 14, 1999 12 AM PT

Of the many reasons Angelenos are glad they don’t live in Houston, count pay-per-view basketball as one of them.

Thursday’s Game 3 between the Lakers and Rockets, like all other Rocket home games not broadcast by NBC, was blacked out on local free TV and available only on pay per view.

The cost was $19.95, a fee that escalates throughout the playoffs.

The Rockets are one of three teams in the NBA that uses this system. They say they need it because, playing in an older arena without luxury-box revenue, they need the income.

There is much griping around town, but it works. Not only do the Rockets make money off the stay-at-home fans, but people have realized that if they are going to spend money on a game, they might as well buy a ticket.

Counting Thursday, the Rockets have had 175 consecutive sellouts dating to 1995.

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Bill Plaschke

Bill Plaschke, an L.A. Times sports columnist since 1996, is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame and California Sports Hall of Fame. He has been named national Sports Columnist of the Year nine times by the Associated Press, and twice by the Society of Professional Journalists and National Headliner Awards. He is the author of six books, including a collection of his columns entitled “Plaschke: Good Sports, Spoilsports, Foul Balls and Oddballs.” Plaschke is also a panelist on the popular ESPN daily talk show, “Around the Horn.” He is in the national Big Brothers/Big Sisters Alumni Hall of Fame and has been named Man of the Year by the Los Angeles Big Brothers/Big Sisters as well as receiving a Pursuit of Justice Award from the California Women’s Law Center. Plaschke has appeared in a movie (“Ali”), a dramatic HBO series (“Luck”) and, in a crowning cultural moment he still does not quite understand, his name can be found in a rap song “Females Welcome” by Asher Roth.

ROCKET NOTES

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