Tierre Brown kept his composure as he received the word. The Rockets were waiving three players, he was told, and he was not one of them.

This he said was something of a surprise since he was told before training camp there was a 99.9 percent chance he would not make the Rockets' roster. But not wishing to make the Rockets second-guess their decision, he tried to maintain his poker face.

"I stayed cool," he said. "But the whole time on the inside, I couldn't wait to call everybody. I've been trying to work to get to this point my whole life."

When he called, no one worked to contain their emotion. But the reaction was not quite what he expected.

"Everybody told me I was lying," Brown said. "My mom, she started screaming. My dad, he told me to stop lying. `I know you're kidding me.' I kept telling them, `I'm telling you the truth.' "