The Rockets are, for the first time in nearly 25 years, under new management.
Tilman Fertitta, the Houston-based face of a restaurant empire, was unanimously approved by the NBA Board of Governors on Friday to succeed Leslie Alexander as Rockets owner, becoming the 10th primary owner of the franchise as it begins its second half century.
Fertitta, 60, paid a record $2.2 billion for the team and control of the operating rights of Toyota Center. The runner-up to Alexander to purchase the Rockets in 1993 from Charlie Thomas, Fertitta called ownership of the Rockets "a life-long dream come true.