Who's with me?
Rooting for Houston sports teams puts you in good company
Sep 12, 2017, 7:00 am
Watching a big sporting event has plenty of excitement built into the experience, but sharing that energy with another group of people makes the game even more exhilarating and fun, especially when those other people are celebrities. Below is a list of the biggest celebrity Houston sports fans. You might be surprised by how many stars root for Houston teams.
The most famous beards in music don’t mind checking out the most famous beard in basketball. Dusty Hill, the bassist from the Houston-born band, has been a longtime sharer of Rockets season tickets, according to Texas Monthly. So, seeing him and his bandmates rooting on their beard-mate James Harden isn’t far out of the ordinary.
After helping bring Houston rap — and Houston "grills" — to the mainstream, Paul Wall remains a big fan of Houston-based teams, including his alma mater, the University of Houston. In 2015, Wall equipped former University of Houston coach Tom Herman with his own set of grills leading up to the Cougars’ win over Florida State in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl. He’s also fitted former Texans Andre Johnson and Arian Foster with personal sets of grills.
But there’s one old Houston athlete he’s got a keen eye on. “I’m a huge baseball fan,” Wall told SBNation.com. “Roger Clemens. That’s my boy. We gotta get Roger a grill. Put the word out, man.”
The Chamillitary Man is also a Houston sports fan. The “Ridin’” rapper is a big fan of Houston teams, even though he was spotted sitting courtside during the 2017 NBA Finals to watch Cleveland vs. Golden State. Chamillionaire is a Houston native who comments on Houston teams, especially the Rockets, going so far as to pine for Carmelo Anthony on Twitter.
As one of the world’s most popular pastors, Houston’s own Olsteen isn’t shy about getting into his town’s sports. Olsteen told The Christian Fan he’s “a big Texan fan, mainly,” but he has also been pictured courtside at Rockets games.
The 41st president of the United States is a big-time Houston sports fan who doesn’t mind coming out to games. His son, 43, George W. Bush, is more of a Rangers fan (he used to own them, after all), but he has attended Texans games with his father, who even did the coin toss for the 2017 Super Bowl at NRG Stadium.
The Houston rapper hasn’t been shy about his fandom and has become an ambassador of sorts to Houston sports teams. Thug — along with Houston rappers Paul Wall and ZRo — actually made a song devoted to the Texans called “Houston.” The lyrics, “Houston Texas, Home of the Texans,” play over a sample of the NFL on Fox theme music.
The video has over 2,500,000 views on YouTube and features cameos from Texans Brian Cushing and J.J. Watt. Thug is also a Rockets fan and publicly pleaded for Dwight Howard on Twitter when he was a desired free agent back in 2013. The Rockets landed Howard, something we're sure Houston fans are excited to reminisce about.
Bazinga! The Big Bang Theory’s own Jim Parsons has grown into quite a Texans fan (though he grew up indifferent to the Oilers) as well as a quasi-recruiter for the Rockets. In 2013, he made an impassioned plea on YouTube to get free agent Dwight Howard to come to Houston. The plea worked, but as many Rockets fans can tell you, Howard did not.
One of the hottest hip-hop acts in the country, Houston-native Scott has become a popular face at Rockets games. Scott also had James Harden appear (and lip-sync) in his music video “Way Back.” In May, Scott designed shirts for Game 6 of the second round series against San Antonio that had “Run As One” on it. The Rockets were sent home that night, but at least they looked good.
Few in the film industry have done more to showcase Houston on screen than Boyhood director and Astro fan Linklater. He played baseball as a teenager, getting an athletic scholarship to Sam Houston State and imagining he’d play for the Astros before he won an Academy Award. He’s also devoted a lot of his movies to baseball, especially his recent feature geared around college baseball, Everybody Wants Some.
While he may have happy endings in his movies about baseball, he knows the burden of being an Astros fan is something most people in Houston can relate to. “We just accept our fate. I guess that's the thing about being from the Houston area: We don't have that entitlement. But it's a special fan base," Linklater told ESPN in 2016.
There’s only one Beyonce, and luckily for Houston sports, she reps her teams hard. Beyonce and her husband, Jay-Z, have been spotted courtside of many Rockets games through the years.
Of the Houston teams, the Rockets seem to be her favorite. She reps them on Instagram, wearing hats to leotards. She also dons a James Harden jersey in her video for “No Angel.” Now the only question is, why didn’t she play the Super Bowl in Houston? It remains a mystery.
Have the Texans established their spot in the upper echelon of the NFL with Sunday's win over Buffalo?
Sure, it wasn’t pretty. But the Bills were an elite team, and the Texans beat them. We should be encouraged that the Texans have found a way to win four games, and they still haven't played up to their capabilities.
Be sure to catch the video above as ESPN Houston's Jeremy Branham and Joel Blank argue why the Texans deserve a spot among the NFL’s elite teams, despite the ugly wins this season.