Les Alexander

I'm pretty sure this is legal material for the GARM.

But to answer your question I have no idea.

 

One on one with Rockets owner Les Alexander

"It's only about winning, it's not about anything else"
01/10/2003
By Shern-Min Chow / 11 News

HOUSTON (KHOU) -- Some have called the owner of the Rockets tough, others say he's a little odd. But he's brought Houston six national championship teams. Something none of our other professional sports have had here.

His is a well-known face among the well known and the well off. But the multi-millionaire businessman and NBA team owner began life in far more modest circumstances. His childhood took place in a Bronx, New York apartment. Leslie Lee Alexander was, simply, a lousy student. "I was reading my five or six or seven newspapers a day and not listening to the teachers," says Alexander.

Despite abysmal attendance, he graduated from New York University and later got a law degree. But his fortune came from Wall Street. "I got a job making $80 a week," he remembers.

Eventually he created a niche and a fortune in trading corporate and municipal bonds. "You had to take very big position to make money," says Alexander. "But I'm very aggressive and risk taker and it came naturally to me."

As did his love for sports. In 1988 the Miami Heat began as an expansion team. Living in Florida, he and his daughter were regulars. "I was the first one to buy tickets, third row center," he says. "And she went to every game even when she had tests the next morning."

So for love and money and the thrill of it, he decided to buy a basketball team. First the San Antonio Spurs turned him down, but then came the Houston Rockets. He paid a pricey $85 million for the team in 1993.

He bought to win, and the Rockets did -- delivering back to back NBA titles in the next two years.

"The championship, nothing else," say Alexander. "I think you're in it to win the championship, go right to the top, nothing else."

"Cheryl and Cynthia are just as great as any athletes in the world," says Alexander of his Comet stars. On the walls in his home are mementos of the past, the four WNBA titles, and promises of the future in Yao Ming, a Rockets ad in Chinese.

Alexander will be in his downtown luxury apartment during basketball season without his wife of 30 years. "We're getting divorced," he admits. "Happens."

Leslie and Nancy Alexander had been a high-profile couple championing animals' rights -- often via the Houston Rockets. It is work he will continue. "I'm really thinking about starting an animal sanctuary on my own. I'm pretty close to doing it," says Alexander. "I want to get divorced and get on with my life and do what I want to with my money."

As for public money? It took two referendums, but the former Wall Street trader convinced Harris County voters to finance a new arena downtown, $175 million through bond sales.

"My home took 26 months to build, and this is going to take less time than my home," he says. The house that Leslie Alexander built should open this fall, boasting a lavish decor, wine bars and "There'll be more restrooms for women than any other place in the country," he adds.

In his Greenway Plaza office, Alexander is surrounded by his six championship trophies. But the recent years have been lean. He admits that sometimes he speaks too bluntly, some think he is too hard. "I don't like losing, it hurts me very badly," he says. "I take every loss very badly. I'm always thinking about that, rather than what other people are saying to me." His office is spare but for two large photos of daughter Jodi as a child.

Today he is 59, now officially single and still rarely does interviews about his personal life. As for his latest sensation, was Yao Ming a sports move or a business move? He emphasizes, "It's only about winning, it's not about anything else."

A credo from a man who knows victory on many fronts and is ready for another shot.

 

Divorced . . .after 30 yrs. . . must be hard

Rocket River
Good article

 

In more ways than one...

 

He's only 59?!? Man...he's good. I knew he was like a securities trader...but I thought he inherited some money. He is a bit odd. Oh well...Thanks!

 

Maybe after 30 years...it wasn't hard and that was the problem

 

Gosh,

Then why doesn't he sign Posey?

DD

 

What was the move that was refered to in "But his greatest move came just 3 days after purchasing the club…"?

Is Clutch just refering to him moving to Houston, or am I missing something?

I mean, Hakeem was already with the Rox and it was a year later that we traded to Drex...

 

I think it was moving Rudy up to head coach, we'll see in three days,

 

He didn't get where he is by signing crappy players to big contracts.

Oops...

 

Probably the Elie trade.

 

Six National Champions?

Try two NBA World Champions and some other four time champion people.

 

Wow, you were right. Way to go...